Humans vs. Bots — Who Does the Em Dash Better?

Gift link. I❤️the em dash almost as much as I like to use ellipses. It efficiently conveys my (squirrel!) thought process & shows speech interruption without a dialog tag (& gives the eyes a break). I tried giving them up but, damn it, I don't wanna. #writingcommunity www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/b...

I love — and over use — the em dash! Damn you, AI! Humans vs. Bots — Who Does the Em Dash Better? www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/b...

I don't especially think that it needs one, but a well written defense of the em dash:

Am not giving up my (over)use of the em dash—have always written in "asides." It is an essential tool. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/b...

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. I'm pro em dash --period. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/b...

#Humans vs. #Bots—Who Does the #Em #Dash Better? #Chatbots are appropriating our most common rhetorical tics. Yet when it comes to #language, human #creativity can’t be beat. #punctuation #grammar #writing www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/b...

“But if machines are judged on their ability to reliably do the same thing over and over, language does the opposite.”

F*ck the bots—I am never, ever, EVER giving up my Em Dash.

As someone near-addicted to it, fight for the emdash until I die Humans vs. Bots — Who Does the Em Dash Better? www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/b...

Humans vs. Bots — Who Does the Em Dash Better? www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/b...

@vauhinivara.bsky.social on writing in the age of AI: "[Language is] free; it belongs to all of us equally. Maybe using it in as many original ways as we can dream up is especially important in the face of attempts to colonize and standardize it." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/b...

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/b...