The em dash isn't an AI tell — Austen and Hemingway used it long before LLMs

rufusd · x · 2026-10-19

Pushing back on the claim that em dashes are a sure sign of AI writing, the author argues the dash is a precise punctuation tool for interruption, emphasis, or thoughts that don't fit between commas — one that Austen, Hemingway, and many others used long before language models existed. The mark is older than the panic around it.

Related event: Em dashes are not proof of AI writing — Austen and Hemingway used them first(2 posts)→

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