Em dash overuse

Writers love the em dash, and plenty of good human prose uses it. It became an "AI tell" because chat models use it as their universal connector, often several times per paragraph. One dash proves nothing. A paragraph where every other sentence leans on one is a different story.

What it looks like

• The update — announced Tuesday — changes everything.
• Spaced dashes ( — ) or double hyphens ( -- ) standing in for commas, colons and parentheses
• Three or more dashes in a short paragraph

Why it reads as AI

A dash lets a writer skip deciding how two ideas relate. Is the second part an example, a cause, a contrast, an aside? A period, colon or comma forces that decision, which makes the sentence clearer. Models skip it, so dash-heavy text reads as generated.

Examples and fixes

How to fix it

1. Read each dash and ask what it's doing: aside → commas or parentheses; explanation → colon; new thought → period.
2. Keep the one or two dashes that really earn their place.
3. SlopScore ignores a single dash unless other tells are present, and only counts dashes when the rate is high.

When it's fine

If your own published writing has always used dashes, keep your rate. Don't strip your voice to dodge a detector.

Related patterns

• Forced triads (rule-of-three lists)
• Rows of dramatic fragments
• "It's not X, it's Y"