The Ogres have strong opinions on many topics.
Here’s the latest Rant from the cave, straight from COO and Content Ogre Jevon Young.
The Joy of Dashes
It was many years ago now, but I still remember how excited I felt as a writer first discovering em dashes in the late 2000s. Previously, I had realized there were different lengths of dashes, but up to that point, I hadn’t really understood how or when to use them properly.
Combined with my newfound love for the Associated Press Stylebook picked up in Public Relations classes, em dashes quickly found a place in my professional output. I’ve never been shy about using ellipses, semicolons, commas, or parentheses, and I was pumped to have a new tool at my disposal. And boy, did I use it. Everywhere. Like, way too much.
A few years and thousands of sentences down the line, I learned to temper my use of all fancy characters to maximize their impact. Used sparingly, an em dash can work to both separate and elevate the text that follows. It can effectively break the flow of an otherwise monotonous thought, giving the offset portion gravitas and its own space to breathe.
I was proud of my correct usage of the em dash and judiciously added the mark to body copy, headings, and quotes across dozens of sites without a second thought. I knew then that doing so would help visitors comprehend topics better, make copy feel unique and well-thought-out, and elevate the voice of whatever brand I was working on.
The Demise of Joy
Then came AI. More importantly, the widespread usage of AI to take the hassle out of writing.
The first few times, it was merely interesting to see my favorite typographic element show up in unexpected places. In my own experience as a practitioner of the internet arts, I began testing out a few AI platforms for use in my research and content planning. And with every dang prompt, there amongst the output of paragraphs and bulleted lists was my favorite mark, my personal flair, one of the keystones of my idiolect. It felt weird back then, simultaneously encouraging and encroaching.
By the spring of 2026, I was done. It seemed like every piece of AI-authored content was practically dripping in em dashes. Along with emojis-as-bullet-points and “not just this, but that, too” phrasing, my once esteemed em dash had become the mark of shame. An unequivocal signpost of low-effort slop. I was angry, but resigned. As I said, I was done.
A New Hope
It’s been a few months now, and I find myself ready to use an em dash or two once again. Not with my initial abandon, or even at my recent, more measured pace, but now at an even rarer frequency than what I might have previously considered “sparingly.” It has become a rare treat for me, like a well-deserved reward for restraint and dedication to writing as well as I can.
Even though I am defensive about the value of original, human-created writing, I don’t want you to misunderstand: I am not anti-AI, just anti-slop. I still write all my own copy, but I like to talk to ChatGPT when I’m exploring an industry I haven’t researched before to develop a feasible content strategy. I firmly believe that no matter what job you have, knowing how to use the newest tools will always be a crucial skill — and AI is no different.
Final Thoughts
AP’s Take on the Issue
During my research for this article, I came across an article by the AP discussing whether or not the em dash is an AI “tell.” While the official word is “that tell is not the em dash, which has been around for many years,” I stand by my personal journey.
Styling the Em Dash
In general, I stick to the majority of the rules in the Associated Press Stylebook for online writing, which calls for treating the em dash like a word with spaces on either side. The other two dashes, the hyphen (used to connect two words) and the en dash (used to indicate ranges of numbers in APA and other style guides but not in AP) are the ones I use to connect two elements, so those butt right up against the characters they are joining.
Excerpt from the CleverOgre Writing Style Guide
Hyphen
Used to hyphenate words, no space on either side:
- Mild-mannered
- Meta-data
Great explanation of AP style guidelines for hyphens: gatehousenewsroom.com/2017/08/17/ap-style-guidelines-for-hyphen-usage/
AP says to avoid hyphens when possible. They are used in some compound words and to connect compound adjectives only when they appear before a noun:
- He’s a big-time designer. (“Big-time” is modifying the noun “designer”)
- But: His designs are big time.
- The 5-year-old boy …
- But: The boy is 5 years old.
En Dash
Used to indicate ranges of numbers, dates or times; no space on either side:
- 25–50 websites
- June 20–25
Em Dash
Used to offset related but separate thoughts in a sentence, add a space before and after. Typically used for dependent clauses (sentence fragments), not independent clauses (which are often better served by a semicolon or re-written as separate sentences). If your dependent clause appears in the middle of a sentence, set it off with an em dash before and after to indicate the span of the clause; use sparingly!
- This example is good — but it could be better.
- I intended to keep this style guide current — and I did for a while — but I have lapsed in my duties.
Whether or not you use spaces around the em dash, as always, consistency in writing is paramount. In my experience, ChatGPT does not add the spaces; however, the LLM uses “a versatile, internal, and largely conversational writing style based on large-scale training data” by default rather than one of the conventional style guides. If you intend to use Chat to write for you, I suggest including your preferred style guide in the prompt parameters and double-checking for issues before publishing.