In Defense of the Em Dash

There’s a strange debate happening online right now.

Apparently, if you use an em dash, people assume you used AI.

Which is funny to me — because I’ve loved em dashes for years.

Long before anyone was arguing about them.

To me, an em dash is one of the most beautiful tools in writing. It’s the literary equivalent of a breath — a pause — a shift in thought. It lets a sentence wander just slightly off the path before returning to where it was going.

A comma can feel too small.

A period can feel too final.

Parentheses can feel like whispering.

But an em dash?

That’s where the magic lives.

It’s where a sentence stretches its legs.

It’s where a thought opens up just a little wider.

It’s where a writer can lean in and say something extra.

If that means people think AI wrote my sentences, well… I suppose AI has good taste in punctuation.

But the truth is simpler.

I’m just a writer who loves language.

And em dashes.

And while we’re discussing punctuation controversies, I should probably also confess something else:

I am firmly — unapologetically — Team Oxford Comma.

Because clarity matters.

Also rhythm.

Also the quiet joy of a sentence that simply feels right.

Writing has always been full of these tiny invisible choices. The kind readers rarely notice consciously but feel in the flow of a paragraph.

A comma here.

A pause there.

An em dash that opens the door to one more thought.

So yes — I’ll keep using them.

Happily.

Generously.

Possibly even excessively.

Because writing is meant to feel alive on the page.

And sometimes a little dash of personality makes all the difference.