Comment by TimFogarty

7 hours ago

As somebody who used em-dashes a lot pre-ChatGPT, I have genuinely struggled with feeling I should change my writing style to appear more human. I would be happy with a double dash--but many programs autocorrect that to a full em-dash. So I'm left anxious that people will think I find them so unimportant I have offloaded communication with them to an LLM. So this post resonated with me.

I also like Will's "em-dash disclosure" on his about page:

> I like em dashes (—), en dashes (–), and hyphens (-), and I know how to type them. I also enjoy a well-placed ellipsis, but I didn’t know how to type one… until now. I believe that footnotes and sidenotes are superior to endnotes, appreciate the occasional fleuron, and at one point in my life, I knew what a colophon was.

> All of this is to say: the words, punctuation marks, misspellings, and opinions on this site are my own.

7 comments

TimFogarty

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zahlman  5 hours ago

> also enjoy a well-placed ellipsis, but I didn’t know how to type one… until now.

Made me look it up in my own environment. I had already set up a custom incantation for em and en dashes, although I really have no idea when to use the latter instead. Actually I never used to use em dashes, but now I do. I'd much rather deal with people who can intuit the quality of writing rather than relying on such blunt heuristics.

macintux  7 hours ago

I have considered starting throwing more em-dashes into my writing, simply because I find the whole “this looks like LLM” to be a tiresome comment. Engage with (or dismiss) the material, not the pen.

  • Jooror  4 hours ago

    Have you considered throwing away your email spam filters? If so, I commend your willingness to engage with or dismiss the material

  • palmotea  32 minutes ago

    > ...simply because I find the whole “this looks like LLM” to be a tiresome comment. Engage with (or dismiss) the material, not the pen.

    No. Engagement isn't free, and people need heuristics to figure out what's worth engaging with or not.

    If people followed your advice, they'd waste their life conversing with dead-internet bots. And to what end? We're not machines mindlessly consuming and producing text. The our is often produced with a goal that's subverted if the consumer is a bot.