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do you use em-dashes in your regular writing?
LLMs use a lot of em dashes (—) because the data they're trained on — metric fuck tons of internet writing — uses a lot of em dashes.
at the risk of getting proven wrong by anyone who actually works in the industry: nope, you're wrong.
the sources of em dashes more likely to override low-effort human rambling are publications; either old print media, or PDFs of academic journals. professional editors will usually opt for correct usage, regardless of whether it "smells like AI", and the result is that the "elements of style"[1] are self-perpetuating.
I recommend skimming the infamous text, despite not liking several of the rules; deliberately rejecting outdated rules enables purposeful evolution, rather than spontaneous drift. ↩
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LLMs use a lot of em dashes (—) because the data they're trained on — metric fuck tons of internet writing — uses a lot of em dashes.
And many of us continue using em dashes just as always — because why the fuck should we change how we write just because of LLMs?