13/08/2025
The other day, some students asked me,
“Miss Mielle, if your post has one of these (—) or even this (–), does that mean it’s automatically written by AI po?”
I just smile and answered them —
So these marks—em dash (—) and en dash (–)—have been around for centuries. They’re not a secret computer code. Like they’re simply punctuation that writers use to add a pause, create emphasis, or connect ideas in a way that feels natural.
And this isn’t something new for me. I’ve been using them for years. I can look back at my posts from 2021—late-night reflections, short stories, poems, even one-shot pieces—and there they are, my dashes, woven into my words. This account has always been my writer account, a space where I poured out creative work long before AI tools became popular. (comment section)
The truth is —
- People have always used dashes—it’s a timeless style choice.
- Yes, AI can use them too but that doesn’t make them an instant red flag.
- And FYI those so-called “AI content detectors”? They’re far from perfect. They can wrongly label human writing as AI-generated and miss actual AI-written work entirely.
So how we can make writing feel more human and less “robotic”
- Add personal touches — memories, feelings, little details only you know.
- Mix sentence lengths — combine short, punchy lines with longer, flowing ones.
- Write how you’d speak — contractions, casual words, and even the occasional slang or humor.
- Avoid stacking too many abstract, formal terms.
- Don’t be afraid to bend grammar rules if it makes your voice more authentic.
These words that can make your writing sound “AI-ish” if OVERUSED;
- Furthermore, Moreover, In conclusion, Indeed, Thus, Hence, Overall, Notably, Significantly, Consequently, Subsequently, Firstly/Secondly, Therefore, Additionally, Conversely, Predominantly, As a result.
They’re not bad words — but heavy, repeated use can make the text feel overly polished and impersonal.
So no, a dash doesn’t tell you if something’s “real” or “machine-made.”
At best, it tells you the writer wanted a little breath in their sentence or maybe a touch of drama. In my case, it tells you I’ve been writing this way long before anyone thought to question it.
(I’ll drop screenshots of my 2021 posts with em dashes in the comments—just to show I’ve been using them since way before AI hype.)
