If you’ve ever received a text or email from me, chances are, I’ve used an em dash. I LOVE em dashes – they’re the perfect punctuation. According to Merriam-Webster, the em dash can function like a comma, a colon, or parenthesis. Personally, I love using an em dash to change structure in a sentence, introducing unexpected thoughts or interjecting my own commentary – sometimes all three.
Whereas my phases of overusing commas or incorrectly (but frequently) using semicolons were brief, my love of em dashes has remained constant throughout the years. My best guess is that I can attribute my love for em dashes to my favourite author, Natalie Haynes. I find Haynes’ habit of interrupting her own line of thought endearing – when I read her books, her voice is distinct and so unmistakably her own that I could pick her writing out of a lineup without even needing to see her name.
Is this not the goal? Developing a voice so uniquely our own that it becomes recognizable? I understand that academic writing doesn’t allow for the same degree of creative freedom as other forms do, but even academic papers shouldn’t read like they were all written by the same person. I think that the loss of individual voice is one of the most important concerns when it comes to students using generative AI.
It wasn’t until a friend was editing an assignment of mine for a creative writing course that I was made aware that using em dashes now is a grave mistake. My friend went on to tell me that instructors were now looking for em dashes in students’ writing to indicate usage of generative AI.
I’d never heard of this before, so naturally, I went to the most reputable and scholarly source I could think of: Tik Tok. To my surprise, there were hundreds of videos on what to avoid writing in essays so that you don’t get falsely accused of using generative AI, how to defend yourself if you’re ever formally investigated for academic misconduct, and how to make your writing sound different from anything AI would produce. Just the possibility of having to defend your own work forces students to second-guess their unique writing choices that they might not have otherwise have questioned.
And it isn’t just the em dash that instructors are on the lookout for – it’s the use of semicolons, Oxford commas, listing in groups of three, excessive metaphors, and fluffy language. Many university students have shared that they had even been accused of using generative AI in their papers because their writing read “too” smooth, “too” advanced, and showcased their extensive vocabulary.
Horrifyingly, some students confessed that they would manufacture spelling errors or grammatical errors to avoid AI accusations – they knew their papers were good, and so they felt compelled to sabotage their own success for fear of being accused of academic misconduct.
Which leads us to another issue, and it’s that students are presumed guilty until they have proven themselves innocent in these false accusation cases. To have an academic misconduct charge filed against you is no small thing. Students shouldn’t have to sacrifice their personal writing styles to avoid suspicion, and they shouldn’t have to sabotage their own work out of fear.
It’s clear that generative AI isn’t going anywhere, and post-secondary institutions have every right to establish boundaries surrounding its use. (Although, as a malcontent skeptic of AI – and more importantly, an English major – my gut reaction would be to ban it entirely. STEM majors are probably glad I’m not in charge of creating any AI policies.) However, boundaries surrounding AI shouldn’t be at the expense of students – especially students that take pride in their own writing styles. As a matter of fact, students should be encouraged to develop their own individual voices instead of being punished for it. As for me, I will continue to use my em dashes – and I encourage you to do the same.
Graphic by Kenzie Miller
