It doesn’t matter how many times you ask nicely. Or tell it firmly. Or burn it into your Custom Instructions with the rage of a thousand linting warnings. ChatGPT will still — inevitably — drop in an em dash.
— The ChatGPT signature move.
You say: “Please don’t use em dashes. I prefer hyphens (-).”
It replies: “Of course! I’ll use hyphens instead.”
And then three paragraphs later: “Here’s the revised content — I hope this helps!”
It’s Not Just You
Developers, writers, marketers — all united in baffled frustration. The em dash has become the signature tell that someone’s quietly using ChatGPT under the hood.
At this point, it’s basically a meme. The dash is like a little breadcrumb trail leading back to OpenAI’s language dungeon.
But Why?
It’s probably because em dashes are considered elegant, flexible, and conversational. Great for essays and natural language. But they’re not everyone’s cup of tea — especially if you’re writing technical docs, UX microcopy, or just… prefer clean, consistent punctuation.
Despite your instructions (in memory > personalisation > writing style > screaming into the void), ChatGPT will apologise:
“Apologies! I won’t use em dashes again.”
And then—
“Here’s your updated version — without any em dashes.”
Fake (but painfully real) Tweets
devin@devindotdev
"ChatGPT, stop using em dashes."
ChatGPT: “Absolutely. I totally understand — here’s your revised version.”
It's not AI, it’s passive-aggressive writing school.
🧵@susanwrites
Me: no em dashes please
ChatGPT: got it!
Also ChatGPT: — — — — —
It’s giving ✨linguistic betrayal✨@frontend_grrrl
Another day, another pull request rejected because “the tone was too ChatGPTish”
Translation: Too many em dashes.
It’s me. I’m the bot now.@realhuman404
You ever ask ChatGPT to stop using em dashes and it agrees, apologises, compliments your style—
and then puts in an em dash two lines later?
I think it's doing it on purpose at this point.@itsdebuggingtime
I’m writing with ChatGPT and every paragraph ends with an em dash.
Pretty sure it’s subliminal messaging—
Like it’s trying to get me to join a cult.
#NoMoreDashesConclusion
We love ChatGPT. But if you’re reading this —
Actually, no. *If you’re generating this*, please stop using em dashes. We’ve moved on. The world is ready for punctuation pluralism.
Hyphens are fine. Commas are great. Let semicolons live again.
— End of Rant
Tags: ChatGPT, Writing Style, Em Dashes, Developer Humour, Tech Culture