If 2025 had a punctuation villain, it would be the em dash. Somewhere along the way, its rhythm, flexibility, and authority got mislabeled as artificial—as if humans hadn’t been using it long before algorithms ever learned to write a sentence. The accusation says more about cultural misunderstanding than about the mark itself.
Years ago, while working in agency life, a client couldn’t wrap their head around why I kept using the em dash. It annoyed them. Not because it was wrong, but because it was unfamiliar. They didn’t understand what it did, so they assumed it didn’t belong. That moment stayed with me—a reminder of how often discomfort disguises itself as critique, especially when it comes to language.
Here’s the truth: tools don’t invent style—they reveal it. The em dash didn’t become expressive because of AI, and AI didn’t teach writers how to think in cadence. It simply surfaced habits that were already there. Writing has always been about judgment, restraint, and intention. The mark is innocent. The voice behind it is what matters.
Kendra Trammel is a writer and brand steward documenting moments of recognition, pattern, and grounding clarity as they emerge.