The 40 tells · Shape and punctuation · No. 35
The long dash in your writing: why readers notice
Flagged Long dash
The long dash (the em dash, and its shorter cousin the en dash used the same way) has become the best-known punctuation tell. Plenty of good writers use it. Machine-written drafts tend to use it much more often, sometimes several times a paragraph, to bolt a second thought onto a sentence.
Because readers now look for it, a page full of dashes reads as machine-made even when it wasn't. A period, a comma, a colon or brackets do the same job.
Before
Our app is fast — really fast — and it's built for teams that move quickly.
After
The app opens in under a second. It's built for teams that ship every week.
The fix
Use a period, a comma or a colon.
What the checker matches
Every em dash (—) and en dash (–). Plain hyphens are fine.