Remove Em Dashes from Text
Clean up your text by removing or replacing Em Dashes (—) and En Dashes (–).
Why remove Em Dashes?
The Em Dash (—) is a versatile punctuation mark, but it's often overused, especially by AI writing tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Jasper. While grammatically correct, excessive dashes can make text feel robotic, cluttered, or overly dramatic.
The "ChatGPT Effect"
If you use AI to generate content, you've probably noticed an abundance of em dashes. AI models love them because they allow for complex sentence structures. However, for cleaner, more human-like writing (or for specific style guides like AP style), you often need to convert them to simple commas, parentheses, or periods.
Em Dash (—) vs En Dash (–) vs Hyphen (-)
- Em Dash (—): The longest dash. Used for breaks in thought. (Alt+0151)
- En Dash (–): Medium length. Used for ranges (e.g., 1990–2000). (Alt+0150)
- Hyphen (-): The shortest. Used for compound words (e.g., well-known).
This tool allows you to standardize your typography instantly without manual find-and-replace.