I’ve been using the em dash online for decades. If AI is trained off of human-written posts (it is) and it’s trained on sites I’ve posted on (it has), and if em dashes are a telltale sign AI wrote the post (seems that way), then logically speaking, I am partially to blame.
I’m still going to use them, though.
And I’m still going to teach people how to use them.
I’m curious, where are you getting your em dashes from?
My US 101 keyboard layout doesn’t have it, do euro keyboard layouts with alt-gr have it relatively easily accessible? Presumably there’s an alt+numpad combo, but that seems to be something that would interrupt the flow of typing quite a bit.
I’ve just discovered that if I go into the numeric/character section of my phone keyboard and long press the -, I can get —, but that’s a long-winded way of getting them.
On most linux desktops there is a “compose” key. Mine’s set to capslock. So that and then pressing - twice is all it takes to produce one — which I will continue to do without hesitation. It’s also good for typing things like ēö°«€½ and so on.
On a Mac, it’s pretty easy. Shift+Option+Dash. Option and Shift+Option plus a lot of keys does a lot of different symbols. With letters, you can hold the letter to open a menu of accents, so it’s ridiculously easy for me to type Pokémon correctly. I hold the E and hit 2 to get the correct accent.
On a Windows computer, yes, it’s an ALT code. ALT+0151. I’ve committed it to memory so it’s nothing for me to type that if I’m using a Windows machine. 0150 is the en dash, which is a little shorter, and has a different function.
I’m on a US keyboard right now, but it’s a Mac keyboard. I think the only difference is, instead of Ctrl-Win-Alt I have Ctrl-Opt-Cmd. And then Cmd-Opt-Fn-Ctrl right of the space bar. I think the rest is basically the same. Except my F keys do different things, like F3 isn’t search (that would be CMD+F) it’s Mission Control, kind of like Alt-Tab in Windows but way, way better.
On some phones you don’t have to go into the number/symbol section. HOLD that button and it makes that keyboard pop up; now DRAG to the symbol or number you want and LET GO, it’ll type it and bounce you right back to the ABC keyboard. You can also linger on a symbol to get the alt symbols. So, in practice, hold the ?123 or whatever key, drag up to dash, but don’t let go, linger for a couple seconds, then slide over to the em dash and release. Should take you back to the ABC keyboard.
Not parent poster, but I use AutoHotkey on my Windows machine. I use it all the time when grading math work, especially, since I have macros set up for all the most common math symbols (exponents, common fractions, ≠≈π√×÷¢–— etc.) I also have macros set up for common links I send out, an ISO date for today (mostly for naming files), and key sequences for some repetitive workflows.
The em dash was one of my first macros—and rightly so!
I’ve been using the em dash online for decades. If AI is trained off of human-written posts (it is) and it’s trained on sites I’ve posted on (it has), and if em dashes are a telltale sign AI wrote the post (seems that way), then logically speaking, I am partially to blame.
I’m still going to use them, though.
And I’m still going to teach people how to use them.
I’m curious, where are you getting your em dashes from?
My US 101 keyboard layout doesn’t have it, do euro keyboard layouts with alt-gr have it relatively easily accessible? Presumably there’s an alt+numpad combo, but that seems to be something that would interrupt the flow of typing quite a bit.
I’ve just discovered that if I go into the numeric/character section of my phone keyboard and long press the -, I can get —, but that’s a long-winded way of getting them.
On most linux desktops there is a “compose” key. Mine’s set to capslock. So that and then pressing
-twice is all it takes to produce one — which I will continue to do without hesitation. It’s also good for typing things like ēö°«€½ and so on.On a Mac, it’s pretty easy. Shift+Option+Dash. Option and Shift+Option plus a lot of keys does a lot of different symbols. With letters, you can hold the letter to open a menu of accents, so it’s ridiculously easy for me to type Pokémon correctly. I hold the E and hit 2 to get the correct accent.
On a Windows computer, yes, it’s an ALT code. ALT+0151. I’ve committed it to memory so it’s nothing for me to type that if I’m using a Windows machine. 0150 is the en dash, which is a little shorter, and has a different function.
I’m on a US keyboard right now, but it’s a Mac keyboard. I think the only difference is, instead of Ctrl-Win-Alt I have Ctrl-Opt-Cmd. And then Cmd-Opt-Fn-Ctrl right of the space bar. I think the rest is basically the same. Except my F keys do different things, like F3 isn’t search (that would be CMD+F) it’s Mission Control, kind of like Alt-Tab in Windows but way, way better.
On some phones you don’t have to go into the number/symbol section. HOLD that button and it makes that keyboard pop up; now DRAG to the symbol or number you want and LET GO, it’ll type it and bounce you right back to the ABC keyboard. You can also linger on a symbol to get the alt symbols. So, in practice, hold the ?123 or whatever key, drag up to dash, but don’t let go, linger for a couple seconds, then slide over to the em dash and release. Should take you back to the ABC keyboard.
Not parent poster, but I use AutoHotkey on my Windows machine. I use it all the time when grading math work, especially, since I have macros set up for all the most common math symbols (exponents, common fractions, ≠≈π√×÷¢–— etc.) I also have macros set up for common links I send out, an ISO date for today (mostly for naming files), and key sequences for some repetitive workflows.
The em dash was one of my first macros—and rightly so!