Are you a dashaholic? It’s a thing, apparently. I’m more of a colon abuser myself: as if everything I write is so important it requires the colon’s drumroll effect. I’ve known more than a few comma ...

Editor’s note: This segment was rebroadcast on Jan. 2, 2026. Click here for that audio. The semicolon has been described as a “graceful pause” in writing. But this graceful punctuation mark is being ...

What’s happened? One of the biggest problems with ChatGPT has now been fixed. Sam Altman announced via a X post that ChatGPT will now comply when users explicitly instruct it not to use em-dashes in ...

Em dashes have become what many believe to be a telltale sign of AI-generated text over the past few years. The punctuation mark appears frequently in outputs from ChatGPT and other AI chatbots, ...

The semicolon has been described as a “graceful pause” in writing. But this graceful punctuation mark is being forgotten. Mark Lasswell wrote a recent piece on the semicolon and why it’s fading away ...