Month: Aug 2025

A few weeks ago, a pal sent me a satirical article about the use of the em-dash. It was written in a response to a more serious article from Inside Higher Ed. In short, this punctuation mark has come to prominence of late because Large Language Models often use them when asked to write creative passages.

Before we dive into that, however, what is an em-dash?

At its simplest, it’s a wide horizontal line that was historically the same width as the letter ‘M’ on a typewriter. In the age of the desktop computer, the size doesn’t necessarily scale directly. It always runs up against the neighbouring words:

It seemed the problem—at least, we considered it a problem—was that everyone was using the em-dash again.

It lends a disjointed pace to the writing, either introducing related thoughts or changing the subject.

This should not be confused with its sister mark, the en-dash. As its name implies, this was once the width of the letter ‘N’. This is a more flexible mark:

The Duckworth–Lewis Method – and its later variant with Stern – has been adopted by the International Cricket Council.

Here, the first dash is used to join the words Duckworth and Lewis without spaces either side. The others two do have spaces and are used like brackets to add extra information. This punctuation mark is not typically used to imply the same pace or a disjointedness as its sister.

Merriam-Webster has a more detailed guide to such punctuation, although I notice the name of the dictionary itself uses a hyphen, not an en-dash.

While reading up on why Large Language Models favour the em-dash, I found no clear answer. My theory is that many of them have been trained on older works, when this mark was more prevalent, and the software is picking up on this. The satirical article from earlier specifically names Mary Shelley and Emily Dickinson as heavy users.

I’m such a heavy user of the en-dash that I have a Windows keyboard shortcut especially for it. As I write, however, I think back to the one and only time I’ve used the em-dash extensively in a written work: my university dissertation.

Throughout the course, I was determined not to have my work pigeonholed into one category or another. This worked well until I needed to put together a cohesive dissertation based on what I’d written. The solution was to borrow a somewhat scatterbrained character from one of my stories as a connecting thread. I would make her use the em-dash to talk through the pieces she had supposedly written in character.

I graduated with an MLitt Writing Practice & Study in 2016, long after automated plagairism software was introduced, but a few years before Large Language Models were available. Had I handed in that essay today, I’m convinced I would have been questioned about it even if the plagiarism test had come back clear. But this old-school punctuation mark really was the best choice for the story at that time.

On Wednesday of last week, I discovered that EasyJet still prints an in-flight magazine. In an age where most airlines and other transport operators have opted to go digital, let’s have a closer look at the August 2025 issue.

The magazine can be opened from either cover, with the two sets of pages rotated 180 degrees from each other. The larger set opens to a predominately editoral section of 100 pages. The other opens to a shorter section detailing the food and luxury items that can be bought on board. I could find a digital version of the shopping section, but not the editorial part.

Both sections are interspersed with aspirational third-party advertising. However, there appears to be no overarching theme. The products featured include Bennett Winch bags, Qwetch flavoured water and branded cups, the musical version of The Devil Wears Prada at the Dominion Theatre in London, and personalised car number plates by Registration Transfers.

IMM International handles the advertising for the magazine, describing their audience as ‘Smart, elegant and refined, with a cheerful outlook’, but breaking down the demographic no further. My subjective conclusion is that the target market is those who would rather save money on the actual travel and instead spend it at the destination and/or on a quality durable product they can bring with them.

One notable absence is advertising for third-party travel agents and transport providers. The airline quite reasonably wants you to book only with them, so any talk of curated travel experiences is kept largely to the editorial part.

In addition to the suggested itineraries in Morocco, Venice and Croatia, there are two main interviews. The first is with fitness instructor Joe Wicks, and there’s a sharp focus on his many trips to France and Italy. The other interview is with DJ Carl Cox, discussing his upcoming Ibiza residency. It’s no coincidence that EasyJet can fly you to all these places.

Buried deep inside, I also spotted pages written in other languages, namely Portuguese, Italian, German and French. This feature is not explained by the contents page nor the articles themselves. However, as a primarily English-language publication, I presume this is an opportunity for Brits to practice their holiday phrases.

But what of the paper format?

Thinking this over, it seems to make sense because you can’t use a mobile phone in the air, except in flight mode. As such, passengers would need to remember to download the information before takeoff. This is less of a problem on a train or a boat.

Instead, the magazine is right there in the pocket beside the safety card. They’re re relying on people picking it up, flicking through it and maybe spending some money on an aspirational item.