The Em Dash as a Site of Contest Between AI Determinism and Human Agency

Abstract

This study examines the phenomenon of increased em dash usage in AI-generated text and its subsequent influence on human writing practices through the lens of technological determinism and social construction of technology (SCOT). The research reveals a complex dialectical relationship where computational factors, including training data composition, tokenization processes and reinforcement learning from human feedback, create distinctive punctuation patterns that subsequently influence human writing behaviour. The findings demonstrate that AI writing tools represent neither pure technological determinism nor complete social construction, but rather an ongoing co-evolutionary process reshaping the fundamental nature of written communication.

AI Education Em Dash AI Detection AI Automated Feedback Technological Determinism Social Construction of Technology

Research presentation

Version history

the same DOI resolves to every version

• Version 2 reviewed · Dec 2025 Peer review incorporated. Expanded SCOT framing and revised discussion. Current version.
• Version 1 unreviewed · Aug 2025 Initial rapid publication at submission.

References

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