no-em-dasheslisted

# No em-dashes The em-dash (`—`) reads as a tell. People associate a sprinkle of em-dashes with text a model dashed off, so even good writing starts to feel machine-made. It is also fussy: hard to type, easy to render inconsistently, and usually a sign the sentence was never given a real structure. Removing it forces you to decide what the two halves of the sentence actually are, and that decision almost always produces clearer prose. So the goal is not "find and replace `—`." The goal is to **rewrite the sentence so it never needed one.** ## What this covers Treat these as the same problem: - `—` em-dash - `–` en-dash used as a sentence connector (a real numeric range like `10–20` inside code or data is fine, but in prose prefer "10 to 20") - `--` two hyphens standing in for a dash - ` - ` a lone spaced hyphen doing a dash's job Leave these alone. They are not the tell: - hyphenated compounds: `self-taught`, `real-time`, `four-day` - CSS custom properties: `--glow`, `var(--accent)` - CLI flags and code: `--verbose`, `git --no-verify`, `a - b` - minus signs and ranges that live in code or structured data ## How to fix a dash Look at the job the dash is doing, then pick the punctuation that does that job. **Two complete thoughts joined together → split them.** Use a period, sometimes a semicolon. - Before: `The demos are real and live — open one and mess with it.` - After: `The demos are real and live. Open one and mess with it.` **An aside or appositive → commas,