Stop ChatGPT’s Em-Dash Obsession

Your ChatGPT writing is about to look 100% more natural. You know what I’m talking about, that long dash it loves to sprinkle everywhere, making otherwise good text feel a little clunky and robotic. I just stumbled upon an incredible fix from a savvy professional that gets rid of it for good!

This innovator discovered that you don’t have to manually edit every single output. The solution is a simple, one-time setup using a custom instruction that tells the AI to use normal punctuation instead.

🔧 The 30-Second Fix

The post’s author laid out a super simple process. Here’s all you have to do:

  1. Go to your ChatGPT settings and find ‘Personalization’.
  2. Click on ‘Custom instructions’.
  3. Make sure custom instructions are enabled.
  4. Copy and paste the prompt below into the ‘How would you like ChatGPT to respond?’ box.

💡 The Prompt to Copy

‘Systematically replace em-dashes (“—”) with a dot (”.”) to start a new sentence, or a comma (”,”) to continue the sentence.’

That’s it. This tiny tweak forces the AI to structure its sentences more naturally, using periods and commas like a human would. I tried it myself, and the difference in readability is huge, especially for longer drafts.

Check out the original post for more context from the person who shared it!

Scroll to Top