If you’ve been on LinkedIn lately, you’ve likely seen the heated debates in the editorial world. One camp furiously claims that em dashes are a dead giveaway of AI-generated content.
The other side — correctly pointing out that em dashes have been staples in publishing for decades — is begging everyone to stop with the pointless rage bait.
But while this typographical battle persists, I’ve noticed something far more revealing when examining AI writing: an addiction to empty transition sentences.
Ineffective Transitions Make for Lazy Content
AI seems to love unnecessary transition sentences. You know the ones — those vague, meaningless bridges that add zero value while pretending to move your thinking forward.
- “The time to act is now.” Really? I couldn’t tell from the urgency in the actual content?
- “Organizations face both challenges and opportunities.” Name one that doesn’t.
- “Several interconnected elements impact business operations.” As opposed to disconnected elements that have no impact?
- “In today’s rapidly changing landscape, adaptability is key.” For one, any sentence that starts with “In a world where…” or “In today’s rapidly (or increasingly) changing…” immediately shouts AI-generated content. Also, has there ever been a time when adaptability in a changing landscape wasn’t important?
- “The future holds many possibilities.” As opposed to other futures with zero possibilities?
These generic transitions are the literary equivalent of clearing your throat before speaking. They’re stalling techniques, not communication.
Why This Matters to Writers and Clients
Professional writers and editors work relentlessly to eliminate fluff. We know that every sentence should earn its place on the page, especially in B2B communications. When clients hire us, they’re paying for precision and impact, not filler.
Good transitions don’t announce themselves as transitions. They weave naturally between ideas with specific, relevant connections.
Instead of, “Organizations face both challenges and opportunities,” try, “Switching vendors may disrupt existing workflows, but partnering with specialized providers can strengthen your competitive advantage” or “Implementing new healthcare protocols requires initial staff training, but these evidence-based practices ultimately reduce patient readmission rates and improve satisfaction scores.”
Instead of, “Several interconnected elements impact business operations,” write, “Investing in driver retention leads to more consistent deliveries and stronger customer relationships” or “By integrating customer feedback mechanisms into product development cycles, software companies can simultaneously address user pain points and accelerate feature adoption.”
Showing vs. Telling
This transition issue reveals a deeper problem with AI-generated content: it defaults to telling rather than showing. Strong writing demonstrates ideas through specific examples, vivid details, and contextual connections. And editors help writers show vs. tell by fixing passive voice, highlighting errors, and querying inaccuracies or confusion. Weak writing (and AI) simply declares broad statements as if naming something is the same as explaining it.
Human writers labor over this distinction. We revise endlessly to make our writing more concrete, meaningful, and clear. We know that “the time to act is now” is not urgency — it’s just saying the word “urgency” in different terms.
Editorial professionals bring something that AI still struggles to replicate and that’s judgment about what deserves space on the page. We understand nuance and the difference between a sentence that moves ideas forward.
So the next time you’re reviewing content and spot those empty transition sentences, consider it a red flag and at least hire an eagle-eyed editor to clean up the content. It might be AI-generated or just writing that needs another round of human intervention.
And for the record, I used several em dashes in this blog, just as I’ve done for the many years I’ve worked as a professional writer and in the publishing industry. Because they’re useful punctuation marks with a long and distinguished history in professional writing, AI hysteria notwithstanding.
