AI writing: how to spot it?

In our rapidly evolving modern digital landscape, AI has become an integral part of our daily lives.

Got you! This actually isn't the first sentence of the blog. But it looks familiar, right? That's because you've probably already read it before in dozens of blogs, captions, and LinkedIn posts.

Let's be honest: sometimes it can get way too tempting to use AI to partially, if not completely generate our content. There is no university board to punish us anymore (in most cases) and ChatGPT or Gemini take seconds to produce what a human copywriter would need hours for. Full disclosure: I'm a copywriter and I use AI daily for idea generation, proofreading, or simply when I need to find that really niche idiom - it's a great help.

It's simple, it's free, and the text often appears to be of passable quality. But here's the catch: with using AI for copywriting, you risk sounding exactly like thousands of others.

And you don't want to be another agile partner that leverages data-driven insights to unlock sustainable growth.

I've seen enough writing, both good and bad, to think I'm pretty confident at spotting AI-generated text. Like... 80% of the time. In this article, I'll share my insights as a writer and take you through some of the tell-tale signs of AI writing so you can keep using its benefits and still sound original. Or, if you simply want to know if someone used ChatGPT to write their website copy - both work!

What are the signs of AI-generated text?

I asked AI to write a blog paragraph explaining why copywriting is important. Here's what it came up with:

Copywriting is more than just putting words on a page—it’s about making people care, click, and convert. Good copy grabs attention, builds trust, and guides your audience toward action, whether that’s buying a product, signing up for a service, or simply remembering your brand. In a world full of noise, sharp, strategic copy is what makes your message stick.

This is a textbook example of AI writing. While this paragraph is not necessarily bad and you might even think it's quite sharp, it is pretty generic. It doesn't tell us a lot, but it does use certain stylistic devices to appear polished and divert from (the lack of) its meaning. These devices are all hallmarks of effective writing. However, as we shall see, when grouped together, they tend to lose their power and make the text sound repetitive and dull.

Triads and parallelisms

In literary theory, triads refer to groups of three - words, phrases, or clauses - in a sentence. In creative but also academic writing, you'll often encounter three parallel examples of something as this structure creates harmony, rhythm, and memorability. (See what I did there?) ChatGPT will almost always use the Oxford comma to distinguish between them.

If you look at the AI text above, it uses three triads, two of which are in one sentence! (Good copy grabs attention, builds trust, and guides your audience toward action, whether that’s buying a product, signing up for a service, or simply remembering your brand.) If you ask me, that's way too much. Don't be like ChatGPT and use triads sparsely to make sure they still deliver the emphasis you need.

Alliteration

A stylistic device often used in poetry, alliteration is the repetition of the same letters or sounds at the beginning of adjacent words - think "cool, calm, and collected". This is a simple trick to increase resonance. No wonder household brands have names like Coca-Cola, PayPal, or TikTok: they stick.

AI loves using alliteration, sometimes in combination with triads - like care, click, and convert in our example. While alliteration is effective when used to underline the meaning of something, overusing it has the opposite effect. Usually, only art forms like poetry can handle this kind of language experimentation.

Paragraph breaks

If you ask AI to write a social post for you, it will probably produce something structured like this.

Why?

Because frequent paragraph breaks...

Break the text into smaller chunks of information that are easier to follow 👉

(Peppered with emojis for the visualization, of course.)

For me, THIS is the tell-tale sign of AI-text. In the attention economy, structuring your posts into small fragments helps people process and focus on the information, but it also makes your content terribly generic. Don't do it.

Again, a paragraph break is effective when used to separate information here and there, but after every sentence, it loses its power.

How does AI approach punctuation?

While stylistics is more concerned with the overall architecture of a text, punctuation operates at the word and sentence level. I've found at least three punctuation features that are present in AI writing: the em dash, title case, and excessive adherence to rules.

The em dash

One of the most ubiquitous features of AI text - and the subject of passionate discussions in writing forums - is the em dash. This long horizontal line (—) stretches from word to word to set apart extra information, add emphasis, or simply create a pause.

Em dashes are incredibly effective, and writers, including me, love using them. Their siblings, the hyphen (-) and the en dash (–), are used to join words or indicate ranges. Technically, using hyphens in place of em dashes is not the correct practice. However, this long dash has recently become the public enemy number one because of its perceived association with AI writing. (Needless to say, this preference has now permeated my own writing as well.)

Some people debate whether em dashes are truly a sign of AI, but most agree they make the text seem fake. The justification is often that "most of us can't even locate the dash symbol on our keyboards".

Capitalization

I've noticed AI-generated text often uses title case, a capitalization style where major words (except preposition, articles, etc.) are capitalized. Example: What Is Personal Branding and Why It Matters?

This is not incorrect, but for me, it's a dead giveaway of AI. While I'll happily use title case to cite book titles, chapters, or song names, I think sentence case is more online-friendly and I've started using it in my blog headings and email subject lines.

• Title case: AI Writing and How to Spot It: 10 Tips How to Detect AI text

• Sentence case: AI writing and how to spot it: 10 tips how to detect AI text

Simply too perfect

Unless trained on a specific writer's style, AI text tends to follow punctuation rules very regularly. It's unlikely that a human writer will always follow punctuation and grammar rules "by the book"; there may be occasional inconsistencies or character quirks like the excessive use of hyphenation, ellipses, or exclamation marks.

If a text simply seems too "polished", that can also be an indicator of AI. Human writing has personality, reflecting the writer's specific preferences for rhythm, certain expressions, or grammar rules, such as the Oxford comma. Schematic sentence structure + unrealistically consistent punctuation = AI text.

What words does AI overuse?

If you regularly use tools like ChatGPT for content generation, you must have noticed this model's preference for some words has become a subject of jokes all over the internet - so much that even its marketing team has jumped on the bandwagon.

Source: ChatGPT on X

Writers have started putting together lists of "words and phrases that make it obvious you used ChatGPT", sometimes with useful prompts to "ban" the chatbot from including them. Here are some I've noticed myself:

• Delve

• Unlock

• Drive

• Align

• Sustainable

• Impact

• Optimize

• Embark

• Cutting-edge

• Game-changer

• In today's digital era

• Fast-paced

• Leverage

• Synergy

• Robust

• Seamless

• Future-proof

• Next level

Feel free to add to the list, but I believe I've covered those that bother me most. They mostly belong to corporate jargon and create excessive fluff in your copy - try to avoid them as much as you can.

Expressions common in AI-written text

In my experience with generative AI, I've come across dozens of repetitive expressions. Think of the first example again:

• Copywriting is more than just putting words on the page.

You could say that about almost anything, right? Customer service is more than just good client relations. A healthy workplace culture is more than just productivity. Here are some more AI-written taglines or headings:

• Bringing clean water where it's needed most—one city at a time.

• Demystifying Cybersecurity (What Is It and Why It Matters)

• More than service. We help you shape experiences that resonate.

Good writing doesn't settle for clichés but strives for originality of expression. If the text includes something that "matters", "resonates", or is "unforgettable" - particularly in connection with "experiences" or "stories" - AI was likely involved.

The same goes for unnecessarily wordy sentences that don't tell you much. If lead nurturing is "a powerful tool" that "continually improves the performance of your marketing efforts", that doesn't give you much detail, does it? AI often makes stuff up and avoids the clear, in-sentence examples and unique analogies that human writing provides. That's why it looks perfect on the surface but often sounds hollow.

AI and the future of writing

Now you're aware of the some of the most common features of AI-generated text. You know that if you encounter a text full of triads, alliteration, em dashes and generic expressions, chances are it was either partially or completely authored by AI.

But, you might be asking, what does this imply for us as writers? Does this mean you can never use any of these features in your own writing again?

Absolutely not. AI models were trained on large datasets of text that included these effective stylistic and punctuation devices. Like the em dash, they've been used by accomplished writers for decades, and just because they've become associated with AI models, it doesn't mean we should discard them from our own writing altogether. There are many writers out there who still love em dashes and will use them no matter what. The same goes for the Oxford comma, triads, or title case. These devices can be incredibly effective when used sparsely and soberly.

Writing with personality, including those human flaws and quirks, continues to be valuable especially in an era of readily accessible AI-generated content. Skilled writers with instinct for language will recognize when something's being overused - while AI, as we know it now, won't.

Want content that doesn't sound generic but exactly like you?

I'm Emma and I help brands like yours grow by telling their stories. Sounds like something you're interested in exploring? Then drop me a line at emma@eutext.nl.

Let's create something great together!