marketingskills/skills/seo-audit/references/ai-writing-detection.md

AI Writing Detection

Words, phrases, and punctuation patterns commonly associated with AI-generated text. Avoid these to ensure writing sounds natural and human.

Sources: Grammarly (2025), Microsoft 365 Life Hacks (2025), GPTHuman (2025), Walter Writes (2025), Textero (2025), Plagiarism Today (2025), Rolling Stone (2025), MDPI Blog (2025)

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Em Dashes: The Primary AI Tell

The em dash (—) has become one of the most reliable markers of AI-generated content.

Em dashes are longer than hyphens (-) and are used for emphasis, interruptions, or parenthetical information. While they have legitimate uses in writing, AI models drastically overuse them.

Why Em Dashes Signal AI Writing

• AI models were trained on edited books, academic papers, and style guides where em dashes appear frequently
• AI uses em dashes as a shortcut for sentence variety instead of commas, colons, or parentheses
• Most human writers rarely use em dashes because they don't exist as a standard keyboard key
• The overuse is so consistent that it has become the unofficial signature of ChatGPT writing

What To Do Instead

Instead of	Use
The results—which were surprising—showed...	The results, which were surprising, showed...
This approach—unlike traditional methods—allows...	This approach, unlike traditional methods, allows...
The study found—as expected—that...	The study found, as expected, that...
Communication skills—both written and verbal—are essential	Communication skills (both written and verbal) are essential

Guidelines

• Use commas for most parenthetical information
• Use colons to introduce explanations or lists
• Use parentheses for supplementary information
• Reserve em dashes for rare, deliberate emphasis only
• If you find yourself using more than one em dash per page, revise

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Overused Verbs

Avoid	Use Instead
delve (into)	explore, examine, investigate, look at
leverage	use, apply, draw on
optimise	improve, refine, enhance
utilise	use
facilitate	help, enable, support
foster	encourage, support, develop, nurture
bolster	strengthen, support, reinforce
underscore	emphasise, highlight, stress
unveil	reveal, show, introduce, present
navigate	manage, handle, work through
streamline	simplify, make more efficient
enhance	improve, strengthen
endeavour	try, attempt, effort
ascertain	find out, determine, establish
elucidate	explain, clarify, make clear

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Overused Adjectives

Avoid	Use Instead
robust	strong, reliable, thorough, solid
comprehensive	complete, thorough, full, detailed
pivotal	key, critical, central, important
crucial	important, key, essential, critical
vital	important, essential, necessary
transformative	significant, important, major
cutting-edge	new, advanced, recent, modern
groundbreaking	new, original, significant
innovative	new, original, creative
seamless	smooth, easy, effortless
intricate	complex, detailed, complicated
nuanced	subtle, complex, detailed
multifaceted	complex, varied, diverse
holistic	complete, whole, comprehensive

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Overused Transitions and Connectors

Avoid	Use Instead
furthermore	also, in addition, and
moreover	also, and, besides
notwithstanding	despite, even so, still
that being said	however, but, still
at its core	essentially, fundamentally, basically
to put it simply	in short, simply put
it is worth noting that	note that, importantly
in the realm of	in, within, regarding
in the landscape of	in, within
in today's [anything]	currently, now, today

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Phrases That Signal AI Writing

Opening Phrases to Avoid

• "In today's fast-paced world..."
• "In today's digital age..."
• "In an era of..."
• "In the ever-evolving landscape of..."
• "In the realm of..."
• "It's important to note that..."
• "Let's delve into..."
• "Imagine a world where..."

Transitional Phrases to Avoid

• "That being said..."
• "With that in mind..."
• "It's worth mentioning that..."
• "At its core..."
• "To put it simply..."
• "In essence..."
• "This begs the question..."

Concluding Phrases to Avoid

• "In conclusion..."
• "To sum up..."
• "By [doing X], you can [achieve Y]..."
• "In the final analysis..."
• "All things considered..."
• "At the end of the day..."

Structural Patterns to Avoid

• "Whether you're a [X], [Y], or [Z]..." (listing three examples after "whether")
• "It's not just [X], it's also [Y]..."
• "Think of [X] as [elaborate metaphor]..."
• Starting sentences with "By" followed by a gerund: "By understanding X, you can Y..."

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Filler Words and Empty Intensifiers

These words often add nothing to meaning. Remove them or find specific alternatives:

• absolutely
• actually
• basically
• certainly
• clearly
• definitely
• essentially
• extremely
• fundamentally
• incredibly
• interestingly
• naturally
• obviously
• quite
• really
• significantly
• simply
• surely
• truly
• ultimately
• undoubtedly
• very

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Academic-Specific AI Tells

Avoid	Use Instead
shed light on	clarify, explain, reveal
pave the way for	enable, allow, make possible
a myriad of	many, numerous, various
a plethora of	many, numerous, several
paramount	very important, essential, critical
pertaining to	about, regarding, concerning
prior to	before
subsequent to	after
in light of	because of, given, considering
with respect to	about, regarding, for
in terms of	regarding, for, about
the fact that	that (or rewrite sentence)

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How to Self-Check

1. Read your text aloud. If phrases sound unnatural in speech, revise them
2. Ask: "Would I say this in a conversation with a colleague?"
3. Check for repetitive sentence structures
4. Look for clusters of the words listed above
5. Ensure varied sentence lengths (not all similar length)
6. Verify each intensifier adds genuine meaning