Media and commentary
Ars Technica
0.7× since 2022arstechnica.com · 18,896 posts · 11.2M words · Aug 1998 to Aug 2026
327 of 337 months in that span carried a post, 10 none. 2695 pages refused this crawler. 63 loaded without countable prose.
Per 1k words, 2024–now
3.08
Per 1k words, 2018–2022
4.28
Em dashes counted
36,086
Posts with at least one
49%
Em dashes per post
Monthly3.28
12-month average2.29
Ars Technica, latest month in the corpusBy year
En dashes are counted alongside as a control: if em dashes climb while en dashes hold flat, that is a change in writing style rather than a change in typography.
| Year | Posts | Em dashes | Per 1k words | En per 1k | Share of posts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 494 | 1,174 | 2.99 | 0.12 | 58% |
| 2025 | 795 | 1,946 | 3.09 | 0.13 | 63% |
| 2024 | 835 | 2,095 | 3.13 | 0.16 | 62% |
| 2023 | 762 | 1,829 | 3.14 | 0.29 | 60% |
| 2022 | 742 | 1,636 | 3.51 | 0.10 | 62% |
| 2021 | 744 | 2,278 | 4.29 | 0.06 | 65% |
| 2020 | 785 | 3,154 | 5.15 | 0.15 | 71% |
| 2019 | 757 | 2,051 | 4.07 | 0.22 | 65% |
| 2018 | 795 | 2,329 | 4.17 | 0.18 | 64% |
| 2017 | 808 | 1,959 | 3.87 | 0.23 | 58% |
| 2016 | 858 | 2,208 | 4.37 | 0.07 | 61% |
| 2015 | 778 | 1,778 | 4.03 | 0.16 | 59% |
| 2014 | 842 | 1,742 | 3.88 | 0.06 | 53% |
| 2013 | 743 | 1,639 | 3.65 | 1.88 | 55% |
| 2012 | 871 | 1,825 | 3.53 | 0.07 | 55% |
| 2011 | 867 | 1,885 | 3.81 | 0.04 | 58% |
| 2010 | 763 | 1,465 | 3.72 | 0.03 | 57% |
| 2009 | 756 | 1,065 | 3.22 | 0.11 | 48% |
| 2008 | 705 | 580 | 2.23 | 0.09 | 34% |
| 2007 | 774 | 655 | 2.41 | 0.29 | 36% |
| 2006 | 685 | 295 | 1.19 | 0.26 | 21% |
| 2005 | 477 | 133 | 0.60 | 0.36 | 17% |
| 2004 | 460 | 51 | 0.18 | 0.26 | 7% |
| 2003 | 803 | 133 | 0.39 | 0.74 | 7% |
| 2002 | 752 | 50 | 0.20 | 0.89 | 3% |
| 2001 | 190 | 54 | 0.46 | 1.30 | 6% |
| 2000 | 33 | 54 | 0.46 | 0.73 | 39% |
| 1999 | 18 | 12 | 0.28 | 1.07 | 17% |
| 1998 | 4 | 11 | 2.13 | 1.55 | 25% |