exxpress Dash Usage Timeline

Tracking dash usage patterns over time as an indicator of editorial changes

Em-dash: — (U+2014) - Long dash

En-dash: – (U+2013) - Medium dash

Analysis Period: 2021 - 2025

Hypothesis: A shift toward higher intensity suggests adoption of LLM-assisted writing (ChatGPT: Nov 2022).

Distribution Evolution: How Dash Usage Shifted

Percentage of articles in each dash intensity category per year

Reading this chart: A shift from green (None/Low) to red (High/Very High) indicates increased dash usage intensity.

Dash Intensity by Category

Average en-dashes per article for each category over time (sorted by biggest change). Missing bars indicate category had fewer than 5 articles that year.

politik

+2.80

Average Intensity

Distribution

economy

+1.80

Average Intensity

Distribution

lifestyle

+1.35

Average Intensity

Distribution

meinung

+0.97

Average Intensity

Distribution

sport

+0.89

Average Intensity

Distribution

Yearly Statistics

Year	Articles	Avg En-Dash	% with En-Dash	Change vs Prev
2021	1474	1.15	47.3%	—
2022	1220	0.97	42.8%	-0.18 (-16%)
2023	1246	1.00	44.3%	+0.02 (+3%)
2024	752	0.81	43.6%	-0.19 (-19%)
2025	1007	3.22	74.2%	+2.41 (+298%)

All Categories Across Years

Average en-dashes per article by category and year (sorted by biggest increase from 2021 to 2025)

Category	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Total Change
politik	1.36	1.25	1.32	0.82	4.16	+2.80
economy	1.15	0.83	0.93	0.84	2.95	+1.80
lifestyle	1.32	1.12	1.13	0.93	2.67	+1.35
meinung	4.42	4.81	3.06	2.06	5.39	+0.97
sport	0.96	0.39	0.47	0.37	1.86	+0.89

Generated on 11/2/2025, 6:05:37 PM

Data analyzed from 5,699 articles across 5 years