The People You Serve Can Tell When It Was Written by AI. Here's What We Did About It.
GoldenDoodle updated its writing instructions to reduce AI fingerprints—em dashes, vague vocabulary, hedging, and fabricated evidence—so trauma-informed communications sound human.
It starts with an em dash.
Someone on your team drafts a client newsletter, runs it through an AI tool, and pastes the output into their email client. Then they read it back and start editing. There’s an em dash connecting a thought that didn’t need connecting. Then another one two sentences later. Then a third. Twenty minutes later they’ve chased punctuation through three paragraphs and the newsletter is late.
That’s the small version of the problem.
The larger version is this: the people your organization communicates with — donors who have been reading fundraising appeals for decades, clients who receive form letters from institutions constantly, community members who know exactly what it sounds like when a system is talking at them rather than to them — they’re developing a feel for AI-generated content. They may not be able to name it. But they feel the distance. The over-qualification. The enthusiasm that isn’t attached to anything real.
For organizations doing trauma-informed work, that distance has a cost. The whole point of trauma-informed communication is to close the gap between institution and person. AI writing patterns that broadcast their own artificiality work against that directly.
We’ve updated the instructions that govern every GoldenDoodle output to address this. Here’s what changed and why it matters.
The em dash
We’re leading with this one because it’s the most common edit our users make, and it’s the most recognizable AI signature in the wild. AI tools use em dashes as a universal connector — for asides, for emphasis, for pivots, for anything that needs a pause. The result is that em dashes stop signaling style and start signaling source.
GoldenDoodle no longer produces them. A comma works. A period works. A restructured sentence works. None of them announce that software wrote your communications update.
The vocabulary
There’s a cluster of words that appear constantly in AI-generated content because they sound authoritative without requiring specificity. “Robust.” “Pivotal.” “Foster.” “Nuanced.” “Transformative.” These words are placeholders. They occupy the space where a concrete observation should be.
When you’re writing about a program participant who secured housing after eight months on a waitlist, “transformative outcomes” doesn’t serve them. It serves no one. We’ve removed that entire vocabulary category from GoldenDoodle’s outputs entirely.
If your team is still writing better prompts while editing AI output, these vocabulary cuts should shorten the loop between draft and send.
The hedging
This is subtler, but it’s probably the pattern most likely to erode trust with the people you’re trying to reach.
AI avoids absolute statements. The result is writing that qualifies everything: “generally speaking, in many cases, this approach can potentially be effective, though results may vary depending on a variety of contextual factors.” That’s not caution. That’s noise. And when your communications director sends a program update to a funder written that way, it reads as evasion even when there’s nothing to evade.
GoldenDoodle now limits qualifiers to situations where genuine uncertainty exists. If the data is solid, the writing says so.
The fake evidence
“Studies show.” “Research indicates.” “Experts agree.”
These phrases create the appearance of evidence without providing any. They’re particularly damaging in the nonprofit sector, where your credibility with funders, boards, and the communities you serve is built on specificity and honesty. GoldenDoodle won’t attribute claims to unnamed sources. If real data isn’t available, the output will say so rather than gesture vaguely toward authority it doesn’t have.
That aligns with how we think about dignity by default: your audience deserves truth, not performance.
The structure
AI has strong preferences: the rule of three, the transition words “Furthermore” and “Moreover,” the conclusion paragraph that restates everything the body already said. These patterns are so consistent across AI tools that they’ve become fingerprints.
GoldenDoodle now varies paragraph length, resists the three-item default, and skips the restating conclusion. Some points take one sentence. Some take seven. The output should follow the content, not a template.
If you’ve read our piece on why trauma-informed communication is more than word replacement, you already know structure and intent matter as much as vocabulary. These updates extend that same philosophy to default AI habits.
Before and after
| Pattern | AI default | GoldenDoodle output |
|---|---|---|
| Em dash usage | ”Our team works daily to meet clients where they are — with dignity, with resources, and without judgment." | "Our team works daily to meet clients where they are, with dignity, with resources, and without judgment.” |
| Vague vocabulary | ”This transformative program fosters robust community resilience." | "This program helped 43 families stay housed through the winter.” |
| Hedging | ”In many cases, trauma-informed approaches can potentially improve client engagement outcomes." | "Organizations that use trauma-informed communication report stronger client trust and lower drop-off rates.” |
| Fabricated evidence | ”Studies show that person-first language significantly improves community trust." | "According to SAMHSA’s 2023 framework, person-first language is a core component of trauma-informed practice.” |
| Rule of three | ”We offer safety, dignity, and empowerment." | "We offer safety, dignity, and a genuine say in what comes next.” |
| Restating conclusion | ”In summary, these updates reflect our ongoing commitment to quality, care, and community-centered communication.” | [Cut entirely] |
None of these changes touch what GoldenDoodle was built to do. The trauma-informed protocols, the mode-specific outputs, the person-first language standards are all intact. What changes is whether a client reading your newsletter, a donor reading your appeal, or a community member reading your social post notices they’re reading something a person actually wrote.
That’s the whole point of this work.
Frequently asked questions
Why does AI writing sound different from human writing?
AI language models are trained to be comprehensive and avoid absolute statements. This produces writing that over-qualifies claims, repeats structural patterns (like the rule of three), and defaults to vague vocabulary when specific detail isn’t available. Readers, particularly those who receive a lot of institutional communication, recognize these patterns even when they can’t name them.
What is an em dash and why do AI tools overuse it?
An em dash is a punctuation mark used to create emphasis or set off a clause. AI tools use it as a catch-all connector for asides, pivots, and emphasis, which means it appears multiple times per paragraph rather than sparingly. The frequency becomes a recognizable pattern.
How does GoldenDoodle handle trauma-informed language alongside these writing standards?
The trauma-informed protocols (SAMHSA’s Four R’s, person-first language, strengths-based framing) operate at the same level as these writing standards. GoldenDoodle applies both simultaneously. The goal is content that reflects your organization’s values and sounds like it was written by a person who holds those values. For more context, see our overview of trauma-informed communication on the blog.
Will these changes affect how long GoldenDoodle outputs take to edit?
That’s the intent. The updates are specifically designed to reduce the editing pass your team needs to make before content is usable. Less hedging to remove, no em dashes to chase, no vague vocabulary to swap out.
Does GoldenDoodle cite real sources?
Yes, when real sources are available and relevant. When they’re not, GoldenDoodle will say so rather than attributing claims to unnamed studies or unspecified experts.
Ready to try outputs shaped for human trust? Start a conversation in GoldenDoodle. Questions about these updates: hello@goldendoodleai.com.
— The GoldenDoodle Team