Emoji grids
A recognizable failure mode of assistant models: asked for an explanation, the model returns a wall of bullets, each fronted by an emoji, arranged into a pseudo-table. The information density is low and the visual noise is high, but the shape scores well with raters who skim, which is why the tic persists.
What it looks like
Rows of rocket ships, check marks, and light bulbs standing in for topic sentences. Three columns of two-word cells where a paragraph would have carried the argument. The give-away is that removing every emoji loses nothing.
Where it comes from
Preference-tuning on skim-friendly formats rewards visual structure over argument. The model learns that a grid reads as organized, whether or not anything is being organized.
What to do instead
Prose that commits to an ordering: what matters most, what follows from it, what to do. See contrast pairs for the general repair pattern of showing the failure next to the fix.