Ellipses
Oct 15th, 2008 | By John Roach | Category: GrammarWouldn’t it be great if you could quote someone without having to put in every inane word that comes out of their mouth? Well, now you can. It is my pleasure to introduce you to ellipses.
Ellipses are a series of dots (…) to indicate that something has been left out. They’re a great way to trim quotes so you only have to deal with the salient points.
How ellipses work
Consider the following text that I wholly made up.
Cat juggling is wrong. You really shouldn’t juggle cats. That being said, I’m OK with hamster juggling.
On the other hand, dogs would just be too hard to juggle.
Let’s say that you’re writing an exposé on animal juggling and wanted to use this quote. You don’t want to use the whole thing, because it’s unwieldy, wrong, and redundant in places. So, we’re going to trim it up a little bit.
How many dots?
If you’re cutting text from within a sentence, you use three dots.
You . . . shouldn’t juggle cats.
If you’re using two sentences, but want to cut from the beginning of the second sentence, you use four dots.
Cat juggling is wrong. . . . I’m OK with hamster juggling.
The first dot is actually a period. Notice that there is no space between it and the preceding word.
Spaces in ellipses
Chicago style puts spaces between the dots, as such
Three dots: . . .
Four dots: . . . .
AP style does not use spaces in the triplet.
Three dots: …
Four dots: . …
Again, keep in mind that the first dot in a four-dot ellipses is actually a period that happens to be hanging around.
Ellipses placement
Ellipses are easy to place within a sentence: Just plop them where the expunged text would go. However, when you are crossing paragraphs, there are a few rules to remember.
If all you’re doing is dropping sentences or part of a sentence from the first paragraph, put the ellipses at its end.
Cat juggling is wrong. . . .
On the other hand, dogs would just be too hard to juggle.
If you’re also excising some text from the beginning of the second paragraph, put ellipses both at the end of the first and the beginning of the second.
Cat juggling is wrong. . . .
. . . Dogs would just be too hard to juggle.
When not to use ellipses
In a quote, it is not necessary to use ellipses at the beginning or the end to indicate missing text.
I’m ok with hamster juggling.
In display text such as pullquotes, be judicious in ellipses usage. Multiple ellipses can be distracting; only use one.
Ellipses in dialogue
Ellipses in dialogue are another usage altogether and signify different things.
The most common usage is to indicate trailing off. Here, nothing is being omitted — the speaker just didn’t finish his thought.
If Mario can’t save the princess . . .
Ellipses can also be used to indicate hesitant speech, such as speaking through sobs.
I . . . I . . . tried to . . . jump on the goomba.
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This article was written by John Roach http://prowritingtips.com John is a writer and copy editor. You can follow him on twitter at @johnwroachiii. To see more posts click here |
What about using an ellipsis in dialogue at the beginning of a sentence?
Knock yourself out. Heck, you could even go the Final Fantasy route and use ellipses instead of dialogue.
But remember, that would indicate that the beginning of the sentence wasn’t heard, not that it was interrupted. Interruptions are the purview of the em dash.
My resident dialogue expert says it can also indicate hesitation in speaking.