Today it's time for the Sheriff to tackle ELLIPSES! They are those little dots (. . .) you find in books, emails, news stories, etc. No matter where there are words . . . there are ellipses. *giggle* See what I did there? ;-)
Back to business!
Ellipses are one of the most commonly MISUSED things when writing. I used them incorrectly when I first started writing. Not only are there specific instances you need to use them, there is also a specific WAY to use them.
First, why we use them:
1. To show that we are omitting something.
Example:
"I want to go to the store tomorrow; Macys is having a sale; there's this new pair of shoes I must have!"
With the ellipses: "I want to go to the store . . . there's a new pair of shoes I must have!"
OR: "Twilight has been the most successful movie of 2012--but I hated it."
With ellipses: "Twilight has been the most successful movie of 2012 . . ."
Hmm . . . do you see the difference in the second example? By omitting something and adding ellipsis, I've actually changed what the writer was trying to say. Interesting . . .
Other reasons to use ellipses include: showing time has passed, showing a list is finished, and the most used reason--the speaker has trailed off in the middle of a sentence or left something unsaid.
NOW, the formatting. And this is serious, peeps. Mainly because I see this wrong All. The. Time. And if it weren't for my good ol' friend Sarah Fine, I would have never learned this. She wanted to get to the bottom of the ellipse dilemma, therefore making me an expert. LoL.
Formatting is simple:
--Ellipses use THREE dots. Not two, not four, and please NOT five. Three dots.
--There needs to be a space BEFORE and AFTER the set of dots.
--Now this last rule is debatable (for some). But Grammar Girl says this is correct, and who am I to argue?
So, lastly, put a space in between each of the dots, too.
End the end, your sentence will look like this:
I think . . . wait . . . did you say there was a man-eating dog in the backyard?
Word(space)dot(space)dot(space)dot(space)word
Got it? Good! Now go tackle the world and fill it full of ellipses! Oh, wait . . . don't do that. Using too many it a bad, bad thing. ;-)
~JD
19 comments:
Interesting! My publisher's editor corrected the dots so there weren't spaces. Wonder if there are different rule?
And yes, guilty of using them! All the time...
I didn't realise there should be spaces between the dots! Thanks for the tip!
Spaces between the dots? Crazy. Well, I'm about to get copy edits back for Sanctum, so I'll let you know if the copy editor adds those spaces between dots to all my (many, many) ellipses ...
I've heard (and seen in published books) if they end a sentence, you have four dots. The last dot represents the period.
I used to use them more than I do now. I use them mostly in dialogue.
I was just about to say the same thing as Stina. I've heard at the end of a sentence to use four. I usually use them in dialogue.
Take note, peeps! Stina has a made a comment that is correct! I didn't mention this little bit.
Stina is referring to the punctuation at the end of the sentence (be it a period, question mark, etc). So technically it's still THREE dots, and then you add the ending punctuation. Sorry I didn't include this little tidbit in the original post!
~JD
i have such an ellipses addiction... it's terrible...
and now i have to figure out how to format them correctly...
aw man...
Thanks for the clarification. One question though: I've told that when used to end a sentence a period must be added, thus looking like four dots. In actuality it's three dots and a period. Any thoughts on that?
I was thinking about this last night while I was reading. The book did not have spaces before or after the ellipses. Now I'm confused!
Hey you! Too funny about the discussion going on in the comments b/c I was going to say that my author friend was told four dots at end of sentence in her copy edits, too! :D
I am an ellipse master...or mutilator...you decide.
Hmm, I hadn't heard of putting spaces between or after but completely agree with you on the number thing. I hate people who get dot happy.
Three dots! I must think in three dots! Yay for this very straighforward reminder lovely JD! Three dots, people! Three!
:-) Take care
x
I didn't know about the spaces between the dots.
I've always heard no spaces between the dots, and in some instances, no space before the dots, especially when ending a paragraph.
I think this is one of those things to leave to the editors, but I do no spaces, one space before and after, because I can't stand to look at them any other way.
I love ellipses and I love your grammar posts!
I LOVE ellipses! I know that I over-use them and abuse them...but I don't care! :P
This was so useful... it's great to have the exact details on something that doesn't often get a lot of attention...
Four dots at the end of a sentence? Really? I've got to find an example. That's bizarre. Thanks for the info.
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