An open letter on punctuation
Oct. 27th, 2004 09:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edgDear Internet,
I know that you are all familiar with the ellipsis, but I thought I'd take a moment to write a letter reminding you of the way it's used.
The ellipsis is a pseudo-punctuation mark consisting of three consecutive periods (...). Occasionally the periods will be separated by spaces (. . .); occasionally, if the periods are separated by spaces, a leading space will separate the first period from the word which the ellipsis follows ( . . .). An ellipsis always has a space after it, and is never fewer or more than three periods, regardless of whether there are spaces involved. Depending on which style you prefer, an ellipsis at the end of a sentence may be followed by a fourth period to indicate the end of the sentence, as a period normally does. This fourth period is only separated from the ellipsis by a space if the ellipsis itself contains spaces. In addition, ellipses may be followed by other punctuation marks, such as question marks. Again, an ellipsis used in these circumstances consists of no more or fewer periods than a normal ellipsis, and the use of a space to separate the ellipsis from the punctuation mark is dependent on the use of spaces within the ellipsis.
The ellipsis is used to denote one of two things:
An ellipsis is not:
With regards,
EDG
I know that you are all familiar with the ellipsis, but I thought I'd take a moment to write a letter reminding you of the way it's used.
The ellipsis is a pseudo-punctuation mark consisting of three consecutive periods (...). Occasionally the periods will be separated by spaces (. . .); occasionally, if the periods are separated by spaces, a leading space will separate the first period from the word which the ellipsis follows ( . . .). An ellipsis always has a space after it, and is never fewer or more than three periods, regardless of whether there are spaces involved. Depending on which style you prefer, an ellipsis at the end of a sentence may be followed by a fourth period to indicate the end of the sentence, as a period normally does. This fourth period is only separated from the ellipsis by a space if the ellipsis itself contains spaces. In addition, ellipses may be followed by other punctuation marks, such as question marks. Again, an ellipsis used in these circumstances consists of no more or fewer periods than a normal ellipsis, and the use of a space to separate the ellipsis from the punctuation mark is dependent on the use of spaces within the ellipsis.
The ellipsis is used to denote one of two things:
- Dialogue that trails off, pauses briefly, fades out, or fades in:
- As I walked closer, I could make out their conversation. "...so the Count, at that point, climbed onto the table and began dancing!" said the younger of the servant girls.
- "Everybody was horrified, but the Count... didn't..." Her words slowed and trailed off as she noticed me.
- As I passed beyond them, I could hear their voices starting up again behind me. "Oh my goodness, did you see him? That was..."
- Omitted words or sentences in text. An ellipsis can indicate a break in quoted text, but it should never be used to omit more than two paragraphs (unless it is used near the beginning of a body of text to imply the existence of more text), and a single three-period ellipsis is used regardless of how much text is omitted. Depending on which style you prefer, an ellipsis in this usage may be separated from the word preceding it by a single space, even if the ellipsis itself contains no spaces; it must always be separated from the word following it by a space.
An ellipsis is not:
- More or fewer than three periods, regardless of the length of the omission, the speed of the fading, et cetera.
- Made by just pressing the period key for a few seconds. "........................." is not an ellipsis. "........................." is a stuck key.
- A substitute for other forms of punctuation. Usually this comes in the form of substituting an ellipsis for a question mark. If you are asking a question, use a question mark.
With regards,
EDG
