Sources will neither confirm nor deny that a “Lust for Life” sequel is in development.In gossip and show business columns, ellipses may be inserted to separate multiple items grouped into a single rambling paragraph. The AP Stylebook additionally covers a somewhat peculiar “special effects” case for ellipses. Neither is typically desirable in strong business or journalistic writing. The effect such usage achieves is a sense of either uncertainty or indirectness. Using ellipses to indicate incomplete thoughts should generally be avoided in formal writing. You wouldn’t expect the captain of a battleship to be so … cute.In such cases, an ellipsis in writing may indicate a pause, a trailing off or something purposefully left unsaid. Using Ellipses in Writing for EffectĮllipses may also appear in literature and less formal writing to denote incomplete thoughts. In the example above, the omission may mislead readers to believe that a different person named Anne Hathaway is being discussed. Distorted: The life of Anne Hathaway … has been researched with great interest by generations of historians.Original: The life of Anne Hathaway, William Shakespeare’s wife, has been researched with great interest by generations of historians.Even if a change is subtle and unintentional, any distortion is a serious issue. When condensing AP style quotes, be careful not to alter the original meaning. If an omission includes the end of one paragraph and the beginning of another, use ellipses in both places: With ellipsis: “I decided … it was time for me to retire from this sport,” said the seven-time champion.Īs illustrated in the example above, you should avoid using ellipses at the beginning or end of a direct quote.Without ellipsis: “After much deliberation, I decided yesterday that it was time for me to retire from this sport, hopefully leaving me enough healthy years to pursue my passion for writing.”.This enables you to efficiently quote material that may contain parts inconsequential to the immediate focus. In formal writing, the primary function of an ellipsis is to indicate that something has been omitted for the purpose of condensing text.
Where should the ellipsis go? … That was easy.… Use with care.Īpply the same punctuation sequence when the grammar preceding an ellipsis calls for a question mark, exclamation point, comma or colon. If the ellipsis follows a grammatically complete sentence, place a period after the last word preceding the ellipsis, and insert a space between this period and the ellipsis. An ellipsis … consists of three periods.Read on to find some great ellipses examples: Spaces should only be inserted before or after the ellipsis as necessary to separate it from other words. According to the AP Stylebook, which is used by most journalistic publications and by BKA for our SEO content, you should treat an ellipsis as a three-letter word consisting of three periods with no spaces in between.
How Many Dots Does an Ellipsis Have?Īuthorities agree that an ellipsis should consist of exactly three consecutive dots placed together on the same line, but the prescribed spacing varies from guide to guide. Each single dot in an ellipsis is called an ellipsis point, by the way, and is rendered using a period. The precise number of dots per ellipsis should not vary. Once again, when dealing with multiple ellipses, rather than visualizing more dots, consider them as several distinct “dot-dot-dot” marks. Instead of visualizing multiple dots, it may help to think of an ellipsis as a single “dot-dot-dot” mark.
Although typing an ellipsis may involve multiple keystrokes, the dots are actually collectively a single punctuation mark, and ellipsis is accordingly a singular noun. To begin with, even the terminology can be a bit tricky.
If you’re wondering how to use ellipses properly in AP-style writing, read on. Another writing pet peeve is the online use of “to be continued” hooks, which use ellipses to hang stories mid-sentence and keep audiences clicking through. I’ve encountered far too many maddening late-night emails literally dotted with ellipses signifying either incoherent thought or implied mischief. One of the more commonly misused and overused punctuation marks is the ellipsis.