Bloody Well Write

Ah, the dreaded ellipses. Misunderstood and overused, this is the mark that has its ducks — er, dots — all in a row.

How do you make an ellipsis? Keep in mind that it should be treated as a three-letter word, with a space on each side (instead of being crammed between two words). It needs its personal space as much as you do. You can use three periods all in a row, with no spaces between each period; remember, it’s just like a three-letter word. If the ellipsis is at the end of a sentence, it needs a period (just as a three-letter word would), with one space before it and no space between the ellipsis and the period, like this ….

But if you have to use an ellipsis at the end of a sentence, you might just try rewriting the sentence. For dramatic effect in a play or novel, it’s acceptable but still not that great, so use your best judgment. Ask for a second opinion. Seek counsel. Phone a friend. Make that change.

In literary or dramatic writing, the ellipsis can be used to indicate a pause in a character’s speech or thought: Bob said, “I want roasted garlic, sautéed artichokes and … um … well, let’s see … maybe caramelized onions on my pizza.” Overusing the ellipsis in this function can become tiresome to the reader, though, so unless you’re writing the next Great American Novel or Play (or Musical — let’s not be snobbish), use the mark in this fashion sparingly.

In just about any kind of writing, the ellipsis can show an omission of words: Fish don’t … in the kitchen. Beans don’t … on the grill. Not that you would leave those particular words out; the sentences are simply too short for an omission to be worth it. But if you were to quote Abe Lincoln or Jimmy Carter or — on a lark — George W. Bush, and you wanted to eliminate a portion of text without altering the meaning of the quote (which is the responsible and expected thing to do), an ellipsis or two would be completely acceptable.

An important note about this little piece of punctuation: Use sparingly. And I mean sparingly. I mentioned it earlier in this entry, but it’s worth repeating. If a hard copy of your work is going to be produced, try eliminating every ellipsis. It makes for more refined copy and easier reading.

And in headlines? No way, no how. Don’t do it. Rewrite.

OK, so one little sucker has made it through your editing process and you want to insert it into your Word document. How? Well, if you’re on a Mac, you’ve got a handy shortcut: Press the option and semicolon keys at the same time. Presto! Ellipsis inserted. If you’re on a PC, I think the path is Alt+0133. Don’t sue me if that’s wrong. I’m a Mac gal and did light research on the Net for the PC answer, and you know how reliable the Net can be.

Oh, my. I almost typed an ellipsis right there, after “… can be”! Which leads me to add sarcasm as a possible motive to use an ellipsis, as well as demonstrating the proper way to show omission of text for brevity. And I respect written sarcasm as much as the next but, as I mentioned earlier, something going to print doesn’t really need ellipses. Not that you’re going to print this out and laminate it, but still. It’s out there in cyberspace, so forget it. And please don’t comb through previous postings to see if there are any offenders; there very well may be. But I’m living and learning like the rest of you.

An occasional, well-placed ellipsis is fine. Just not in a headline — ever. Yes, worth repeating.

One last thing: I use ellipses like crazy in personal e-mails (hell, in work e-mails, too). But I don’t use ’em in my writing or editing. Seems as if a lot of my girlfriends pepper their e-mails with the little buggers, too, so maybe it’s a girl thing, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

Happy trails!

SAK

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