Editors Hate Them

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THOSE THREE LITTLE DOTS give Editors more headaches than all the other Newbie mistakes they come across.

And for some reason they get REALLY, REALLY, riled up about them. I read several articles about the use of ellipsis and I thought the writer was just a little bit obsessive scary.


Now, I don't know about you, but I felt I was pretty knowledgeable in English, having taught it most of my life. Unfortunately for me, I taught elementary so we didn't really cover ellipsis. I doubt I even knew the name of the little buggers before I started my edit on Golden Hope. I learned, or at the minimum, tried to comprehend the use of the ellipsis, as quickly as I could. I hoped to spare myself abject humiliation. Nope, didn't work. I still made mistakes, but I guarantee you this; when it comes to any kind of pause, I pull out my grammar guide. She can be taught! (only one exclamation mark so far, thumbs up)
Here is a definition for you, then we will discuss-quiz to follow.

The Ellipsis: is a series of dots that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word, sentence or whole section from the original text being quoted, and though necessary for syntactical construction, is not necessary for comprehension.^[1] Ellipses can also be used to indicate an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis), example: "But I thought he was . . .". When placed at the beginning or end of a sentence, the ellipsis can also inspire a feeling of melancholy or longing. The ellipsis calls for a slight pause in speech or any form of text, and can be used to suggest a tense or awkward momentary silence.
The most common form of an ellipsis is a row of three periods or full stops (. . .) or a pre-composed triple-dot glyph (…). The usage of the em dash (—) can overlap the usage of the ellipsis. The Chicago Manual of Style recommends that an ellipsis be formed by typing three periods, each with a space on both sides.
The triple-dot punctuation mark is also called a suspension point, points of ellipsis, periods of ellipsis, or colloquially, "dot-dot-dot".     quoted from Wikipedia  Highlights are mine.

Summary: You will use an ellipsis mostly when your character's speech trails off to nothingness. NOT when he or she is interrupted- that's an important distinction.

You may use an ellipsis if you're quoting someone and don't want to use the whole quote. So far I haven't needed to use that, but I write fiction so...
You may also use an ellipsis for suspense. I've actually used it that way. "And the name of our new colony is..."

So, if you're clear on how to use the ellipsis, my next advice to you is DON'T,  Not if you can help it. Just to be sure you get the real feeling of hatred the editors have for those dots, I will add a couple of quotes:

by Deb Taber, Apex Book Company:
"… those nasty little spots, the ones that make editors want to scratch their eyes out and scream 

by Deb Harris, All Things That Matter Press:"As a general rule, I intensely dislike them, since they are so often over/mis-used.  Rarely, and I do mean rarely, have I encountered an author who understands the proper use of ellipses."

Don't say you haven't been warned, cue loud scary noise, oooooaaaahhhh

Quiz: (I hope you paid attention)

You should use an ellipsis:
a) never
b) rarely
c) for fun to drive my editor crazy
d) what's an ellipsis?

The answer is ... b - rarely. TaDa! you get an A+

Next time we'll discuss the em dash, which will be a challenge because the text on my blog will not make an em dash. Stay tuned to see what I will do.

Now here's a question. Do any of you know how to use an emoticon here? I searched and searched. I don't want to pay for one. I'm too cheap. And there's no where to put a code on a post, so if you can give me a hand with this I'll give you a free ...

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