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Ellipsis

Ellipsis

(OP)

Is there a rule on when to use two-dot, three-dot or four-dot ellipsis ? Thanks,...smile

RE: Ellipsis

I've never seen an ellipsis as anything other than 3 dots. Wikipedia seems to only indicate 3-dot ellipses (although if it's at the end of a sentence, an end of sentence dot/period is also included).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis

tom

RE: Ellipsis

I've only seen it with 2 dots in programming languages.  Normally see it as 3 dots (ctrl+alt+. in word).

I've never seen the Chinese variant (2 groups of 3 dots) quoted in the wiki reference.

RE: Ellipsis

According to Fowler's "Modern English Usage", when the ellipsis occurs at the end of a sentence, it is normal practice to add the fourth dot as the closing full stop.

RE: Ellipsis

I've understood the three-dot to be when you skip within the sentence, and four-dot when you condense more than one sentence.  I could be wrong; it's been a while.

RE: Ellipsis

Do people actually place spaces before, after and between the dots in the "dot set" of an ellipsis?  I've only used it for informal writing myself.  If technical writing, I prefer footnotes.

Hmm . . .

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Ellipsis

On a typewriter, you're supposed to.  If you're using MS word, it will change three typed periods to an ellipsis character in which they're not spaced out at all.  

I was raised on a typewriter, so if I'm being formal I put the spaces in--but usually if I'm being formal I'm using a word processor, so I just type the three dots in a row and let Word do its thing.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies:  FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: Ellipsis

One of my ancestors, probably a grandfather I never met, but maybe his father, was a typesetter for a newspaper. I'm pretty sure an ellipsis would have been one metallic piece to slot in amongst the others making a row for a printed line.

Nowadays, with Unicode, single characters have single character codes and so an ellipsis will have no space characters internally — the three dots will be one character with the internal space between the dots being part of the character.

If I type 1,2,3,...,7 then I'd expect the ellipsis glyph to have enough space for the gap between the dots and commas. If somebody wants to add more space, eg
1, 2, 3, ..., 7 then that is a matter of style and up to them.

This is my opinion only. I am not in the industry.


RE: Ellipsis

What is the formal use for an ellipsis? I've never used them outside of informal email.

In my mind the ellipsis implies a trailing off of the thought process and that the reader should 'fill in the blanks'. Having said that, I've never written a report where I wanted to imply my thoughts were trailing off

Quote:

The boilers in the facility are 35 years old and failing...

Doesn't seem right.

RE: Ellipsis

You might use it if you were giving examples I suppose.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

RE: Ellipsis

Yes, they are good for truncating a quote or source.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Ellipsis

Yep that's more what I meant, just the wrong term.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

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