12/9/2023 0 Comments Three dots and a dash meaning![]() If the preceding line ends in a point, this should not be included in the four” (¶ 164). The first edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, published in 1906 (as Manual of Style), recommended four dots, not three: “For an ellipsis at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence four periods, separated by a space (en-quad), should ordinarily be used, except in very narrow measures. Though the phrase “dot dot dot” now seems obvious (three is the minimum number suggesting repetition, or the idea that there is more to come), the number of dots in an ellipsis wasn’t always a settled matter (nor, incidentally, was the use of periods rather than, say, dashes or asterisks). ![]() ? In other words, everyone knows there’s an ellipsis character, so shouldn’t we be using it?įirst, a little history. The problem is that you have to use nonbreaking spaces to keep the periods from getting separated at the end of a line. On the other hand, it’s no secret that spaced periods aren’t easy to manage. This is the traditional style in English for the ellipsis, so it’s familiar to me not only from my work but also from the novels that I read for enjoyment. The traditional ellipsisĪs a copyeditor who works primarily with books, I see spaced periods (. . .) as normal. Instead I want to consider the ellipsis as a mark of punctuation. And that an ellipsis can signal an incomplete or unstated thought, or a pause or gap in speech or text.īut I’m not concerned with any of those uses here. You probably also know that an ellipsis is used to mark an omission from quoted speech or text. ![]() If you follow Chicago style, it’s a safe bet you know that a Chicago-style ellipsis consists of three spaced periods.
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