... how do I work the three dots?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis

http://www.reluctantpress.com/using_ellipses.htm

June, what word processor do you use? MS word handles this just fine.

Maryn said:

Do remember that there's always a blank space after ellipses

Click to expand...

That's true (and you are a godess) but the explanation is slightly misleading if we are discussing ellipsis points (also "ellipses") for U.S. publications.

There is not only a space after an ellipsis point, but before and after each one. So the example is "blah . . . blah" or blah-space-dot-space-dot-space-dot-space-blah.

Although many U.S. editors only use the three-dot ellipses at the end of a sentence, technically, if ellipses come at the end, they follow the period, and it's four spaced dots, but no space before the period, of course. For example, Blah blah blah. . . .

I checked this information with my former newspaper editor, Modern Language Association, and The Chicago Manual of Style. Where have I erred?

Chase said:

I checked this information with my former newspaper editor, Modern Language Association, and The Chicago Manual of Style. Where have I erred?

Click to expand...

That's correct as far as the Chicago and MLA style manuals go, but there are a lot of publications that don't like or use the spaces in ellipses. I think everyone should probably do whatever they're comfortable with, because the copyeditors will change it to the house style anyway.

I agree with our IceCreamEmpress. Although I teach English at a small state university, I certainly wouldn't take points off for a simple ...[dotdotdot] I also wouldn't take points off for a . . . [dot space dot space dot]. I think it's a matter of preference, and that the meaning is understood, whether in a research paper (I had to leave something out to make my point ellipsis) or just a pause ellipsis in fiction. Keep writing and if you reach the editor in some publishing house, they'll sort it out.

Be aware that if you type an ellipsis in MS Word, the so-called AutoCorrect feature will convert those three separate dots into a single character consisting of three dots. But that's a non-standard character, so if you then copy and paste the text elsewhere, you're likely to end up with some weird random character instead.

What you need to do is beat Word into submission disable AutoCorrect. For Word 2003, go to Tools, then AutoCorrect Options. Then, on the AutoCorrect tab, untick the box for "Replace text as you type". (I don't know where it is in Word 2007, but I suppose it's similar.) If you're curious, just below that there's a long list of things Word has been replacing without your knowledge.

While you're in AutoCorrect Options, look at the AutoFormat tab, too. That has more things you should turn off, like smart quotes and em-dashes.

It's a typesetting issue, when it's just the three dots, otherwise known as an ellipses.

Just be consistent; the publisher's typesetter will know which of the two completely acceptabe and equally "correct" styles is preferred.

Beat Word until it lies on the floor, an amorphous mass of ugly, broken bytes in a spreading puddle of blood. Then get a good text editor to do the actual writing in. Pfthpttblffthtt!

Our editor (and all the others I've worked with) prefer:

word-space-dot-space-dot-space-dot-space-word, or:

word . . . word

Anything else gets a growly email, because it's something the copy editor will have to go back and fix in the manuscript by hand. It's hard to look for codes---which is what Word turns the punctuation into if given the opportunity.

Just one opinion, though. I'm sure there are editors out there who don't care.

What ever you do, you DON'T want to use the code or the special ellipses character, and yes, Word, curse it, might try to substitute the special character.

The problem is that the character looks ugly, and it's not even available in all fonts, and it's not cross-platform.

On extended leave from a ladies' slick, my privileges include tormenting
sister editors with daily e-mail. None can locate among the magazine’s many references a single U.S. style manual or grammar handbook not calling for ellipses constructed from dots equally separated by a space as Chase and Cathy C point out.

A senior editor remembers a discussion about the proliferation of unspaced
dots. A consensus was that compressed versions come from various Miss Grammars on-line and Conan the Grammarians in newsletters who misunderstand the manuals. It’s now passed on like internet prose à la ee cummings–another lovely editors must endure.

As to “do as you please and let the copy editor handle it”: Yes, we circle
errors to be corrected by final transcribers (for the most part, “type” is
no longer “set” by hand or machine but electronically engraved).

However, there are times when circles proliferate to the point where junior editors such as I place submissions in circular files to be processed by the
janitorial team.

I do wonder why anyone teaching writing would direct students to a blurb from a questionable source rather to a handbook adopted for student use, but then I am forever amazed at the current bent to despise anything perceived as a “rule.”

I hate MS Word's conversion to "..." so I always type it as . . ., just as Cathy C said and I turn off MS Word's autoformat function.

Here's the dope on those dots (from a newspaper copy editor's perspective). The following guideline always made it easy for me.

Treat an ellipses like a three-letter word. So, that means there is a space before and after it:

"Blah blah blah ... blah blah blah."

The same goes if it ends a sentence and another sentence begins after it. Put your period to end the sentence, then the ellipses, then the next sentence:

"Blah blah blah I told her. ... Later I said that blah blah blah."

Englishmaid said:

A senior editor remembers a discussion about the proliferation of unspaced
dots. A consensus was that compressed versions come from various Miss Grammars on-line and Conan the Grammarians in newsletters who misunderstand the manuals. It’s now passed on like internet prose à la ee cummings–another lovely editors must endure.

Click to expand...

No, it's because MicrosoftWord's autoformat "feature" substitutes the high ASCII ellipses character for anything resembling an ellipsis unless a writer turns off said feature.

As to “do as you please and let the copy editor handle it”: Yes, we circle
errors to be corrected by final transcribers (for the most part, “type” is
no longer “set” by hand or machine but electronically engraved).

Click to expand...

Over in the colonial wilderness we still call it setting type, whether it's cold, or digital and done using Quark Express, FrameMaker, or Pagemaker.

I do wonder why anyone teaching writing would direct students to a blurb from a questionable source rather to a handbook adopted for student use, but then I am forever amazed at the current bent to despise anything perceived as a “rule.”

Click to expand...

Possibly because the most commonly used style manual in the hinterlands, Chicago, puts it this way:

"The ellipsis points are printed on the line like periods, not above it like multiplication dots in mathematics. They are usually separated from each other and from the text and any contiguous punctuation by 3-to-em spaces (Chicago 13th; 10.36)."

Writers get to "3-to-em spaces" and their eyes glaze over . . .

As the different posts point out, it's a matter of the editors choice, not of what's correct by which authority. My prefernce is to do a sp...sp mid-sentence, and a no-sp...sp end sentence. I've been told this is correct, and I've been told this is incorrect. Both views are right. So I'll go with my first irrelevent reply, which was:

...

I cracked a smile. “You’ll see that money again… hopefully.”

I know this wasn't what you were asking but, on the whole, I'd just avoid using ellipses like these if at all possible.