Em Dashes and Ellipses

sandree

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I was reading the thread on em dashes, parentheses and commas and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on this subject.

I tend to break off a character’s thought or speech often in dialog. I was using ellipses and em dashes interchangeably and my editor asked me to choose one or the other.

In general, is there a rule on the use of em dashes vs. ellipses with an unfinished statement or thought, especially in dialog?

What about in the middle of a sentence? Can ellipses be used in the same way an em dash is used to separate clauses?

Thank you, AW grammarians.
 

Ari Meermans

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Not a grammarian. Em dashes are strong breaks in sentences; they're used to indicate an interruption in dialogue and can be used for descriptive asides in text (interchangeable only with parentheses or sometimes commas). Ellipses in dialogue indicate a trailing off; elsewhere they're used to indicate missing text in quotations.

(I used em dashes quite a lot for parentheticals I think especially important.)
 

Cindyt

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Ari Meermans

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Grammar Girl is generally my go-to and she states it thus: "In general, you can think of parentheses, commas, and dashes as a continuum of marks. Parentheses are the quiet whisper of an aside, commas are the conversational voice of a friend walking by your desk, and dashes are the yowl of a pirate dashing into a fray."
 

sandree

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Perfect! This is what I needed to know.
 

Paul Lamb

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em dashes I see as interruptions in the dialog or stream of thought. Ellipses are a break with a continuation after or a break because the thought/comment is unfinished.

I use both, but I've also used ellipses within a long bit of character-spoken text when the speaker has to pause verbally for some reason. For example, I have two runners chatting on the trail. One is out of breath, so his speech is broken with ellipses. Also, when a character is sobbing yet trying to speak and so pauses.

I've seen this used by several (major) novelists now that I know to look for it.
 

Stytch

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The em dash is also good for setting aside lists in your sentence, when commas might be confusing and parenthesis seem TOO MUCH of an aside.

"There were a ton of things in the bag -- apples, oranges, kiwis, a rabid weasel -- which looked like it was about to tear apart."

You could do the above with just commas or a colon and commas, but then it's not sure if the weasel or the bag is about to tear apart.
 

Dan Rhys

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As a college English instructor for the past 14 years (not that I know everything), my understanding is that dashes are for emphasis, to make something really stand out--which can include interruptions--while ellipses (at least as I use them) allow for a little pause before continuing a stream of thought.
 

AW Admin

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The ellipsis indicates a lacuna, an omission; ellipses show that something has been left out.

The idea is to not change the meaning of a quotation, for instance, by omitting text and inserting an ellipsis to mark that lacuna.

A number of style guides (and check with your publisher and editor) allow ellipses to be used to indicate a pause in dialog, or a speaker trailing off in mid-thought. Chicago makes a distinction between an ellipsis used for "faltering or fragmented speech" and a dash used for more substantial pauses (for instance).

Don't . . . be . . . . like . . . Barbara Cartland. You have a limited non-renewable lifetime allocation of ! and . . . ; don't use them rashly.