Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Username

jacklope

Member Since

November 26, 2011

Total number of comments

2

Total number of votes received

1

Bio

..spent seven years getting a four year degree with major in english .. best thing i've ever done .. i see blogs as a contemporary retort for creative writing .. finnegans wake is my current juggernaut .. drawn into this blog because of discussion about style and ellipsis .. the art of leaving out everything but the meaning .. welcome aboard .. here's your plank .. now walk the plank!

Latest Comments

“I’m just saying”

  • November 9, 2012, 9:34am

Good point 'hatar' makes .. Literature is written by people who reflect their own culture, even while trying to convey a culture from another time and place. Shakespeare did no differently. Antony speaks of Brutus, who has just helped assassinate Julius Caesar:

"Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know."

[Julius Caesar, SCENE II. The Forum.]


(This may be the equivalent of ".. just sayin' .. "
Once something is said, even when it has been "stricken from the record," remains in the ears and memory of the listeners. It may still have consequences...).

After hearing Antony speak, the audience responds:

First Citizen
"Methinks there is much reason in his sayings."

The writer knows that whatever is said has consequences, and the speaker had better know as well...

Use of multiple periods

  • November 26, 2011, 10:30am

Dots do not an ellipsis make, nor does an ellipsis leave a hole. Users create their own meaning, and that may or may not follow convention. Regarding the definition and use of and ellipsis, I found this:
site:
http://www.iolani.honolulu.hi.us/Keables/KeablesGuide/PartFive/QuotingLiterature.htm
citation:
5. QL Ell: omissions from quotations. An ellipsis (the plural, ellipses, rhymes with Gypsies) marks omissions from a quotation. College style manuals now recommend using brackets around an ellipsis in a quotation, to make it clear that the ellipsis is not in the original text you are quoting. Ellipses and brackets make your page ugly; use them only when there is no better alternative.
a. One space goes before and after each period:
WRONG: "Time's [...] chariot."
WRONG: "Time's. . .chariot."
RIGHT: "Time's [. . .] chariot."
---------------------------------
All textbooks aside, the use of a row of two or three or more periods can be a typist's or printer's expression for specific textual codes of expression, whether it is something omitted for editorial reasons (for example, "She said 'F... you!'"), or meant to convey intangible information to be filled in imaginatively by the reader (for example, "You go my way, and I'll go....")
In any case, the reader must fill in the blank, or assume it has no relevance to the text. In the textbook case above, three dots are used to connect words that would be otherwise separated by text that has been tossed out because it interferes with the effect of the connection! Of course dots can be used to convey a pause, a dramatic breath, a moment of silence, but then it's not an ellipsis, it's an addition, used to enhance timing, as in the writing of chris mann (for example, "i mean like .. like, like reality is not just a Picture of resistance,")
If I'm writing a letter, I would use punctuation to create expressive pauses or thought provoking timing. But why would I use "omitted text" and substitute some kind of punctuation in something as direct as a letter? To leave the letter unmailed would be the most effective form of "ellipses" I could achieve!
Clearly we're talking about a specific function of "..." or [. . .]in order to convey accurate and honest information for academic purposes. Go to the textbook and stop arguing!