Register Log In Wordsmith Talk Forums General Topics Miscellany Ellipses: do them properly! Search Advanced Forum Search Forums Calendar Active Threads

Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Ellipses: do them properly! #72498 06/12/2002 11:15 AM Joined: Apr 2002 Posts: 148 Melbourne, Aus alexis member alexis member Joined: Apr 2002 Posts: 148 Melbourne, Aus I would like to share one of my pet peeves with people who will actually understand: people who don't use ellipses properly! It dirves me absolutely insane, and I'm not sure which is worse - only two........... or dozens? And of course, the other pet hate is apostrophes in the wrong place - or superfluously! - but that's a whole nother kettle of fishies... alexis Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Ellipse's...... do them properly! #72499 06/12/2002 12:24 PM Joined: Nov 2000 Posts: 819 Portland,Oregon, USA Geoff old hand Geoff old hand Joined: Nov 2000 Posts: 819 Portland,Oregon, USA Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Ellipses: do them properly! #72500 06/12/2002 2:34 PM Joined: Feb 2002 Posts: 833 Eastern Ontario, Canada modestgoddess old hand modestgoddess old hand Joined: Feb 2002 Posts: 833 Eastern Ontario, Canada I'll say it again: Geoff, you naughty man! I'm with alexis and Silk. Incorrectly used apostrophes and ellipses are annoying! I thought the rule with ellipses was: three if you removed a part of a sentence, and four if the part that was removed included a period (ie, if you removed the end of one sentence and resumed quoting with the beginning of the next sentence). I never adhere to that rule myself, because for some reason I just like the look of four anyway....(nothing removed there, just a pause for effect!) - but I THINK that's the "rule." Apostrophes.....North Americans seem to be using all the spare ones that Australia DOESN'T use! Ayers Rock is Ayers Rock, not Ayer's Rock, even though it was named for, um, was it William Ayer? somebody Ayer, anyway. I noticed that all over Oz when I was down there - the apostrophe for possessive names seemed to have completely disappeared. Weird. I like Silk's example: free kitten's WHAT?! Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Ellipses: do them properly! #72501 06/12/2002 3:56 PM Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 508 Metro Detroit (MI) nancyk addict nancyk addict Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 508 Metro Detroit (MI) Them's the ellipses rules, MG, at least the same ones I've always used. Nother thing that drives me crazy is the use of multiple exclamation points and question marks!!! I know people do it for emphasis, but IMHO, more than one is overkill, especially with question marks. Is it more of a question if you use ??? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter !!!!!!!!!! #72502 06/13/2002 4:42 AM Joined: Feb 2002 Posts: 833 Eastern Ontario, Canada modestgoddess old hand modestgoddess old hand Joined: Feb 2002 Posts: 833 Eastern Ontario, Canada I hear you, nancyk!!!!!!!!!!! what one of my high school English teachers used to call: Schoolgirl style!!!!!!!!!!!!! Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Ellipses: do them properly! #72503 06/14/2002 12:46 AM Joined: Apr 2002 Posts: 148 Melbourne, Aus alexis member alexis member Joined: Apr 2002 Posts: 148 Melbourne, Aus Yes - my understanding is of the three/four dots depending context. One of my big peeves with apostrophes is "CD's on sale." As with the kitten - (un)lucky CD! Who's going to buy him/her? Some say that you're allowed to have an apostrophe after capitals/abbreviations (as in the thread "P's and Q's") - but I say: why?? yes, I think 2x question marks can add emphasis sometimes! Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Ellipses: do them properly! #72504 06/14/2002 2:11 AM Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 275 wordcrazy enthusiast wordcrazy enthusiast Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 275 Incorrectly used apostrophes and ellipses are annoying I am very good with apostrophe's but I must have been absent from class when they discussed ellipses I just threw them in willy-nilly (right use of willy-nilly?)thinking there were no rules, honest! thanks mg for filling me in. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Ellipses: do them properly! #72505 06/14/2002 3:39 AM Joined: Feb 2002 Posts: 833 Eastern Ontario, Canada modestgoddess old hand modestgoddess old hand Joined: Feb 2002 Posts: 833 Eastern Ontario, Canada My pleasure, wordcrazy (I was familiarly going to call you "wc" but then I suddenly remembered what that stands for in some cultures - not wordcrazy, but water closet!).... Just to add to the rules about ellipses (or the question about them, more properly): What do y'all know about them coming in the middle of a thought, that you want to divide into two sentences? because I remember seeing square brackets placed around the first letter of the first word after the ellipse, to indicate that it was originally whatever it's not, now (eg, if it was originally a capital, it would be lowercase in the square brackets after an ellipse, and vice-versa). Anyone know? eg: He went around to the side of the building where the vacant lot is to look for his lost basketball but the flowers were very tall there. He felt certain he had no hope of finding it. would become ~ He went around to the side of the building where the vacant lot is to look for his lost basketball but....{h}e felt certain he had no hope of finding it. (sorry, had to use squiggly brackets in case program tried to do something funny with the squares, since they're the convention for markup!) (and sorry for the lame example, too - best I could come up with on the spur of the moment) Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Ellipses: do them properly! #72506 06/14/2002 3:43 AM Joined: Apr 2002 Posts: 148 Melbourne, Aus alexis member alexis member Joined: Apr 2002 Posts: 148 Melbourne, Aus MG, that's what I've done in all my essays - the square brackets thing that is - I don't remember where I learned it, and I know that some people don't do it. However, I think it's truer to the original to do that, retaining meaning in your own new-ish sentence at the same time. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. (have been... ------  Words from medicine  Beheading words  Meta-words  Words from classical mythology  Animal Safari  Words with unusual etymologies  Eponyms or words derived from p...  Loanwords from German  English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode Show Likes Link Copied to Clipboard View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary

Default Style BlackNTan Drab eBay GooG v2 infopop new dark new light original dark original stock rounded corners Slate snow sunny dropshadow theblues Touch Of Grey UBB.threads UBB.threads - Dark UBB.threads - Light UBBCentral UBBCentral - Crimson UBBCentral - Lime UBBCentral - Marshmallow UBBCentral - Mocha UBBCentral - Zen UBBT77 UBBT77 - Dark ubbthreads ubbthreads-dark Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith Talk