How to Use an Ellipsis
Determine why you need an ellipsis., Reduce length of block quotes., Get to the point., Make a pause or trail off.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Determine why you need an ellipsis.
There are two main ways an ellipsis is used.
One way is to indicate that a quote has been abbreviated.
The other is to indicate a pause or trailing off, generally in speech.
You must be very careful not to influence the meaning of a quote when you replace text with an ellipsis.
Only use an ellipsis to shorten a quote if a section is redundant or does not change the meaning.
Only use an ellipsis to indicate a pause or trailing off in creative or casual writing.
An ellipsis used in this way in formal writing, such as for a student essay, would be seen as lazy or even perfunctory. -
Step 2: Reduce length of block quotes.
One reason to use an ellipsis to shorten a quote is because the quote is so long that it needs to be offset by increased margins, or “blocked.” It is desirable to eliminate the use of block quotes unless every word is necessary for the purpose of the paper.
For MLA formatting, block a quote if it is more than four lines of prose or three lines of poetry.For APA formatting, block a quote if it is 40 words or longer.For Chicago style formatting, block a quote if it is 100 words or longer.For example, here is a quote that is long enough to be blocked, but an ellipsis is inserted to make it fit in an essay without having to offset it as a block quote:
Original: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
--Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities With ellipsis: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
--Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities , Another reason a writer would abbreviate a quote is to eliminate irrelevant information.
A quote may not be long enough to block, but if it contains information that will distract the reader, a writer may choose to exclude it.
If you are a journalist with a low word limit, it's useful to remove sections of quotes that don’t greatly add to the meaning.If you want to omit the first part of a sentence because it does not add to the meaning of the quote, begin the quote with an ellipsis, following the capitalization of the sentence.
For example, we can abbreviate the last phrase of the Dickens quote used above even more using both an opening and interior ellipsis: "... in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received ... in the superlative degree of comparison only."
--Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities However, the opening ellipses is not necessary if you are using MLA format., If you’re writing an informal work, such as with creative writing, it is permissible to use ellipses to show that a character is thinking, hesitant, afraid, and so on.
An ellipsis also creates an element of suspense when a character trails off because it presents an unresolved idea.
You can use an ellipsis in personal writing as well, such as in informal emails or diary entries.
In this case, the ellipsis would indicate your thoughts have trailed off.
You also use the ellipsis technique to indicate that a character’s thoughts have trailed off, not just their dialogue.
For example, if you wanted to have a character in a story pause, they might say, "I was running ... but then I fell." To show a character trailing off, they might simply say, "I was running ..." -
Step 3: Get to the point.
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Step 4: Make a pause or trail off.
Detailed Guide
There are two main ways an ellipsis is used.
One way is to indicate that a quote has been abbreviated.
The other is to indicate a pause or trailing off, generally in speech.
You must be very careful not to influence the meaning of a quote when you replace text with an ellipsis.
Only use an ellipsis to shorten a quote if a section is redundant or does not change the meaning.
Only use an ellipsis to indicate a pause or trailing off in creative or casual writing.
An ellipsis used in this way in formal writing, such as for a student essay, would be seen as lazy or even perfunctory.
One reason to use an ellipsis to shorten a quote is because the quote is so long that it needs to be offset by increased margins, or “blocked.” It is desirable to eliminate the use of block quotes unless every word is necessary for the purpose of the paper.
For MLA formatting, block a quote if it is more than four lines of prose or three lines of poetry.For APA formatting, block a quote if it is 40 words or longer.For Chicago style formatting, block a quote if it is 100 words or longer.For example, here is a quote that is long enough to be blocked, but an ellipsis is inserted to make it fit in an essay without having to offset it as a block quote:
Original: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
--Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities With ellipsis: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
--Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities , Another reason a writer would abbreviate a quote is to eliminate irrelevant information.
A quote may not be long enough to block, but if it contains information that will distract the reader, a writer may choose to exclude it.
If you are a journalist with a low word limit, it's useful to remove sections of quotes that don’t greatly add to the meaning.If you want to omit the first part of a sentence because it does not add to the meaning of the quote, begin the quote with an ellipsis, following the capitalization of the sentence.
For example, we can abbreviate the last phrase of the Dickens quote used above even more using both an opening and interior ellipsis: "... in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received ... in the superlative degree of comparison only."
--Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities However, the opening ellipses is not necessary if you are using MLA format., If you’re writing an informal work, such as with creative writing, it is permissible to use ellipses to show that a character is thinking, hesitant, afraid, and so on.
An ellipsis also creates an element of suspense when a character trails off because it presents an unresolved idea.
You can use an ellipsis in personal writing as well, such as in informal emails or diary entries.
In this case, the ellipsis would indicate your thoughts have trailed off.
You also use the ellipsis technique to indicate that a character’s thoughts have trailed off, not just their dialogue.
For example, if you wanted to have a character in a story pause, they might say, "I was running ... but then I fell." To show a character trailing off, they might simply say, "I was running ..."
About the Author
James Jenkins
Brings years of experience writing about crafts and related subjects.
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