Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!bloom-beacon!spdcc!weaver
From: weaver@spdcc.COM (Read Weaver)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: ellipses (was em-dashes)
Message-ID: <3716@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM>
Date: 12 Jul 89 17:12:33 GMT
References: <65590@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> <65736@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> <28@nx32s.anduk.co.uk> <1188@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu>
Reply-To: weaver@ursa-major.spdcc.COM (Read Weaver)
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
Lines: 38

In article <1188@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu> jwright@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu.UUCP (Jim Wright) writes:
>
>And how about a new can of worms? :-)  Let's talk about ellipses.  Is
>there only one way to set them?  It seems they have two uses: to
>indicate an uncompleted thought or truncated quote, or to indicate the
>absence of text.  In the first case, I leave no space between the ellipse
>and the text.  I don't use the second case often, but apparently the
>ellipse ought to have space on both sides.  Correct?  Am I leaving
>something out?

In American English, ellipses are used, occasionally, for an uncompleted
thought--sort of a stammer-ish pause.  They are not used (if I understand
you correctly) for a truncated quote; i.e., not for suddenly cut off
dialog.  (This is the Anglo-English usage; in the U.S. use an em-dash.)
They are principally used
to indicate that material has been left out of quoted text.  In this usage,
3 dots indicate text within a sentence has been ommitted; 4 dots indicate
the omission of 1) the last part of the quoted sentence, 2) the first part
of the next sentence, 3) a whole sentence or more, 4) a whole paragraph
or more.

With 3 dots, they are separated from the surrounding text (or punctuation)
and each other by 3-to-em spaces.  With 4 dots, the first is a period
(immediately next to the last word) followed by the 3-to-em - spaced
3 dots.  (If the terminal punctuation is a ! or a ?, it replaces the
period).

It is perhaps worth noting that 3 dots *always* is an at-least-marginally-
acceptable style.

Note that this is not the same as Kate Turabian, a U.S. authority
on typescript (i.e., monospaced type).

>Does anyone have suggestions on a reference as to how to use and
>typeset the English language?  It seems I could use one.  :-)
>
The _Chicago Manual of Style_, 13th ed., is one of the standard style
manuals for American English.  (University of Chicago Press, 1982.)