Chapter 10
Ellipses
What a glorious punctuation mark is the ellipsis! Three spaced dots, the ellipsis takes the place of words that are cut out of a quotation. The possibilities, especially to the unscrupulous writer, are endless. “You may take the car keys . . . tonight” is a handy transformation of “You may take the car keys over my dead body tonight.” Poet and cynical social observer Alexander Pope commented on the ability of this punctuation mark to hide reality: “The ellipsis, or speech by half-words [is the peculiar talent] of ministers and politicians.” Obviously, Pope was not a fan of government leaders.
The ellipsis (plural, ellipses) should of course not be used to change the sense of a quotation. Writers—or at least honest writers—must remain faithful to the intention of the original. But ellipses come in handy when a given quotation is simply too long to be effective in the report, paper, or letter you are writing. This punctuation mark permits the deletion of words that are irrelevant to the purpose of the overall quotation. So that the reader always understands the nature of the quotation presented in your text, you must take care to observe certain conventions, especially when you combine an ellipsis with another punctuation mark. Ellipses are also used in literary works to indicate a fading tone of voice or a trailing thought, to imply that a series continues on, and to demonstrate where an original manuscript is damaged or illegible.
TO REPLACE OMITTED WORDS IN QUOTATIONS
In quoting only a portion of a written work or a speech, insert ellipses at the spot where words are omitted. The placement of punctuation differs slightly depending upon what is cut—a part of a sentence or a whole sentence or even several sentences and paragraphs. Where the deleted words appear in the original is also important. The deleted words may be from the end of a sentence, the beginning, or the middle. Each of these cases is handled somewhat differently. Blocked quotations, which are indented and separated from the rest of the text, follow slightly different rules, too. Furthermore, excerpting words or lines from poetry and drama requires different placement of ellipses and other punctuation marks. Each of these cases is discussed in turn in this section.
Quoting Consecutive Words
A habit of good writers is to select only the portion of the original text that relates to the thesis of the essay or paper. You do not normally need to place an ellipsis at the end of a sentence that quotes only a few consecutive words of an original source. If the quoted material is only a phrase or, indeed, anything less than a complete sentence, the reader understands that the original continues on. Imagine, for example, that you are working from this original text by a writer named Sheldron:
Original: The marketplace was crowded with fruit sellers, basket-toting shoppers, and every conceivable variety of transport; but the militants were able to slip through the mob with ease.
In your writing you include this sentence:
Excerpted: Although Sheldron observed the “basket-toting shoppers,” he did not describe the many undercover agents who mingled with the other customers.
The reader of the above sentence knows that Sheldron wrote or said more than “basket-toting shoppers.” No further explanation in the form of ellipses is necessary.
Words Omitted from the Middle of a Quotation
Sometimes you may want to cut words from within a quotation. Take a look at this paragraph, printed here in its entirety, from Charles Dickens’ novel Great Expectations:
Original: Home had never been a very pleasant place to me, because of my sister’s temper. But Joe had sanctified it, and I believed in it. I had believed in the best parlour as a most elegant saloon; I had believed in the front door as a mysterious portal of the Temple of State whose solemn opening was attended with a sacrifice of roast fowls; I had believed in the kitchen as a chaste though not magnificent apartment; I had believed in the forge as the flowing road to manhood and independence. Within a single year all this was changed. Now, it was all coarse and common, and I would not have had Miss Havisham and Estella see it on any account.
The sentence below, which might appear in a literary essay, quotes only the middle portion of the extremely long third sentence of Dickens’ passage:
Excerpted: Pip becomes aware of his status in society only after visiting Miss Havisham’s house. He explains, “I had believed in the best parlour as a most elegant saloon . . . I had believed in the forge as the flowing road to manhood and independence.”
The three spaced dots indicate that this part of the sentence has been removed:
I had believed in the front door as a mysterious portal of the Temple of State whose solemn opening was attended with a sacrifice of roast fowls; I had believed in the kitchen as a chaste though not magnificent apartment;
Notice that the punctuation within the deleted section (in this case, two semicolons) does not appear before or after the ellipsis. If the words cut from a quotation are all from the middle of one sentence, the punctuation within the deleted portion is generally omitted as well. Any punctuation mark immediately preceding the ellipsis may be retained, if doing so will help the reader better understand the quotation. In common practice, commas and semicolons are seldom kept, but endmarks do appear. The next section, “Words Omitted from the End of a Quotation,” contains a more complete discussion of the way endmarks interact with ellipses.
Words Omitted from the End of a Quotation
If you shorten a sentence in the original and give the reader the impression that you have quoted the entire sentence, an ellipsis is appropriate. Take a look at this sentence, which is drawn from this original text:
Original: The marketplace was crowded with fruit sellers, basket-toting shoppers, and every conceivable variety of transport; but the militants were able to slip through the mob with ease.
Excerpted (some punctuation missing): Sheldron observed, “The marketplace was crowded with fruit sellers, basket-toting shoppers, and every conceivable variety of transport.”
A reader of the above passage may assume that Sheldon’s sentence is quoted in its entirety because the quotation could stand alone as a complete sentence. To avoid confusion, you must signal that only a part of the sentence has been reproduced. In such cases, a period follows the last quoted word and an ellipsis is placed at the end of the quotation, for a total of four spaced dots:
Excerpted (punctuated correctly): Sheldron observed, “The marketplace was crowded with fruit sellers, basket-toting shoppers, and every conceivable variety of transport. . . .”
Now the writer has made the nature of the deletion clearer to the reader.
If the deleted section includes a question or an exclamation or quoted dialogue, the question mark, exclamation mark, or closing quotation mark is also retained to help the reader grasp the tone and meaning of the original. These punctuation marks are moved up so that they are flush with the end of the last quoted word. For example, suppose that you are working from this original:
Original: Dodge was revered by all who met him, regardless of political beliefs, because he truly cared about the poor. How could anyone ignore his selfless devotion, even in the face of harsh treatment? No one could overlook this hero.
You include this sentence in an essay:
Excerpted: As a role model the students chose Dodge, about whom they wrote, “Dodge was revered by all who met him, regardless of political beliefs, because he truly cared about the poor. How could anyone ignore his selfless devotion? . . . No one could overlook this hero.”
The question mark follows treatment in the original but has moved next to devotion in the excerpt. The ellipsis signals a gap.
Ellipses and Parenthetical Citations
Parenthetical citations, which are placed at the end of quotations, tell the reader the page number from which the quoted material has been drawn and may also indicate the author or title of the work. (Complete details on citation styles are included in Part III of this book.)
When a parenthetical citation interacts with an ellipsis, the three dots of the ellipsis precede the closing quotation mark. Then come the parentheses and the period at the end of the sentence:
Howarth states, “Binary systems were not particularly common in that era . . .” (12).
One or More Sentences Omitted
Cutting one or more complete sentences from an original is done following the same rules used for deleting material at the end of a sentence. (Indeed, this custom sometimes presents a problem to the reader, who is left to wonder whether the writer has omitted just the end of one sentence or much more material.) The endmark remains and is followed by an ellipsis. This punctuation gives the reader some sense of what is missing from the original. Here is another passage from Charles Dickens’ novel Great Expectations:
Original: “Laws of the game!” said he. Here, he skipped from his left leg on to his right. “Regular rules!” Here, he skipped from his right leg on to his left. “Come to the ground, and go through the preliminaries!” Here, he dodged backwards and forwards, and did all sorts of things while I looked helplessly at him.
Now look at a passage from a literary essay quoting part of the above passage:
Excerpted: The young boy whom Pip fights is given to quick but ineffective boxing maneuvers: “Here, he skipped from his left leg on to his right. . . . he dodged backwards and forwards.”
The first dot in the passage above represents the period at the end of the sentence. It is followed by three spaced dots—the ellipsis, which signals the deletion.
Too Many Ellipses . . .
If you find yourself needing more than one or two ellipses in the same sentence, you may want to reword. Few readers enjoy decoding a patchwork quilt.
Too many: “Herbert slept . . .the fireworks boomed around him. . . . It was the Fourth of July. . . . The day was all hotdogs and baseball and barbecues.”
Better: On the Fourth of July, Herbert did not wake despite the fact that “the fireworks boomed around him.” He later said that “the day was all hotdogs and baseball and barbecues.”
Why it is better: Quoting the original in two sections, with text joining them, eliminates the choppy effect of the first excerpt.
Purposely Incomplete Sentences
If words are cut from an original source and a sentence is left incomplete on purpose, only three dots (the ellipsis) are inserted, not four. An example:
Lincoln began, “Four score and seven years ago . . .” Now that we are much further removed from the event, we still appreciate the battle that he commemorated.
If the last part of the quoted sentence plus some or all of the following sentence or sentences are deleted, the endmark (the period, question mark, or exclamation point) “moves up” flush with the last quoted word, even though the sentence is still technically incomplete. (Some words are missing.) Any quotation marks that appear in the original also move up. Take a look at this example, excerpted from the original text of Great Expectations:
Original: “Laws of the game!” said he. Here, he skipped from his left leg on to his right. “Regular rules!” Here, he skipped from his right leg on to his left. “Come to the ground, and go through the preliminaries!” Here, he dodged backwards and forwards, and did all sorts of things while I looked helplessly at him.
Excerpted: Pip fights the mysterious boy, who astonishes his opponent with his lively dialogue and erratic movements: “‘Laws of the game!’ said he. Here, he skipped from his left leg on to his right. ‘Regular rules!’ Here, he skipped from his right leg on to his left. ‘Come to the ground!’ . . . I looked helplessly at him.”
Notice that the exclamation point and closing quotation mark appear before the ellipsis, even though in the original the quotation continues for on a few more words. Both marks are retained because they help the reader grasp the meaning.
Word Omitted from the Beginning of a Sentence or Paragraph
It is not usually necessary to replace words removed from the beginning of a quotation with an ellipsis. The reader understands that the writer has not included all the material that precedes the quotation. In certain circumstances—legal documents, for example—when exactness is required, three dots may be placed at the beginning of a quotation to show that words have been omitted.
An ellipsis is also necessary if a blocked quotation begins with a partial sentence that is not part of the same sentence as the introductory expression. More information on blocked quotations may be found in the next section.
Ellipses and Complete Sentences
The words before and after an ellipsis and a period (in other words, four dots) should be able to function as a complete sentence.
Wrong: Michaels writes that it is “very important. . . . No one may use a cell phone where the noise will disturb others.”
Why it is wrong: The words before the four dots (the period plus the ellipsis) do not constitute a complete sentence.
Right: Michaels writes, “Courtesy is very important. . . . No one may use a cell phone where the noise will disturb others.”
Why it is right: Now the quoted material before and after the ellipsis and period (Courtesy is very important and No one may use a cell phone where the noise will disturb others) are complete sentences.
Asterisks Are Not Ellipses
Some writers imagine that asterisks (*) may replace ellipses. Not so! The asterisk signals a note, usually located at the bottom of the page of text. It does not function as a marker for deleted material:
Wrong: “He went home and *** we walked for about an hour.”
Why it is wrong: The asterisks are used improperly.
Right: “He went home and . . . we walked for about an hour.”
In Blocked Quotations
Blocked quotations are long passages (more than 40 words) that are shaped like a separate “block” that is indented a little further from the left margin. A blocked quotation begins on a separate line and is not “run into” the text. Because a blocked quotation stands out, no quotation marks are necessary.
Quotation Begins with a Complete Sentence
An ellipsis is not necessary at the beginning of a block so long as the quotation starts with a complete sentence. In that case, the reader does not assume that these are the first words in the piece. Take a look at this example:
Winstron explains that the fees are nominal:
At fifty pounds per year, no one is likely to suffer from this fee. It represents only a fraction of the average amount spent on cable television service or high-speed Internet access. Yet the populace continues to complain about the entertainment tax.
The first words of the block (At fifty pounds per year, no one is likely to suffer from this fee) are a complete sentence, so no ellipsis is required.
Quotation Begins with a Partial Sentence
If the blocked quotation begins with a partial sentence that completes the introductory expression, no ellipsis is necessary. This passage illustrates:
Winstron explains that the fees
are nominal. At fifty pounds per year, no one is likely to suffer from this fee. It represents only a fraction of the average amount spent on cable television service or high-speed Internet access. Yet the populace continues to complain about the entertainment tax.
The introductory expression, added to the first quoted words in the block, forms a complete sentence: Winstron explains that the fees are nominal. No ellipsis is needed.
If a blocked quotation does not fulfill either of these requirements (doesn’t begin with a complete sentence or finish the thought of the introduction), use an ellipsis. Bracketed insertions can clear up any confusion for the reader, as in this example:
According to Winstron
[the tax is] . . . a fraction of the average amount spent on cable television service or high-speed Internet access. Yet the populace continues to complain about the entertainment tax.
Quotation Ends with a Partial Sentence
No ellipsis is needed at the end of a blocked quotation unless the quotation stops in the middle of a sentence. In that case the period and ellipsis are appended. Below is an example.
Original: At fifty pounds per year, no one is likely to suffer from this fee. It represents only a fraction of the average amount spent on cable television service or high-speed Internet access. Yet the populace continues to complain about the entertainment tax, completely without justification.
Excerpted:
Winstron deals with public attitudes about the tax:
It represents only a fraction of the average amount spent on cable television service or high-speed Internet access. Yet the populace continues to complain about the entertainment tax. . . .
Quotation of More than One Paragraph
If you are quoting more than one paragraph, you may wish to cut words from one spot or another. The ellipsis moves around depending upon the location of the omitted words. Below are samples of several possible situations.
Original Source:
Towards the front marched legions of soldiers from all parts of the empire. They were tired and hungry but determined to defend their homeland against the invaders.
Preceding each regiment was an armored vehicle carrying communications equipment, and the messages flew back and forth all day. Headquarters and the field commanders consulted. To strike first or to wait for the enemy’s offensive was the crucial decision.
Quoted with Words Missing from Paragraph Two
If you omit words from the beginning of a paragraph other than the first, place an ellipsis where the words have been cut:
Megans describes the battle in detail:
Towards the front marched legions of soldiers from all parts of the empire. They were tired and hungry but determined to defend their homeland against the invaders.
. . . [T]he messages flew back and forth all day between headquarters and the field commanders. To strike first or to wait for the enemy’s offensive was the crucial decision.
The ellipsis preceding [T]he messages (first words of paragraph two) is indented, just as the missing text would be. The bracket shows that the lowercase t of the original has been capitalized.
Quoted with Words Missing from Both Paragraphs
Suppose you wish to trim the end of paragraph one and the beginning of paragraph two. Now you need two ellipses, one at each place that words are missing:
Megans describes the battle in detail:
Towards the front marched legions of soldiers from all parts of the empire. They were tired and hungry but determined. . . .
. . . [T]he messages flew back and forth all day between headquarters and the field commanders. To strike first or to wait for the enemy’s offensive was the crucial decision.
Once again the ellipsis preceding [T]he messages is indented. At the end of paragraph one, determined is followed by four dots: one period and three for the ellipsis.
Entire Paragraph Missing from the Quotation
If an entire paragraph is deleted but the preceding and following paragraphs are quoted, the paragraph before the deletion ends with three dots (the ellipsis). An example follows.
Original Source:
Towards the front marched legions of soldiers from all parts of the empire. They were tired and hungry but determined to defend their homeland against the invaders.
Preceding each regiment was an armored vehicle carrying communications equipment, and the messages flew back and forth all day. Headquarters and the field commanders consulted. To strike first or to wait for the enemy’s offensive was the crucial decision.
As the day wore on, nerves frayed. Finally, the decision was reached. The first strike belonged to the allies.
Excerpted:
Megans describes the battle in detail:
Towards the front marched legions of soldiers from all parts of the empire. They were tired and hungry but determined. . . .
As the day wore on, nerves frayed. Finally, the decision was reached. The first strike belonged to the allies.
In Poetry
Poetry quotations that run into the text follow all the same rules as prose quotations, with one exception: the line breaks are represented by slash marks. Missing words are represented by an ellipsis. If an entire line is omitted, the lines from the poem should be blocked, with the deleted line or lines represented by a line of spaced dots, extending more or less the same length as the line of poetry. The line of spaced dots, strictly speaking, is not an ellipsis, but close enough to do the job. To illustrate, here is a selection from a Shakespearean sonnet:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
So long as men can breathe and eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
The poem in its entirely is 14 lines long. The missing lines follow temperate and precede So long as men can breathe.
If lines from a poem are blocked and the last line or lines are omitted, insert a line of dots to indicate to the reader that the poem continues after the quotation.
In Drama
Short quotations from drama may be inserted into the text without varying from the general rules of ellipses explained earlier in this chapter. Longer, blocked quotations of several lines, with at least one whole line missing, are treated like poetry, as explained in the preceding section. A line of spaced dots, extending from margin to margin, replaces the deleted lines. This line is not actually an ellipsis, but it functions in the same way as that punctuation mark:
FRANKLIN: This is the last time I send you to court.
ESTHER: You’re always saying that! I will go. I will!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ESTHER: I knew you wouldn’t hold me to it. You coward.
In Damaged Manuscripts
Ellipses are particularly useful to scholars working with damaged or illegible manuscripts. The dots indicate where a portion of the original cannot be decoded and reproduced.
Fiction writers at times show a character’s emotions—hesitancy, uncertainty, shyness, second thoughts and the like—by “quoting” their words. That is, they insert dialogue into a story. Ellipses aid character development by signally a fading tone of voice, a hesitation or speech problem, or a trailing thought. Ellipses used in this way are effective but should not be overused.
He muttered, “Why can’t I. . . . “
The above quotation is written in American style, with one dot for the period and three for the ellipsis. To present this quotation in British style, place the period outside the quotation marks and the ellipsis inside:
He muttered, ‘Why can’t I . . . ‘.
The above example adheres to the usual British style of single quotation marks (inverted commas). For more information on quotation marks, see Chapter 7.
Dialogue ending in question marks or exclamation points keeps these endmarks, which are moved up to follow the last quoted word if the quotation continues after the ellipsis:
Original: Why can’t I go to court again to argue this case? I love litigation and despite what you say, I’m good at it!
Quoted: He muttered, “Why can’t I? . . . I’m good at it!”
Quoted: He muttered, “Why can’t I . . .?”
Quoted: He muttered, “I love litigation and . . . I’m good at it!”
Building Suspense with an Ellipsis
A favorite of mystery writers, an ellipsis may be used to leave the reader in suspense:
Archie slowly eased the door open and . . .
Not many readers have the patience for this sort of sentence more than once in a long while. Writers, beware.
An ellipsis may indicate that the reader should continue the series, following the pattern laid down with the previous terms:
He studied the piano, the harpsichord, the lute, . . . and finally decided that music was not for him.
In this example the reader can easily imagine the missing terms. Do not use this device if the reader may misunderstand or must work overly hard to decode your meaning.