ANSWER: How do you do spacing and punctuation around ellipses?

[http://users.livejournal.com/traycer_/]

Today, we're going to talk about spacing and punctuation around ellipses, with examples from Stargate SG-1.


There are many reasons to use an ellipsis in fiction writing, the most popular being dialogue and thoughts. We use ellipses (the plural of ellipsis) to indicate hesitation, distraction, or a thought trailing off, whether spoken or internal. theemdash has done a fantastic job of covering this topic in several posts: What is the correct punctuation for speech that "trails off"?, Punctuation for Pauses, Omissions, and Parentheticals, and How do you indicate pauses or hesitation in narration and dialogue?, but I'm going to cover the basics in this post as it is an excellent question.

When using punctuation with the ellipsis, there are a few rules, and we're going to start off with spacing.

Spacing

The standard way to type the ellipsis is to have a space before, after, and in between each dot, but it is also deemed acceptable to omit the spaces in between. Word, for instance, has a feature that automatically reformats the ellipsis so that there are no spaces.

It also depends on the style book you choose to follow, the AP Style follows the convention that no spaces are used between the dots, while the Chicago style (same link as the AP) and the MLA style states that there should be a space between the dots.

To make things even more interesting, Grammarbook.com states that not having the spaces before and after the ellipsis is also correct. It all boils down to a matter of style, but once you choose the one you plan to use, it's important to stick with it and be consistent.

For simplicity's sake, the examples below will be written using the alternative method of no spaces in between the dots.

Punctuation

Having a space before and after is true even when pairing with punctuation. The period at the end of a sentence, for instance, should immediately follow the last letter, with a space before the ellipsis.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Daniel had to ask. "You're saying that it should work. ..." He gave Jack a startled look. "Oh. I see."

When a question is started, but trails off, the question mark is located after the ellipsis, with the usual spacing before and after it.

"What the ... ?" Jack stared at the menagerie gathered in the once empty land around the Gate and said with disbelief in his voice, "Where'd they come from?"

Again, theemdash covered this topic in great detail in the posts listed above, including how to use the ellipses with quotations and omitting words, but for our purpose here … well, just keep in mind that spaces always surround the ellipsis and you'll be all set.

Comments

[montanaharper]

I'm going to have to disagree with your first example sentence. The confusion comes in, I think, because ellipses are mostly used in non-fiction contexts, where they are used to indicate portions of a quote that have been omitted, including entire sentences.

When we're talking about fiction, though, the rules are a little different. According to Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed, which is what I have handy) 11.45:

Faltering or interrupted speech. Ellipsis points may be used to suggest faltering or fragmented speech accompanied by confusion or insecurity. In the examples below, note the relative positions of the ellipsis points and other punctuation.

"I . . . I . . . that is, we . . . yes, we have made an awful blunder!"

"The ship . . . oh my God! . . . it's sinking!" cried Henrietta.

"But . . . but . . . ," said Tom.

In the first sentence, there is no additional punctuation; the ellipses all come within a sentence. In the second example, the second ellipsis comes at the beginning of a sentence, so the exclamation point after "God" is retained. In the third example, though, which is similar to your example above, the punctuation comes after the ellipsis, since the sentence is trailing off.

As a side note, because differences in spacing make an ellipsis plus punctuation look odd to me ("but ... ," versus "but . . . ,"), I personally prefer the spaced-out version.

[http://users.livejournal.com/traycer_/]

That makes great sense and I love how you were able to elaborate on the use of ellipses in fiction. Have you ever considered being a Fandom Grammarian? I think you would be great at it. :)

Thanks for the clarification! I really appreciate it!

[montanaharper]

Have you ever considered being a Fandom Grammarian? I think you would be great at it. :)

I'd love to, except that with the changes to LJ over the last few years, it's almost impossible for me to post here. I have to jump through hoops to even leave a comment (including switching browsers and using an anonymous session to get rid of even the most basic of browser add-ons), so it's usually more trouble than it's worth. Thank you, though; I'm flattered!

[zhiva]

Ellipsis not merging with dot and exclamation/question marks looks soo weird to me. In both my native languages "... ." becomes "...", "... ?" - "?..", and "... !" - "!..".

[http://users.livejournal.com/traycer_/]

It does look weird to me too, so I do my best not to use it with punctuation, ever. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I learned it slightly different. I learned (apparently incorrectly!) that if you use punctuation, you replace one of the dots. So in the above example, it'd be:

"What the..?" Jack stared

I can't believe I've been doing it wrong for so many years!