Original poster can be found here: [x]
The original was posted in the Writers Forum on Gaia, also known as the WF.
linnifer
As usual, this is probably a repeat topic but I'm typing it anyway. I’ve just read some rather awful examples and feel like a bit of a rant.
Ellipses; a much-tortured device.
Ellipses. We’ve all used them at some point, whether to convey the trailing off of conversation or to show pause. Thing is, a hell of a lot of people get them wrong; in fact, so many people get them wrong I’m beginning to wonder what the hell people are being taught these days.
First of all, ellipses are THREE dots. THREE. How hard can it be? It doesn’t matter how long a pause you're trying to convey, ellipses still equal three dots, not two, five or forty-seven. Three dots or nothing, my friends, and to be honest in a lot of cases the second option is better.
Seriously, though, people in general cannot bend the rules of punctuation like this. Chatting idly with a friend (and somehow ending up on the subject) resulted in the retort ‘it helps to convey the longer pause’. No it doesn’t. It makes your piece look as though it was written by a four year old with little grammatical skill.
Second; ellipses, however attractive they may seem, should not be used instead of every other form of punctuation. Again, the ‘it helps to convey a longer pause’ argument may apply here, but it still looks absolutely crap. Ellipse fetish is a common occurrence, but that doesn’t make it RIGHT.
Please stop abusing the ellipse, various WF users.
(disclaimer: does not apply to any forum users who can punctuate.)
Ellipses; a much-tortured device.
Ellipses. We’ve all used them at some point, whether to convey the trailing off of conversation or to show pause. Thing is, a hell of a lot of people get them wrong; in fact, so many people get them wrong I’m beginning to wonder what the hell people are being taught these days.
First of all, ellipses are THREE dots. THREE. How hard can it be? It doesn’t matter how long a pause you're trying to convey, ellipses still equal three dots, not two, five or forty-seven. Three dots or nothing, my friends, and to be honest in a lot of cases the second option is better.
no.
“So..............” he looked round awkwardly.....waiting for a reply.......
yes.
“So…” he looked round awkwardly, waiting for a reply.
Seriously, though, people in general cannot bend the rules of punctuation like this. Chatting idly with a friend (and somehow ending up on the subject) resulted in the retort ‘it helps to convey the longer pause’. No it doesn’t. It makes your piece look as though it was written by a four year old with little grammatical skill.
Second; ellipses, however attractive they may seem, should not be used instead of every other form of punctuation. Again, the ‘it helps to convey a longer pause’ argument may apply here, but it still looks absolutely crap. Ellipse fetish is a common occurrence, but that doesn’t make it RIGHT.
Please stop abusing the ellipse, various WF users.
(disclaimer: does not apply to any forum users who can punctuate.)
