Transcript Ellipses #63

A UWF Writing Lab Mini Lesson
Mini-Lesson #63
 ELLIPSIS:
a punctuation mark of three spaced
dots (. . .) used to show an omission in
writing or printing (Plural: ellipses)
 Use
ellipses to show omitted material from a
quoted passage in order to be fair to the
author quoted and to maintain good grammar
in the writer’s own work. Your resulting
passage should be grammatically complete
and correct.
Original: “The boy’s parents,
frustrated with their son’s declining
grades, asked what they could do to
help their child succeed.”
Quotation with omitted material:
“The boy’s parents . . . asked what
they could do to help their child
succeed.”

Original: “An 18-year-old Virginia man
was caught shoplifting at a Halloween
Express costume store. He agreed to wear
a Bert costume and hold a sign in front of
the store that says, ‘I got caught
shoplifting at Halloween Express.’ The
young man will do this for two days. The
deal was worked out between the
shoplifter and the store owner. The
young man is lucky he is not being
charged with a crime.”

Quote with Omitted Material: Rather
than pressing charges, the owner of a
Virginia costume store is requiring a
shoplifter “to wear a Bert costume and
hold a sign in front of the store that says,
‘I got caught shoplifting at Halloween
Express.’ . . . The young man is lucky he
is not being charged with a crime.” 1
1. “Shoplifter Dons Bert Halloween Costume as Punishment.”
ShoppingBlog.com. Oct. 14, 2010. Web. 18 October 2010.
http://www.shoppingblog.com/blog/1014107.
 Writers
may use ellipses at the end of a
sentence to emphasize a deliberate trailing
off.
“Do you like my dress?” Casey
asked. Jonathan paused then
began, “Well . . .”
 To
show omitted material or a sentence
trailing off, use three periods with a space
before each ellipsis and a space after the
last ellipsis ( . . . ).
“Studying literature . . .
may broaden a student’s
world view.”

To show omitted material that is preceded by a complete
sentence, use four dots: one dot immediately after the last
word of the complete sentence and three more dots with a
space before each ellipsis and a space after the last
ellipsis. The sentence preceding the ellipses does not have
to be the entire sentence from the source in order to be
considered a grammatically complete sentence.
“To get the most out of
college, students should be
organized and plan their
schedules. . . . To-do lists
and calendars make great
graduation presents.”
 For
sentences that end with punctuation
other than a period such as a question mark
or an exclamation point, keep the
punctuation and add three dots.
“How cold was it? . . . No one
could function in that
climate.”2
2. Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Rev. Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M.
Williams, and the University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. 7th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

ORIGINAL: Medical thinking, trapped in the theory of astral
influences, stressed air as the communicator of disease,
ignoring sanitation or visible carriers. (Barbara W. Tuchman,
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century [1978;
New York: Ballantine, 1979, print; 101-102]).
ELLIPSIS IN THE MIDDLE: In surveying
various responses to plagues in the Middle
Ages, Barbara W. Tuchman writes,
“Medical thinking . . . stressed air as the
communicator of disease, ignoring
sanitation or visible carriers” (101-102).




ELLIPSIS AT THE END FOLLOWED BY A
PARENTHETICAL REFERENCE: In surveying various
responses to plagues in the Middle Ages,
Barbara W. Tuchman writes, “Medical thinking,
trapped in the theory of astral influences,
stressed air as the communicator of
disease . . . “ (101-102).
This situation applies (for MLA only) when a
quotation is taken from a source that has more
information following the direct quotation.
QUOTATION WITH AN OMISSION FROM THE
MIDDLE OF ONE SENTENCE TO THE MIDDLE OF
ANOTHER: In discussing the historical relation
between politics and the press, William L.
Rivers notes that when presidential control
“reached its zenith under Andrew Jackson, . . .
there were fifty-seven journalists on the
governments payroll” (7).
Notice that because of the comma, this
sentence is still grammatically correct.

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

1. Use three periods with a space before each ellipsis and a
space after the last ellipsis ( . . . ).
Do not begin a quote with ellipses.
2. Never use more than three ellipses (or four ellipses if
coinciding with the end of a sentence).
3. Always single space after ellipses and after the final period of
a complete sentence that precedes ellipses.
4. MLA requires that ellipses be used if material is omitted from
the end of a quotation. It does not require ellipses if material is
omitted from the beginning of the quotation.
5. Turabian does not require that ellipses be used to represent
omitted material at the beginning or the end of a quotation
unless a textual studies method is being used.
6. APA does not require that ellipses be used to represent
omitted material at the beginning or the end of a quotation
unless, in order to prevent misinterpretation, the ellipses are
needed to emphasize that the quotation was taken from a larger
source.