At 05:44 PM 10/15/00 -0700, Richard Person wrote:
On Sun, 15 Oct 2000 15:18:15 -0700 (PDT), Slacker wrote:
"I've been training a lot lately," Akane offered in
explanation. "My... boyfriend has really been putting me
through the wringer lately."
#You don't put a space after an ellipsis. So it should be
It's convenient for word wrapping, though I don't use a space after myself.
"My...boyfriend"
I'm sorry, but that is wrong.
I find the ellipse to be the single most common mistake.
An ellipse is defined as three dots with a space on either side.
Thus " . . . " is the proper way to write an ellipse.
Space-three periods-space is the rule in French and Spanish usage.
The three spaced periods look odd in ASCII and are prone to separation in
automatic word wrapping (they should all be on the same line).
Rules for typescript and ASCII aren't the same.
An ellipse is used for one of three reasons:
1) to connect a list of loosely related phrases
2) to indicate a sentence that trails off at the end to create
an effect of uncertainty or abrupt suspension of thought.
Terminal punctuation is not needed.
3) the omission of words in quoted matter. If the omission is
at the end of a quoted sentence then it should have the same
terminal punctuation it would normally have.
E.g., "Can anyone explain why this is so?" becomes "Can anyone
explain why . . . ?"
My source for this is "The Gregg Reference Manual" by William A
Sabin, 7th Edition.
Ellipses are also used to indicate pauses somewhere between a comma and a
dash.
It's informal usage. I see it used in dialogue in a lot of published
fiction, to simulate real speech. I've seen instances where bracketed
ellipses are used to indicated omissions because of the widespread use of
ellipses as pauses.