| Dot,
Dot, Dot
People often want
to know about the punctuation they refer to as dot, dot, dot.
It is actually called an ellipsis. It is formed by using three
spaced periods and indicates there are missing words.
As one
of my workshop participants said, “It is really saying
yada, yada, yada.”
Correct - As usual, the weekly meeting was boring,
irrelevant, a waste of time . . . I
don’t know why we keep having it.
Incorrect
- As usual, the weekly meeting was boring, irrelevant,
a waste of time… I don’t
know why we keep having it.
Note:
According to grammar books, there should be spaces before,
during and after the periods. If the ellipsis ends the sentence,
there is no need to add a fourth period.
Be careful
when using an ellipsis. At times, it could make you look lazy,
particularly if the reader is not sure what the missing words
are. Some e-mail writers use it instead of periods. They believe
it emphasizes their points. It doesn’t. Most readers
find it distracting.
Another
way of adding an ellipsis is to go to the Insert
menu on your Word program and select Symbol. The
ellipsis produced by the font designers has shrunk the spacing
between the periods, but as long as you put the spaces before
and after it is acceptable.
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