Ellipses are three to four dots that are placed in a row, that represent words that have been left out.
Use ellipses when quoting material;
The people at the conference were from different parts of the Massachusetts who were trying to eliminate street violence.
The people at the conference… were trying to eliminate street violence.
You can see in the above sentence that the words “were from different parts of Massachusetts who” are all left out and replaced by the three dots that create the ellipses.
Use ellipses to show a pause in the flow of a sentence, or quoted speech.
Julia wondered and wondered … and continued to wonder for a very long time.
I can see here the faces of many students who are intelligent and ready to take on standardized testing …” the principal nervously said (In this sentence the ellipses trails off in this case you do not need to place any type of punctuation such as a period.)
Ellipses rules;
If an ellipsis ends a quotation you must include (four dots) the sentence’s ending punctuation along with the ellipses all inside of the quotation marks, a space should be inserted between the last word and the first ellipses and the last ellipses and ending punctuation for example;
The principal stated that, “Every school should serve quality food to all the students, especially if they are very young … .” (you see that there is a space between the word young and the first dot (ellipses) and there is also a space between the last dot (ellipses) and the ending punctuation (period) of the sentence, and they are all fitted inside of the quotation marks. (“”)
If ellipses are placed in the middle of a quotation to indicate omission of words three dots with spaces before and after the ellipsis should be used for instance;
The man stated that, “Lions are feared for their man- eating capabilities …. but humans are most likely their last resort food source.” (you can see the inserted spaces before and after the ellipses.
When quoting more than one sentence, or one full quote and one partial quote, place a period at the end of the first sentence followed by a space, an ellipses, another space and then insert the rest of the content.
The days were long, the nights were cold, they slept as thought they were sewn to each other’s sides, they shivered full of fear as the sounds of wildlife threatened to consume them, they did not know how to survive in the wilderness. … By the grace of God the rescue team spotted them and lifted them safely into the helicopter.”
Do not place ellipses in front of the quoted material for instance;
When omitting one or more paragraphs it is important to indent the ellipsis and place them on a separate line.
They believed that their goal of revolutionizing the Deep South could be accomplished only y unrelenting, single- minded struggle on the part of individuals fearless of the consequences to themselves. In their ranks were Northern students of “far- out” brands of liberalism, also bearded men and trousered young women- ideologies as well as fashions, that while common while common in the North, were rare and suspect in the Deep South.
SNCC was expressly “not a membership organization, but rather an agency attempting to stimulate and foster the growth of local protest movements.” Chairman James Forman and Executive Director John Lewis, directing about 200 field secretaries who lived on close to subsistence salaries, sparked SNCC’s activities- in which many unaffiliated local Negroes joined.
Benjamin Muse, The American Negro Revolution From Nonviolence to Black Power 1963-1967. Indiana University Press (Pg. 23)
