In this post I discuss an old friend of mine, “Mr. Dot Dot Dot,” as he’s known to my students. His real name, of course, is ellipsis, and he’s a type of punctuation used to indicate omitted words or an unfinished thought that just trails off into . . .
Three periods. Mr. Dot Dot Dot. Ellipsis. We know what it is, but how do we properly type it? Here’s a chart on how to handle ellipses (the plural of “ellipsis”) in four of the major style guides used by writers.
Chicago Manual of Style
Three periods with single spaces between them
APA Style
Three periods with single spaces between them
MLA Style
Three periods with single spaces between them
AP Style
Three periods with NO spaces between them
Note that AP Style, typically used in newspaper and magazine publishing, is the odd man out. The AP Style Guide wants ellipses typed as three unspaced periods, like this:
…
The other major style guides want spaces between each period in an ellipsis, like this:
. . .
Good grief, I’ve used a lot of words to explain something as little as Mr. Dot Dot Dot! Punctuation can be tricky! That’s where a good copy editor or proofreader comes in (a shameless plug for my services at www.stephb-editing.com).
In summary, my advice to authors is to know which style guide your publisher adheres to or check your house style sheet for how to handle ellipses.
Happy punctuating, and be sure to visit www.stephb-editing.com again soon for the latest blog post.
コメント