ANSWER: How do you do spacing and punctuation around ellipses?

[traycer_]

Today, we're going to talk about spacing and punctuation around ellipses, with examples from Stargate SG-1.

Comments

[montanaharper]

I'm going to have to disagree with your first example sentence. The confusion comes in, I think, because ellipses are mostly used in non-fiction contexts, where they are used to indicate portions of a quote that have been omitted, including entire sentences.

When we're talking about fiction, though, the rules are a little different. According to Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed, which is what I have handy) 11.45:

Faltering or interrupted speech. Ellipsis points may be used to suggest faltering or fragmented speech accompanied by confusion or insecurity. In the examples below, note the relative positions of the ellipsis points and other punctuation.

"I . . . I . . . that is, we . . . yes, we have made an awful blunder!"

"The ship . . . oh my God! . . . it's sinking!" cried Henrietta.

"But . . . but . . . ," said Tom.

In the first sentence, there is no additional punctuation; the ellipses all come within a sentence. In the second example, the second ellipsis comes at the beginning of a sentence, so the exclamation point after "God" is retained. In the third example, though, which is similar to your example above, the punctuation comes after the ellipsis, since the sentence is trailing off.

As a side note, because differences in spacing make an ellipsis plus punctuation look odd to me ("but ... ," versus "but . . . ,"), I personally prefer the spaced-out version.

[traycer_]

That makes great sense and I love how you were able to elaborate on the use of ellipses in fiction. Have you ever considered being a Fandom Grammarian? I think you would be great at it. :)

Thanks for the clarification! I really appreciate it!

[montanaharper]

Have you ever considered being a Fandom Grammarian? I think you would be great at it. :)

I'd love to, except that with the changes to LJ over the last few years, it's almost impossible for me to post here. I have to jump through hoops to even leave a comment (including switching browsers and using an anonymous session to get rid of even the most basic of browser add-ons), so it's usually more trouble than it's worth. Thank you, though; I'm flattered!