The Ellipsis

The ellipsis is the most wonderful thing ever! You can use it for so many different things and each one of them is useful in its own way. For example, ellipses can be used in creative writing, professional writing, screen writing, online writing, and even day-to-day life.

            Now I’m sure some of you are wondering what the heck an ellipsis is, so allow me to answer your question. The ellipsis, which comes from the Greek word for “omission,” is used to indicate or express an intentional pause, omission, or silence. In our written language, it’s usually indicated by a series of three dots (…). You’ve probably seen it somewhere. So now that we’ve got that formality out of the way, you’re probably wondering how such a simple punctuation can be used in so many types of writing.

            Well, let’s start with the first example I listed: creative writing. In creative writing, ellipses can be used in dialogue to indicate an intentional pause or to hint something to the reader. Let’s say you’re writing dialogue for two characters, Jared and Daisy. Let’s say that they’re talking to each other, and Jared says, “You’re attractive! Let’s go out for dinner!” You could easily write Daisy’s response as just, “…” showing that she’s totally not in to Jared and feels very awkward. Yes, you do all of that with just three simple dots! Now Daisy could also respond in a way that gave the readers a hint as to her intentions while keeping silly Jared in the dark. She could say, “I would love to eat…you.” So it’s not the greatest example, but you can see how it could be used that way. If Daisy had just said, “I would love to eat you,” Jared would probably realize that Daisy was a cannibal or something, but because the ellipsis is used, the reader can figure out what’s going to happen to Jared, but Jared probably won’t realize it until he’s getting cooked.

            Now let’s move on to professional writing. In professional writing, since it’s more likely to see direct quotes rather than invented dialogue, ellipses are used to omit redundant pieces of quotes. If you were going to quote someone who had said, “I only think about candy. I’m pretty sure I only think about it because it’s the only thing I love,” you could write it as, “I only think about candy…because it’s the only thing I love.” This would be grammatically and ethically correct because you would have shortened down the quote without changing the meaning of it. However, if you had shortened it to “I only think about…love,” you would have some issues because you changed the meaning. Sometimes this is actually desirable. Have you ever seen trailers for movies where they quote movie critics as saying, “I haven’t seen a movie this good… in years,” or something like that? The full quote of that sentence is probably, “I haven’t seen a movie this good at sucking in years.” So you can use ellipses to omit redundancy while maintaining the original quote’s integrity, or to make money from deception.

            I’m going to combine the last three things into one paragraph since they’re all semi-related to one another. Have you ever said something jokingly to someone, and they respond by giving you a really dirty look? That happens to me every day. When they give you that dirty look, they’re really giving you an ellipsis. It’s an intentional pause meant to indicate that they want to punch you. Has anyone ever said to you, “You better do this, or else…” because if they have, they were using an ellipsis in spoken language to scare you into doing something. I know that if you’ve ever chatted online with someone, you’ve seen ellipses being used. Well I’m here to tell you that they were probably used incorrectly! The most obvious and common mistake is just the wrong number of dots. Some people will use ten dots and others will use two, and they’re both equally incorrect. Ellipses are fragile and delicate! You can’t just add or subtract dots from them for your own amusement! Who do you think you are? I will destroy you! And that’s not the only mistake people make, either. Another mistake that’s almost as common is just the improper use of them. A lot of people use ellipses online to show a break in their thought process in order to imitate how they speak, but that’s the m-dash’s job! The ellipses should only be used to show a deliberate pause in speech to imply a hidden meaning. If you’re thinking of ellipses in the grammatically correct usage and you talk to someone who’s ellipses happy, you’re going to think that there’s a ton of subtext that you’re missing, when you’re not actually missing any.

            So there you have it. Ellipses are really fun to use, and now that you know how to use them, go forth and conquer. Conquer the world with your correct ellipses usage. For more reading, head here .