More on Punctuation (page 3)

compound complex

Thanks, Hortensia, for your welcome post.

I had forgotten about that title and look forward to reading it.

With gratitude,

CoCo

ziddina

CoCo!!!

Good to see you again, my friend!!

Have a cuppa "Earl Joe" - or is that "Earl Grey" - on me!!

ziddina

Hee hee!

And now to post "on-topic" on this thread...

My punctuation is all over the map - I tend to over-use hyphens and triple-dot periods...

compound complex

Thanks, Ziddy!

Always a pleasure!

In reply to another poster, I did research and learned about em dashes (--) and why they do not always come out correctly (formatting software, I believe). Learned, too, about justified margins and the ragged right ... [ellipses; notice the spacing when using 3 dots]

WOW! Always learning.... [ellipses directly follow the last letter when there are 4]

CHEERS!

CoCo

Heaven

Hortensia

I only recently learned how to use ellipses correctly -- it's period space period space period. If the three periods occur at the end of a sentence it's typed this way: . . .., no space behind the final elliptical period and the period that ends the sentence.

I can see that in most informal communication this doesn't matter a lot. But it matters to editors, and if you write for pay, you pay attention to what the editors want.

compound complex

Thanks, Heaven and Hortensia.

Much appreciated! I've been researching ellipsis for the last hour, Hortensia. So much to ponder. I use THE NEW YORKER as a guide and I see both methods used. Consistency within an article is what counts. I've been using the term "ellipses" (plural) when I should have used "ellipsis" (singular). In one primer I noted that a sentence broken off was rendered thus:

We had a good time but Mary seemed preoccupied. ... [the first point being the period, the latter three denoting the omission]

CoCo is learning

However, when we are writing dialogue, an ellipsis can come in handy, especially if we want to show a character’s speech trailing off. Keep in mind, though, that ellipses, like exclamation points, should be used with caution and only when truly needed for emphasis. As a general rule, don’t use it unless you must.

Notation and Formatting

You’ll see ellipses formatted in two ways, either three points without spacing (…) or three points with spacing ( . . . ). In some cases, four points are used, but this is rare and not covered in this article.

In the U.S., an ellipsis is generally formatted with spacing between each ellipsis point: ( . . . ) per the most common style standards.

http://www.writingforward.com/grammar/punctuation-marks/punctuation-marks-ellipsis