So what about Star Wars, then? The Star Wars Mystery They make it easier for any reader to understand what’s going on.
In my opinion, brackets are much clearer. Theoretically, you could also use brackets to illustrate the exact same thing:
Or a “normal” dot followed by a three dot ellipsis. Still, and this is worth mentioning again, it’s not actually a “four dot ellipsis” per se - it’s just a three dot ellipsis directly followed by “normal” dot. “Doctor Spin is a PR blog…. It was launched in 2002.” Because the last dot is quoted and such dots don’t have any spaces in-between them and the last word. However, in use, the space between the first three and the last dot is a problem. It sort of makes sense, right? Words at the end of the sentence have been omitted, but it has to also be clear to the reader that there’s a punctuation before the following sentence. If you use a three dot ellipsis (without parentheses or brackets) to remove words at the end of the sentence, it would theoretically look like this: The four dot ellipsis actually exists, believe it or not. So, what about the four dot ellipsis, then? The Four Dot Ellipsis Exists One could use brackets with spaces,, which arguably looks fine stylistically, but it isn’t a great choice due to unwanted line breaks. Since such cases are scarce, it’s certainly the path of least resistance. In rare cases when you’re quoting someone who has used the three dot ellipsis, use the three dots without brackets - or with a parenthesis. “Doctor Spin is a PR blog by Jerry Silfwer.” Personally, whenever I use the three dot ellipsis for omissions, I prefer brackets: Well, we have left regulatory terrain and entered the land of style. “Doctor Spin is a PR blog (…) by Jerry Silfwer.”īut what if the quoted text already contains these types of omissions? Again, some style guides then recommend keeping the author’s omissions with parenthesis, (…), and use brackets for your omissions. This is why many style guides recommend using a parenthesis for omissions: The edited version still makes it a bit unclear the only indication that the ellipsis wasn’t in the original text is the fact that it has a space before and after. “Doctor Spin is a PR blog … by Jerry Silfwer.” “Doctor Spin is a PR blog written and edited by Jerry Silfwer.”
Still, outside of literary uses, the three dot ellipsis is commonly used in formal texts to indicate editorial omissions. However, using spaces is more of a stylistic choice, but not a very practical one: This could result in unwanted line breaks when using today’s word processors 2. Some style guides suggest that these types of punctuation marks should be used with spaces in between them: It can also be used to signal that something, perhaps ominous, is about to happen: (Since the three dots have an affinity with the phrase, there shouldn’t be a space in between the last word and the three dot ellipsis.)
It could be used to indicate an unfinished sentence or thought:
#All star wars intro text how to#
The final paragraph of the opening crawl has only three dots! The four dots can’t all be typos, right? And if they aren’t - what about the three dots in Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi? The Classic Three Dot Ellipsisīefore we dive deeper into this mystery, let’s have a look at how to use the regular three dot ellipsis.