Thread: Ellipses
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Old 05-18-2013, 09:56 PM   #12
Andrew H.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze View Post
My view is this:

Too many writers use ellipses without realizing how expressive a comma truly is. Except in rare cases, I reserve the ellipsis (three within a sentence, four to mark its completion) for indicating an omission.
I think this is right, and it's also a good reason to use ellipses sparingly: too many used inappropriately and the reader will be annoyed because of the connections (or whatever) that are missing.

They are of course, for that reason, a staple of stream-of-consciousness writing. (I.e., http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/5342/1) But stream-of-consciousness writing is so often a bad...mmm, doughnuts...
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