The Ellipsis has spoken! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

HEAR YE: An ellipsis consists of exactly three dots called ellipsis points—never two dots, never four dots—just three dots.

I've long wanted to speak out against the over-usage of the "ellipsis", as I know it's something most people pay little attention to; however I've noticed through the years, that more and more people are using it, and boy are they using it!
 

I decided to research the sometimes abominable ellipsis in an effort to confirm if my notions were correct; Are these 3 dots (yep, only 3), being overused by innocent people who know not what they do? Well, here's what I stumbled upon. Read carefully PEOPLE!

You should not replace all normal punctuation with ellipses. You should not allow the sweet lure of ellipses to muddle your ability to write a complete sentence. To quote the book Grammar for Dummies, “Using ellipses in this way can get annoying really fast.” 

The author of one of my favorite books, Punctuate it Right, feels this way about writers who use ellipses to imply that they have more to say: “It is doubtful that they have anything in mind, and the device seems a rather cheap one.”

So, use ellipses to show hesitation or a trailing off of thoughts if you must, but use them sparingly, and know that although it's grammatically correct, it's considered by some to be annoying and cheap.

In formal writing, the most common way to use an ellipsis is to show that you’ve omitted words. For example, if you're quoting someone and you want to shorten the quote, you use ellipses to indicate where you've dropped words or sentences.

EXAMPLE:

ORIGINAL QUOTE: “I cannot help it; reason has nothing to do with it; I love her against reason.”

QUOTE WITH ELLIPSIS (Which show omission) “I cannot help it . . . I love her against reason.”

FYI: NEVER use ellipsis to change the meaning of a quotation. Only use to omit unnecessary words.

***There are many ways of using ellipsis, for instance, there are e-mail ellipsis, gossip ellipsis, comic ellipsis, but in all cases, there are ALWAYS 3 simple dots!


Use sparingly...