Gramatical question. When do you use: ...

[Chankovsky]

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Sorry if this sounds stupid. I'm writing my essays and I feel an urge to use "...", but don't know if it's appropriate.

 

[medicomel]

maybe if it's in a quote

 

[Xandie]

It's not appropriate unless leading up to a quote, as the above poster said. The ellipsis is one of those parts of speech that has become popular on the internet but isn't appropriate in professional writing. Instead, use the em or en dashes--they're great.

 

[rockstar2525]

Only use " " if you are making a direct quote, such as; the doctor looked at me and said, "he needs his kidneys removed." In casual writing people use them to denote use of slang or a cliche, which you should not be using in your essays.

 

[4 Ever]

Unless you're writing a novel, poem, etc etc, or quoting such things, you shouldn't use "..." in your essays.

 

[Chankovsky]

take away the quote...this is what i meant

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

Sorry if this sounds stupid. I'm writing my essays and I feel an urge to use "...", but don't know if it's appropriate.

... denotes an unfinished thought and/or an incomplete sentence. You should have neither in your essays.

 

[camstah]

i think it really depends on how you intend to use it...
i used it in my personal statement all over the place, but it fit in with the style of writing and storytelling i was using....don't know what the adcoms thought of it however....

 

[principessa]

If you're taking up a quote in the middle of the speaker's sentence, you should use ". . ." at the beginning. Same for ending a quote before the end of the speaker's sentence. If you take parts of the quote but leave some of it out, you should use ". . ." to link up the parts. Otherwise, banish the ellipses.

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

i think it really depends on how you intend to use it...
i used it in my personal statement all over the place, but it fit in with the style of writing and storytelling i was using....don't know what the adcoms thought of it however....

Did you use it just as you used it above? Because damn, grammatically speaking, that is simply awful! :vomiting: 😀

 

[VFrank]

I used it in one of my essays to denote a grade I received:

"I received an "A" in the class."

Is that bad?

 

[VienneseWaltz]

If you're taking up a quote in the middle of the speaker's sentence, you should use ". . ." at the beginning. Same for ending a quote before the end of the speaker's sentence. If you take parts of the quote but leave some of it out, you should use ". . ." to link up the parts. Otherwise, banish the ellipses.

You should use ellipses only in the middle of a quote. The reader will assume that something came both before and after the quotation, even it was a complete sentence. (AP, Chicago manuals of style)

While handy in certain styles and formats, I agree with previous posters in that, outside quotation, they have no place in a well-formed essay.

 

[Truce57]

I used it in one of my essays to denote a grade I received:

"I received an "A" in the class."

Is that bad?

Not bad...just not perfect.

As for ellipses, that is an appropriate usage in less formal writing. If your ps is in that style (less structured) then if it fits, it fits. If your ps is highly structured, however, I agree that -- is a much better choice (just make sure you always copy and paste from a TEXT file; o/w -- becomes ?, and that's just silly).

See, that T is good for something!

 

[AlternateSome1]

If you use "..." in a formal essay then it is pretty likely at least one adcom will think you are an idiot. The ellipsis contains spaces between each ellipsis point, so "..." is just a spawn of message boards and chat rooms. As others have pointed out, the ellipsis is useful for indicating missing text in a quote. The three dots in question, however, have no use in formal writing and should definitely be absent from any pesonal statement.

 

[linuxizer]

... denotes an unfinished thought and/or an incomplete sentence. You should have neither in your essays.

Actually, "...." denotes an unfinished sentence, since the ellipsis is three dots and the period at the end of the sentence the fourth. "..." is used to show something has been left out, generally in a quote. MLA style would have you use "[. . .]" if you use it for that purpose.

In general, though, I second the earlier opinion on dashes--use them. Other alternatives include: the colon, the period, and the semicolon.

G'luck,
Ari

 

[liverotcod]

<snip>
In general, though, I second the earlier opinion on dashes--use them. Other alternatives include: the colon, the period, and the semicolon.

G'luck,
Ari

Use dashes sparingly. Most punctuation exists to mark a pause, like a rest in music. A dash represents a pretty long pause, longer than a comma, and using lots of them can break up your flow.

Although I have to admit that I--myself--use a lot--that is to say, many--of them. It's mostly a stylistic thing, not a matter of correctness.

 

[Truce57]

Although I have to admit that I--myself--use a lot--that is to say, many--of them. It's mostly a stylistic thing, not a matter of correctness.

Sweet. We suffer from the same affliction.