I love the ellipsis. I really do. For me, an ellipsis is the little "dot, dot, dot," that makes the world go 'round.
As a reader, when I see an ellipsis, I know that either something trivial and unimportant has been left out or the writer assumes that I comprehend the rest of his train of thought.
To me, the author is saying, "I only want to give you the useful information, so you don't need the rest of this ... most of it is useless anyway." I appreciate that. Thank you very much, my Author-friend.
Or, I love the fact that the author believes that I am so in tune with his mind that mere words are no longer necessary. The ellipsis says, "You know where this sentence is going, so let's just drift together ..."
Either way, I appreciate both the brevity of the author as well as his faith in me as a reader.
In short, the ellipsis is just a way to say, "I'm not fully done with my sentence, but at this point, words are no longer needed ..."
Yes! I love the ellipsis and get dinged by my English major friends for using it all the time but I don't care. It works so well, especially in email. You know what else I like in email? Reduplicating words in letters to add emphasis and/or capitalizing part of a word to indicate inflection. Because I canNOT stand lack of inflection in writing.....booooooo. :)
ReplyDeleteFunny, I use them all the time lately. My mother has always used the dash to end her partial thoughts in letters or notes. That drove me nuts and when the Christmas letter was being edited by me, I would finish the sentences and "correct" her laziness...(not really) Well, it's come full circle hasn't it. I too have a "dash". Thanks Mom.
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