Re: Ellipsis Points

["George Scithers" owlswickpress@xxxxxxxx]

I speak as an editor of 40 years experience, as a publisher, as a
typesetter, and as a literary agent. See interpolated comments
below.
----- Original Message -----
From: "J R FOX" 
To: 
Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2005 8:07 PM
Subject: OT: Ellipsis Points
This is OT, but I have a query that I believe several
of you are well-qualified to respond to.

To start off, my own question is whether there exists
some internationally recognized symbol to indicate
this, other than ellipsis ? I thought I might have
seen something like that in the past, but I don't
recall for sure. It would *not* have been a standard
punctuation mark, though, more like a symbol -- if I'm
remembering something that actually exists.
The ellipsis . . . three dots, with spaces between, is indeed the
standard symbol. If the writer wants to, the writer can add an
asterisked footnote at the first appearance of an ellipsis,
saying: "* omissions, maarked so, are all by the editor."
My friend handed me these additional questions:

1. What size margins ? 1" all around ? Horiz. line
spacing, especially between paragraphs ? (Some early
test sections overly packed the page, and with too
small a font, I think.)
One inch top, left side, and bottom. Right margin ragged -- that
is, do N*O*T right-justify the test, of at least one inch. Do
N*O*T put extra space between paragraphs unless you are making a
cange of subject of less importance than that which would call
for a new paragraph, but more important than routine paragraph
breaks. Ident the first lien of every paragraph five spaces. Use
a 12-point, monospaced font, spaced every 24 points. This is the
equilavent of double-line spaced pica type on a typewriter. Do
N*O*T reduce line spacing to indicated quoted material!
2. Size of Top & Bottom space ? (There are no
footnotes.)

about an inch.
3. How do you indicate when words or sentences were
removed from the text to shorten it. (I think I've
already covered that, above.)
As above. Do N*O*T use the special three-dots character present
in some word processers.
[Assuming the use of Ellipsis:]

4. I read that there should be 3 periods and 3
spaces. If the deleted words are after a full
sentence, is the first period right after the last
letter ? Are there still only 3 periods including
that one ?
No. An ellipsis is three dots, with spaces between and before
and after. An ellipsis might follow a complete sentence, in which
case the three dots are IN ADDITION to the terminal punctuation
that ends the sentence. One exception: if an ellipsis is folowed
be a closing quotation mark, ther is no space between the third
dot and the close-quotes

Like this:

"He started to . . ."

"He started to stand up, . . ."

"He started to stand up, hesitated, and sat down again."
5. If the next part of the text is not a new
sentence, is there a space before it ? Is this true
also even if the next part begins a new sentence ?

Like this:

"He started to stand up, . . . and sat down again."

"He started to stand up, . . . Then he leaned back in his chair."

> I think that should do for now. However, this also
left me wondering -- whatever formatting procedure is
used -- whether it would become tiresome or grating
after awhile ?
No. Using "John said -- Bill said" isn't grating either. When
reading well written dialog, one quickly becmes more interested
in what is being said, and one isn't the lest bit bothered by the
repetitive "said." One would be far more distracted if one or the
other occasionally "ejaculated" or hissed a sentence containing
no sibilants. Similarly, having established that there are lots
of omissions, and that they are marked by ellipses, then stick to
that convention and get on with the exposition.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed some good
light on this subject.

Jordan
George H Scithers
Illuminator to the trade