Fw: Ellipsis Points

["George Scithers" owlswickpress@xxxxxxxx]

See below:
----- Original Message -----
From: "George Scithers" 
To: 
Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2005 8:45 PM
Subject: Re: Ellipsis Points
[snip extended discussion]
In the matter of deleting the comma before an ellipsis -- this
(as the ancient adage has it) depends on the situation and the
terrain. If the original were --
"He spoke about standing up quickly, sitting down, then leaning
back."

-- then it's useful to distinguish between:

"He spoke about standing . . . and leaning back."

-- and --

"He spoke about standing up quickly, . . . then leaning back."
since in the second instance, it has been made clear by including
the comma that no additional modifiers of "standing" have been
omitted, but that one (or more) of the series of phrases between
"standing up quickly," and "then leaning back" have been deleted.

George H Scithers
Illuminator to the trade; discounts available for taking a
quantity, oh!