The Ellipsis Mark

Writers are often unsure how to use the ellipsis mark—a series of three spaced periods—to indicate that words have been omitted in a quotation. There are three conventional ways to use the ellipsis mark or ellipses, as they are called in some writing handbooks. Consider that you wish to quote from the following passage, in which historian John Keegan describes the battle at Dieppe, 19 August 1942:

The Royal Regiment of Canada, one of the three permanent battalions the Dominion maintained in peacetime, was detailed to land in the mouth of a narrow gully which led into the cliffs at Puys, east of the harbour. It was defended by a company of the German 571st Regiment and some Luftwaffe anti-aircraft gunners. They had watched the approach of the landing-craft and, as soon as the ramps went down, directed the desperate fire of outnumbered men at the open mouths of the vessels. The Canadians, like the Irishmen on the River Clyde at Gallipoli, reeled momentarily before the storm and then burst through the curtain to find shelter under the sea wall. It was capped with wire. They blew a gap with their Bangalore torpedoes. The first few scraped through to the cliffs beyond, the rest were barred by fire on the gap and killed by machine-guns firing "in enfilade"—that is, at an angle to the Canadians' line of advance—from under the wall. Twenty minutes later a second wave of landing-craft arrived, and soon after a third, carrying a company of the Black Watch of Canada. The landing-craft drew off behind them. Fire implacably denied their advance. By 8:30 a.m. every man on the beach was dead or captive.

Use three periods with a space on all sides ( . . . ) to indicate that words have been omitted from the middle of quoted sentence:

"The Canadians . . . reeled momentarily before the storm and then burst through the curtain to find shelter under the sea wall."

If you delete words at the end of a quoted sentence, you must use ellipsis points to indicate the omission:

"The first few scraped through to the cliffs beyond, the rest were barred by fire on the gap and killed by machine-guns firing ‘in enfilade'. . ."

When a quotation ending in ellipsis marks is followed by an in-text citation, the sentence period appears outside the citation:

"The first few scraped through to the cliffs beyond, the rest were barred by fire on the gap and killed by machine-guns firing ‘in enfilade'. . ." (Keegan 307).

If you are quoting a passage of two or more sentences, and you wish to omit words and sentences after a grammatically complete sentence, use four periods: first the sentence period, followed by a space, and then three periods separated by spaces (the standard ellipsis mark).

Twenty minutes later a second wave of landing-craft arrived, and soon after a third, carrying a company of the Black Watch of Canada. . . . Fire implacably denied their advance. By 8:30 a.m. every man on the beach was dead or captive.

When part of a quoted sentence is integrated into your own text, no ellipsis mark is needed, either before or after the quotation:

Keegan describes how the German gunners "directed the desperate fire of outnumbered men at the open mouths of the vessels" as the Canadian troops leapt from their landing-crafts.

Many student writers think it necessary to insert ellipsis marks at the beginning or at the end of a quotation, even a short one, to indicate that other words lead into or out of the quoted passage. You will find ellipsis marks used like this in some printed matter, including academic texts. While there is a lack of editorial consensus on how ellipsis marks should be used—if they should be combined with other forms of punctuation, for example—most commentators agree that if you enclose a quotation from part of a sentence or part of a paragraph within your own prose, you do not need to indicate omitted words or further sentences.

Some word processing programs, including Microsoft Word, will automatically convert three typed periods into a ready-made ellipsis mark, without the conventional spacing, like this... Depending on the font you are using, it is usually most effective to form the ellipsis mark by alternating periods and spaces, as in the examples above.

Special Uses of Ellipses