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Ellipses...Best Practices?

by Summertime Dress
6 replies
Thanks to another marketer here on the forum, I now recognize my use of unnecessary ellipses in my copy. After briefly researching the topic, I find it's a fairly common problem -- and annoys a percentage of readers to no end.

Never thought of ellipses as being "too lazy" to finish a complete thought, but now I'm wondering if I am lazy.

What are your best practices?
#best practices #ellipses #ellipsesbest #practices
  • Profile picture of the author wilmath
    I'm glad you made this post. I have had the same questions. Even among the old masters...
    There are times when they are used as a period.
    They are sometimes used as a "but wait there's more" device.
    Often they are used as a comma.
    Sometimes it is omit the details.

    What is the common thread?
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    • Profile picture of the author AlanCarr
      Annoying the reader is not a problem, providing you don't actually lose them...

      Yes, they're usually used in copy to suggest there's more coming (or at least there could be) and I just used another variation. Brackets.

      Both brackets and the '...' suggest more of an "off the cuff" and "writing as you're thinking" aspect, which in turn suggests honesty.

      In real speach we don't have our thoughts all collected and organized, right? Instead we have thoughts that trail off... and thoughts that (suddenly) pop up. So that's how you should write, for most projects.

      Ignore the nay-sayers, up to a point.

      A bigger issue is that people notice enough to complain, which is a problem, because (again for most projects) you don't want the reader to even notice your writing.

      In short, use them - but not so much that people actually complain...



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  • Profile picture of the author Darion
    Ellipses can convey so many meanings for different people. Is the writer trying to be contemplative? Or is the writer simply uncertain about the message? On one hand, it makes the reader think about your message more. On the other hand, it can annoy the reader when used in excessive amounts.

    Personally, I don't think it's worth the hassle...
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  • Profile picture of the author EricMN
    Two things about ellipses, aside from the fact that abusing them can be incrddibly annoying.

    1. Flow - A period is a stopping point. Just then you stopped on the period. A stop is a break. The more breaks the reader gets, the more chance they have to pull away. Using ellipses helps to keep things flowing . . . the idea isn't complete yet so you keep reading.

    2. Emphasis - Sometimes you have a really good point. It's strong and you want to make sure it hits home . . . so you set it apart. You can set it apart with highlighting, bolding, and more, but in terms of pacing, ellipses help slow the flow of the message. By doing this you set it apart in the context of the message in a temporal way. The reader's reading voice slows down for a sec and that's your time to hit them with a point . . . not to throw away good information.
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