Ellipsis - Roland Stroud

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Good form: HANK You look strange today ... What’s wrong?... Please, just ... tell me. JIM Is this what you call ... friendly ... or are you kidding? Poor form: HANK You look strange today...What’s wrong?...Please, just...tell me. JIM Is this what you call...friendly...or are you kidding? 1.1.14 Dialogue that trails off. Sometimes a writer will use a series of dots at the very end of a speech to indicate that the words trail off or that a pause ensues. The speaker seems to have said all that he intends to at the moment. To convey this, the writer will preferably use the four-dot form (or ‘?’ or ‘!’, plus three dots) if the statement is grammatically complete. However, the three-dot form is an acceptable alternative in this situation. In the event that the statement is not grammatically complete, the three-dot ellipsis is the proper form: Preferable: Acceptable: I guess this is my friend.... With all his money, still ... Is this my friend?... You’ve got to be kidding!... I guess this is my friend ... 1.1.15 Interrupted speech. If a speech, instead of coming to a natural pause or stop, is interrupted, then three dots (not four) mark the break, regardless of grammatical completeness. If there is a later continuation, three dots, set off from the text, can optionally introduce the continuation. Good form: HANK I saw her just yesterday ... JIM (interrupting) Look out for that car! 4
HANK ... Yeah, I see it.... Anyway, as I was saying, she told me the whole story. 1.1.16 Putting spaces between ellipsis dots will waste space in short lines composed in a monospaced font, even though the method is technically correct. Correct but inefficient in screenplay dialogue: HANK Is this what you call . . . friendly? Much better: HANK Is this what you call ... friendly? Miscellaneous sloppy methods which one may encounter include: Is that what you call.... friendly? Is that what you call... friendly? Is that what you call....friendly? This is my friend....His name is Mike. I guess this is my friend... That’s silly. ...Wouldn’t you agree? The last example appeared, with completely different words, in the magazine Creative Screenwriter in an excerpt from a screenplay. Presumably the author, who is a prominent screenwriter in Hollywood, was trying to convey a directorial hint that the character pauses briefly at the end of the sentence, after silly, and then adds an afterthought. But the method offers no advantage over either of the correct methods: That’s silly.... Wouldn’t you agree? That’s silly ... Wouldn’t you agree? 5
Page 1 and 2: 1. PUNCTUATION 1.1 Ellipsis OMISSIO
Page 3: CONSISTENCY 1.1.8 It is proper styl

Ellipsis - Roland Stroud

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?