Hello all, well here we go again, need more help. How surprising. Anyway, when I have been writing dialogue and the speaker is interrupted mid sentence, I have been using an ellipse. However, some books I have been reading, (yes I do now and again) show the word being interrupted by a line mid way as... EXAMPLE. As I was about to comm--- only it is a line and not three dashes. I have looked for a way of putting in a line in that position but I can't find any way. What is the correct way to show interrupted spe---? Please if I finish my final edit I will have to go all through changing it.
Thank you all in advance. Regards, Paul G
Thanks Lorriane, every bit of help I receive help. I am learning more than I did when I was in school. I sometimes wonder how I have got to my age without getting this stuff right. It shows you Social Services would take anyone!!!
Paul G
I've been away for a week, so have only just seen this.
Paul, I wouldn't use ellipses in that way; I'd find another way to convey slow motion; but if you do want to use them, don't leave a space after them. 'the bus...slid...onto...' and so forth.
Adrian, the dash gives a more visually abrupt hiatus than the ellipsis, which is why it's more suited to the interruption of speech.
Ellipsis can also be used for other reasons:
to show that words have been left out - to show...left out
in a sequence, to show that it carries on as before without you having to write it all out -
January, February, March... (where it stands in for 'and so forth')
Lorraine
Hi Adrian, I know your post was for Lorraine but of course I read it! What you have said is the way I understood the explanation. But moving on from that, I have to admit, I have used them in places where I felt there needed to be slowing down in speech, as if in slow motion, for example the... bus... slid... on... to... its... Well you get the idea, is that correct usage. I tried the sentence a different way as someone read the piece on here and said they thought the "three dots" was too much and detracted from the narrative. To be honest I don't think they knew what an ellipsis is. I got the feeling they thought it was just three full stops, if you see what I mean.
Regards Paul G