Notice that within a sentence there are spaces on either side of the ellipsis, but not at the end of a sentence or before another punctuation mark.Ī question mark can follow the ellipsis if appropriate. You can use a comma before a dialogue tag if you have to:īut it looks funny, so I recommend rewriting the tag to avoid that. “Sorry, this is really …” She couldn’t finish.Ī period is not needed after the ellipsis. You do not normally use terminal punctuation with an ellipsis at the end of a sentence. The ellipses, or as Chicago prefers to call them in this usage, “suspension points,” indicate that she’s hesitating or drawing out the sentence. “Looks like … I think I misplaced the new version.” “I guess …” she clicked around, vainly searching for the right version. Remember our flustered presenter from last time? But they have a special use in dialogue to indicate a trailing off of the character’s speech. In nonfiction writing, ellipses are used only to show omissions. ☐ Punctuation such as em dashes and ellipses are used correctly. ![]() As if commas weren’t hard enough to wrangle on their own, dialogue puts a special twist on a couple of marks that don’t otherwise see a lot of use. Fiction adds a layer of complexity because of the different way dialogue is punctuated. ![]() Punctuation is hard to master in everyday writing.
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