The Art of the Ellipsis
08/03/09 05:57 PM Filed in: Grammar
Gripes
I love languages, and especially their
relationships. The differences between British
English, American English, and all other forms of
English fascinates me. As such, I am a fan of
grammar. Not obsessively so, and I have no problem
saying “I can haz cheezburger,” but when grammar is
incorrect when it shouldn’t be I get defensive.
Thus, here begins a succession of posts about my
gripes with common grammar mistakes or omissions.
The first one is not exactly grammar, but
it is somewhat annoying. This is the ellipsis
(uh-LIP-sis). If you don’t know what that is, it’s
sometimes called “dot dot dot,” and spelled ...,
with three periods in a row. Sometimes it’s spelled
. . . , with three periods separated by spaces. The
true ellipsis is neither. The true ellipsis is, on
a Mac, option-semicolon, and types …. Notice how
the space between the dots is between that of both
the incorrect ellipses (uh-LIP-sees, plural of
ellipsis), and you can tell it and the period
apart. I have somewhere heard the process of typing
an ellipsis described as: type 3 periods with
spaces in between, adjust the kerning (space
between characters, including the space character)
until it looks right, then put it in the format
it’s going to be displayed as (eg. paper, book,
presentation, clothing label…), make sure it looks
right there, then adjust and repeat until it does.
Thankfully, OS X makes this unnecessary. Say it
with me, option-semicolon. Windows also makes it
possible, not easy, but possible to type by holding
down Alt and typing 0133, then releasing Alt. Which
way do you like better? Yeah, I think so too.
I recently read an article by a tweeter who was accused with using ellipses to increase his Twitter character count, towards the majestic Twoosh. He confessed that he, as I do, strives for the Twoosh, but does not use ... to get there, using up three characters. He uses …, which takes up one character, as much as a space. This is an example of ellipses done right.
Whenever you come across an improper ellipsis, which you can check by trying to select only one period, you will now know that this person either does not care about grammar or does not know how to use the keyboard. Unless they use MS Word, which autocorrects it and I’ve heard will publish to blogs somehow. This is one of the few I think Word’s text editing is above the text editing in Pages, which is standard across most text fields in Cocoa apps. Apple already uses grammar check, and in fact has identified the “dot dot dot” above as redundant. If they just did that for ..., then this gripe would mostly go away for me, as most of the people I read text from use a Mac. I’m sure Apple will get right on it.
I recently read an article by a tweeter who was accused with using ellipses to increase his Twitter character count, towards the majestic Twoosh. He confessed that he, as I do, strives for the Twoosh, but does not use ... to get there, using up three characters. He uses …, which takes up one character, as much as a space. This is an example of ellipses done right.
Whenever you come across an improper ellipsis, which you can check by trying to select only one period, you will now know that this person either does not care about grammar or does not know how to use the keyboard. Unless they use MS Word, which autocorrects it and I’ve heard will publish to blogs somehow. This is one of the few I think Word’s text editing is above the text editing in Pages, which is standard across most text fields in Cocoa apps. Apple already uses grammar check, and in fact has identified the “dot dot dot” above as redundant. If they just did that for ..., then this gripe would mostly go away for me, as most of the people I read text from use a Mac. I’m sure Apple will get right on it.
2009