...!?

[Digby]

Do you know...I think I am addicted to using...as a sort of pause/suspense thing when writing, but I feel...I might be starting to overuse it. What are your feelings on ... is there some kind of unwritten rule as to how and when it should be used?

 

[Rednaxela]

I think it’s an annoying habit.

 

[JSmith]

Well...


JSmith

 

[Deleted member 21219]

Do you know...I think I am addicted to using...as a sort of pause/suspense thing when writing, but I feel...I might be starting to overuse it. What are your feelings on ... is there some kind of unwritten rule as to how and when it should be used?

These are the formal uses:

ellipsis — definition, examples, related words and more at Wordnik

All the words

www.wordnik.com

However, I use a series of dots quite often , and I specifically use them for denoting a pause:

"ellipsis​

noun​

el·lip·sis : marks or a mark (such as … ) indicating an omission (as of words) or a pause"

The reason is that I would like to imitate the same cadence that people would hear if I were there. Sometimes it works ... sometimes not.

Jim

 

[Digby]

I think it’s an annoying habit.

A very Dutch (direct) response, thank you.

Well...

and a typical Kiwi response to follow.

 

[JSmith]

and a typical Kiwi response to follow.

... but I'm over the ditch.


JSmith

 

[Digby]

... but I'm over the ditch.


JSmith

I knew it was one or the other (six of one, half a dozen of the other?). I apologise for misgendering you.

 

[kchap]

When I was transcribing CD track data I discovered there is a UTF8 code for everything:
․ u2024 1 Dot Leader
‥ u2025 2 Dot Leader
… u2026 Horizontal Ellipsis

 

[mhardy6647]

ellipses?
.... I'm a fan.

But -- I like dashes, too.
em and en are both cool --- in my book.

 

[mhardy6647]

Actually this reminds me of an old joke, about a poor person who had to have part of their large intestine removed.
Now that poor soul has a semicolon.
... and you know what that means:
Now they can only punctuate into a rubber bag that they have to wear all of the time.

 

[ahofer]

It was funny the first few times Twitter posts said "...checks notes...<some surprising thing>", but it's become an annoying cliche. So it goes with many rhetorical techniques. They are best used in moderation and hopefully in some new way.

Greatness is when you show mastery of the convention you then transcend, someone said.

 

[Berwhale]

 

[mhardy6647]

I don't aspire to greatness. I aspire to somewhat half-ass mediocrity ... and success is still beyond my grasp.

Jim ... Taylor

Same.
As I am sure I've mentioned before, one of my mottoes is... Strive for mediocrity.
(for some of us -- it's a stretch goal)

Other principles by which I live include (but are not limited to):
Never eat blue food
Eschew obfuscation!
No matter where you go, there you are.

 

[DVDdoug]

I use them a lot too! And, I probably over-use commas and I start too many sentences with, "And,". And, I can get wordy...

The writing here, and on most of the forums I'm active on, is pretty good!

The only thing I see that REALLY annoys me is when someone writes a long post with no paragraphs. Especially if they are trying to get help with a technical problem and there are lots of complicated details.

I'm also not a fan of "text-message shorthand" such as "U" instead of "you". I don't see a lot of that on the forums I visit either. Oh, I just reminded myself - My mother was a secretary and she knew actual shorthand. She would write us notes like "MT the trash" (empty the trash). That wasn't real shorthand but I had the impression that the concept came from shorthand.

Here's a funny thing - When I see misspelling I get the impression that the person is dumb. But, I'm a terrible speller myself and I hated writing in the days before computers and spell-check. (I usually know it "looks wrong" but somehow, sometimes I don't know how to correct it.) So there's no logical reason I should get that impression from someone else's bad spelling... weird! I DON'T get the same impression if it's obvious that English is not the writer's first language. It's also amusing when someone starts-out by apologizing for their poor English and their English is fine!

 

[Rednaxela]

My mother was a secretary and she knew actual shorthand.

That’s so cool. My mother worked as a secretary at Heineken and also knew shorthand. Years ago she showed me how it was done. Just amazing.

 

[sam_adams]

I am addicted to using...

Not only annoying, but you're doing it wrong. Technically . . .

Dot Dot Dot: A Closer Look at the Ellipsis

And the use of the em dash—just don't get me started on that . . .

Hyphens, En Dashes, Em Dashes

 

[Multicore]

My friend Gav insists I don't use anything like enough semicolons; what do you think?

 

[mhardy6647]

You know, @Digby... I was just reflecting on the title of this post of yours -- musing, if you will...
If you're not already familiar with it, you might want to look into the interrobang.

It could come in handy for myriad abstruse punctuation needs.
It could‽

 

[Sokel]

Ellipsis is usually a big sign of internet air-lovers
You don't want to be one of those

 

[eddantes]

You know, @Digby... I was just reflecting on the title of this post of yours -- musing, if you will...
If you're not already familiar with it, you might want to look into the interrobang.
View attachment 325514View attachment 325516

It could come in handy for myriad abstruse punctuation needs.
It could‽

My ... God -- man! What is happening with you‽