Punctuation Workshop

Ahavati said:

o O!  Very nice! Gotta wear my shades!  

You'll be a Dear in the headlights regardless.

JohnnyBlaze said:

You'll be a Dear in the headlights regardless.



Sky_dancer said:It's true I'm quite, very a human. You can't be human and a skydancer, your body's all humany.

Thanks for the colon! Now I can go about making lists with correct punctuation.

I need to go and read about predicates and subjects, I think I remember something about them being the aggregates of a sentence...🤔

It's interesting to see how everything is connected, isn't it? To understand one thing, one must understand the other.  It's much like science. . .

http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/371831-die-ampersand-die/

Just a poem with various examples of punctuation.  

[A]havati infers two things about [N]omoth: one ( I am from the UK hence, arrogantly, a capital on the 'one' is not required) that I should add more information when recommending anything: two, that his memory is shot.

No-one knows what his next film is called. ( )

again, super interesting, so appreciated, really a world i was not aware of; and ...and again I would love your take on ellipses as I so over-use them without any idea of what i am doing.

Sky_dancer said:
🖖

(Are you watching Picard!?!?!)

Are you kidding?! 🖖


JohnnyBlaze said:

Just a poem with various examples of punctuation.  



You know you're separating a verb from its. . .

nomoth said:[A]havati infers two things about [N]omoth: one ( I am from the UK hence, arrogantly, a capital on the 'one' is not required) that I should add more information when recommending anything: two, that his memory is shot.

No-one knows what his next film is called. ( )

I have done no such thing. I am AMERICAN; therefore, used the CORRECT usage of capitalization.

nomoth said:again, super interesting, so appreciated, really a world i was not aware of; and ...and again I would love your take on ellipses as I so over-use them without any idea of what i am doing.  

You're welcome.  I'm happy you're enjoying it.  If everyone s good to go on the colon we'll hit the ellipses next!  I mean there are numbers and letter salutations, etc. But, because we are discussing poetry here, all that might not be necessary.

Ahavati said:
You know you're separating a verb from its. . .


That's why I keep an AWESOME editor handy. 📝❤

JohnnyBlaze said:

That's why I keep an AWESOME editor handy. 📝❤

Thank you!

I'll be adding the ellipses at some point this week, guys!

Brief Origin of the Modern Ellipsis

The word originates in the Greek ἔλλειψις, meaning “falling short, defect,”  but, the ellipsis also becomes associated with omission fairly early in its history.  The ellipsis is considered by many as the most unusual mark in the English language because it performs the exact opposite of what punctuation marks are designed to convey:  meaning between ideas.  

Just where did the ellipsis come from, and why is it so unusual? Its history takes us to Anne Toner’s fascinating book, Ellipsis in English Literature: Signs of Omission to explore the earliest print records of the modern ellipsis back to the 16th century.

The ellipsis may have served a different function, and was no stranger to English texts before the plays of Shakespeare and Jonson. In medieval manuscripts, we find an interesting editing mark—sometimes called subpuncting or underdotting—was placed under the word or phrase to indicate its removal, particularly when that word or phrase has been copied erroneously.  

A study conducted by David Wakelin, A scholar of medieval manuscripts, on how on a sample of 9,000 manuscripts at the Huntington Library. He discovered “crossing out, subpuncting, or erasure” accounted for 25% of the corrections he found. He further notes that subpuncting begins to die out in the early 16th century, and Toner picks up on the rise of the ellipsis in the late 16th century.  

Is the ellipses an evolutionary descendant of subpuncting or underdotting? We may never know for sure.  Even so, they share a similarity used to omit meaning.

But what does it MEEEEAN, [N]omoth?!  

Simply put, an ellipsis (plural: ellipses) is a punctuation mark consisting of three dots which indicates an omission, and sometimes, a placeholder. Ellipses save space or less relevant material. This allows the reader to get right to the point without delay or distraction:  

It also allows the reader’s imagination to fill in the blank spaces with their own unique perspective.  


When to use an Ellipses:

1. Use when omitting from a quoted passage.  

•  Full quotation: "Today, after hours of careful work, Ahavati finished the next lesson in the punctuation workshop, the ellipsis, for nomoth."

• With ellipsis: "Today. . . Ahavati finished the next lesson for the punctuation workshop. . ."

Note: Spacing varies—some editors and writers feel no spaces are warranted before and after an ellipsis, while others do.  Subsequently, those such as myself, who use spaces between each dot, do not use spaces before and after the first/last dot.  Much depends on your own personal writing style.  

2. Deleting the beginning of a sentence.  

Begin the opening quotation mark with an ellipsis:

• ". . .Ahavati finished the next lesson in the punctuation workshop, the ellipsis, for nomoth."

Note: If the first word of the quotation mark you are beginning with after the ellipsis begins with a lowercase letter in the quote, capitalizing the first letter of that word in a bracket is warranted. Others omit the ellipsis completely, feeling the bracketed capital letter gets the point across. Again either/or is acceptable depending upon your own personal style.  

3.  Use to convey hesitation, changes of mood, suspense, or trailing off thought.  

•[N]omoth didn’t know. . .he was not sure.
• JohnnyBlaze said, "I. . .really don't. . .understand this."  

Note how the ellipses is used to indicate a pause or wavering in an otherwise straightforward sentence.

For more examples of how to effectively use an ellipsis in quoted material, I.e.- beginning, middle, and end of sentences, visit The Punctuation Guide at the below link:  

https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/ellipses.html

Additional Sources:

Ellipsis in English Literature: Signs of Omission to explore the earliest print records of the modern ellipsis back to the 16th century:  https://www.amazon.com/Ellipsis-English-Literature-Signs-Omission/dp/1107421322

Are you an ellipsis junkie?
https://www.scribendi.com/advice/ellipses_junkie.en.html

i like

the four-dot ellipsis

LOL! That works too!  Where no ellipsis has gone before . . . [  . ]

Ahavati said:LOL! That works too!  Where no ellipsis has gone before . . . [  . ]

and let us not forget the

ellipses in musical sheet writing (very prominent in many a Classical piece)

Ahavati said:
Is the ellipses an evolutionary descendant of subpuncting or underdotting? We may never know for sure.  Even so, they share a similarity used to omit meaning.


Dang. I never looked at it that way. I always viewed ellipsis as a trailing off or interruption.

Tallen said:

and let us not forget the

ellipses in musical sheet writing (very prominent in many a Classical piece)






I thought musical ellipses represented repetition vs. omission, as the punctuation ellipsis signifies?