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bwburke94 (Y2: Electric Boogaloo)
2017-12-27 12:58:35

Certainly a silly edit war. I'm not risking a look at the edits because of spoiler risk.

For the record, it's incorrect to treat an ellipsis as the end of a sentence.

2025: the year it all ends?
homogenized Since: Oct, 2009
2017-12-27 14:38:46

Huh. Reading your report I wondered if they had some sort of "auto (in)correction" thing on their machine, but looking at the link that wouldn't explain the changes at the start of spoiler tags or that changing letters to capitals is only thing taking place in their edits.

StFan Since: Jan, 2001
2017-12-28 04:59:49

Permission to return the text to the correct form?

GnomeTitan Since: Aug, 2013
2017-12-28 07:22:34

Bwburke: AFAIK an ellipsis can end a sentence, if it is used to indicate thst the sentence trails off.

Candi Since: Aug, 2012
2017-12-28 09:41:52

Ellipsis use and capitals really depends on context. Which is another reason that mass edit is silly.

Since all the original ellipsis were placed by a variety of different tropers, I don't think it's an edit war, but I'm not going to swear to it and possibly get someone in trouble.

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
GastonRabbit MOD (General of TV Troops)
2017-12-28 09:50:08

^^I think they meant ellipses aren't always treated as ending a sentence, which seems to be the case here.

You can't just say "perchance".
NotOnAnyFlatbread Since: May, 2011
2017-12-28 09:53:10

"For the record, it's incorrect to treat an ellipsis as the end of a sentence." Can you clarify where you're finding this rule?

In my understanding, ellipses in formal writing stand in for an omitted portion of a quote. The omitted item could be anything from a single word to one or more sentences, so I see no reason why an ellipsis could not be between the end of one sentence and the beginning of the next (and thus followed by the capital letter starting the next sentence). In informal writing and/or transcription of spoken words, the ellipses are commonly used to represent pauses or trailing off which, again, could certainly happen at the end of or between sentences as well as in the middle of them. (These usages are described in, for example, [1].)

Edited to add: It would certainly be incorrect to assume an ellipsis is always at the end of a sentence, so perhaps that's what you meant. But I don't think it correct to say that they may never be the end of a sentence, which is how I initially read your statement.

Edited by NotOnAnyFlatbread
TheOneWhoTropes Since: Feb, 2010
2017-12-28 11:13:00

An ellipsis that ends a sentence has four dots .... ellipses that don't only have three ... and do not warrant a capital letter after them.

Keeper of The Celestial Flame
DarkHunter Since: Jan, 2001
2017-12-28 11:44:46

Ellipses ending a sentence is one of those things that there is no concrete rule about.

Had a debate with an English teacher in college over this (a friendly debate, mind you), and we came to the conclusion that there was no real rule for it after doing some research.

I've always preferred just three dots at the end of a sentence, because IMO a fourth period looks silly. But that's just my preference.

In any case, there should never be a capital letter after an ellipsis that does not end a sentence.

StFan Since: Jan, 2001
2017-12-28 12:48:41

That's pretty much how I've always envisioned the use of ellipses, indeed. And I know the 4-dot ellipsis depends on the manual of style used. Although if you consider that it's an ellipsis followed by a full stop, then it does make sense.

(I don't have the same problem in French, because there an ellipsis is always three dots, even if finishing a sentence. Yes, punctuation rules do vary with the language.)

HighCrate Since: Mar, 2015
2017-12-28 13:10:36

Technically speaking, an ellipsis is a piece of punctuation consisting of three dots. It's often represented with three periods (...) for ease of typing, but it's also its own ASCII character (…) which can be produced in Windows by holding down the Alt key, typing 0133, and releasing the Alt key and on Macs by pressing Option+;. (You can tell that "..." is three periods and "…" is its own character by highlighting the text: you can't highlight the individual dots that make up the ellipsis in the second one.)

When an ellipsis occurs at the end of a sentence, it is followed by a period, which is why it looks like four periods.

So for example, if I were to use an ellipsis to omit the word "sometimes" from a direct quote, then:

"I sometimes use ellipses." becomes "I… use ellipses."

But,

"I use ellipses sometimes." becomes "I use ellipses…."

And now you know.

Edited by HighCrate
NotOnAnyFlatbread Since: May, 2011
2017-12-28 15:02:52

Whether or not you use a period in addition to an ellipsis at the end of a sentence depends on the style guide you're using. It's not a universal rule. (It's like the Oxford comma—some use it, some don't; neither is considered universally correct).

shadowblack Since: Jun, 2010
2017-12-28 15:30:14

Ah, so THAT's why sometimes I see people put four dots at the end of a sentence! I always assumed it was an accidental typo, with the writer putting one dot too many by mistake (the way people sometimes put two dots instead of one).

I had never heard about putting a dot after an ellipsis, so I learned something new today.

HighCrate Since: Mar, 2015
2017-12-28 17:48:00

Well, I mean, it's not a universal rule in the sense that not all style guides are universally correct about it: some get it wrong. (-:

SeptimusHeap MOD (Edited uphill both ways)
2017-12-29 02:17:08

Take the formatting discussion somewhere else, please.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
StFan Since: Jan, 2001
2017-12-29 06:46:18

Is it okay for me to correct the page without being accused of pursuing an edit war?

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