You must be very careful not to influence the meaning of a quote when you replace text with an ellipsis. Only use an ellipsis to shorten a quote if a section is redundant or does not change the meaning. Only use an ellipsis to indicate a pause or trailing off in creative or casual writing. An ellipsis used in this way in formal writing, such as for a student essay, would be seen as lazy or even perfunctory.
For MLA formatting, block a quote if it is more than four lines of prose or three lines of poetry. [1] X Research source For APA formatting, block a quote if it is 40 words or longer. [2] X Research source For Chicago style formatting, block a quote if it is 100 words or longer. [3] X Research source For example, here is a quote that is long enough to be blocked, but an ellipsis is inserted to make it fit in an essay without having to offset it as a block quote: Original: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. " –Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities With ellipsis: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. " –Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
If you are a journalist with a low word limit, it’s useful to remove sections of quotes that don’t greatly add to the meaning. If you want to omit the first part of a sentence because it does not add to the meaning of the quote, begin the quote with an ellipsis, following the capitalization of the sentence. For example, we can abbreviate the last phrase of the Dickens quote used above even more using both an opening and interior ellipsis: “. . . in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received . . . in the superlative degree of comparison only. " –Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities However, the opening ellipses is not necessary if you are using MLA format. [4] X Research source
You can use an ellipsis in personal writing as well, such as in informal emails or diary entries. In this case, the ellipsis would indicate your thoughts have trailed off. You also use the ellipsis technique to indicate that a character’s thoughts have trailed off, not just their dialogue. For example, if you wanted to have a character in a story pause, they might say, “I was running . . . but then I fell. " To show a character trailing off, they might simply say, “I was running . . . "
To make sure you aren’t changing the meaning, choose words that are not essential to understanding a quotation. Leave verbs and new subjects alone, but take out words that are already understood by the reader. In other words, it’s permissible to remove phrases that are redundant or repetitive. For example, here is another Charles Dickens quote, this time from the novel Our Mutual Friend: “I cannot help it; reason has nothing to do with it; I love her against reason. " Here is the quote with a redundant phrase removed: “I cannot help it . . . I love her against reason. "
If you can tell that you have changed the meaning, work with the highlighted areas until you have preserved the original meaning of the quote. For example, if you were working with the above quote, the bolded words are marked for removal: “I cannot help it; reason has nothing to do with it; I love her against reason. "
If the removed section leaves the quote grammatically incorrect, add a word or short phrase that bridges the gaps in square brackets [ ] after the ellipsis. For example, it would look like: “She played in the sun . . . [but] hated it. "
Remember that an ellipsis has only three dots. The fourth dot is always a period. Begin the next part of the quotation with a capital letter if it is the beginning of a new sentence. For example, if you were quoting from the same passage as the Dickens quote in this method, you would take out the sentences we used above and leave the sentences around it like this: “To enlighten [human Justice] with the lights of a stone passage, a flight of stairs, a brown window-curtain, and a black man . . . . What a use for the money, and how worthy of its old misuses!”
Insert the ellipsis between two words where the pause occurs. The passage of time can be very short, almost instantly, such as with this sentence: “I was um … thinking about you today. ” The passage of time can be much longer, days or weeks, such as with this sentence: “Weeks later … I finally heard from my old boss about the job. ” An ellipsis used to express passage of time can often be substituted for the phrase “and then. ”
Insert the ellipsis after the last word to trail off at the end of a sentence. “I was thinking about you today . . . ” If the ellipsis occurs at the end of the sentence and the sentence would normally end with a question mark or exclamation point, place it after the ellipsis. “Were you thinking about me today. . . ?”
