Grammar Questions

[ryos]

No. I'm a kid, Ookla. Not an adult like you. I have only the barest idea of what a style guide even is/looks like.

Pray you never need find out. (Of course, that would mean you didn't go to college, so...pray your prayer isn't answered. )

[Shaggy]

LOL Believe me–I am.

[Renoard]

Just for the record. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj6QqCH7g0Q&feature=channel

[maxonennis]

Okay, on a sentence where you skip a pronoun, what is the proper punctuation for signalling that skip?

Example, sentence A. with pronoun:

I swear it made a sound.

What I want to know is the proper punctuation for sentence B:

Swear it made a sound.

I understand it isn't correct English grammar, but I would still like to know for what I'm currently working on.

Thanks!

[Peter Ahlstrom]

"Swear it made a sound." is fine.  There's no official punctuation signal for fragments. You have to be able to tell the meaning from context.

[Shaggy]

So about elipses…

I've seen them (I'm talking about at the end of sentences) both as .… and … (three dots and four dots). What's the rule? Or do different styles do it different ways, again?

[Renoard]

Three is correct for American English.  I believe there is a Canadian style that calls for two.  But Four is just someone with a bouncy little finger.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Actually:

The Three-or-Four-Dot Method
11.57 The method explained
The three-or-four-dot method is appropriate for poetry and most scholarly works other than legal writings or textual commentary (see 11.62). Three dots indicate an omission within a quoted sentence. Four mark the omission of one or more sentences (but see 11.58). When three are used, space occurs both before the first dot and after the final dot. When four are used, the first dot is a true period—that is, there is no space between it and the preceding word. What precedes and, normally, what follows the four dots should be grammatically complete sentences as quoted, even if part of either sentence has been omitted. A complete passage from Emerson’s essay “Politics” reads:

The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless: it is not loving, it has no ulterior and divine ends; but is destructive only out of hatred and selfishness. On the other side, the conservative party, composed of the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the population, is timid, and merely defensive of property. It vindicates no right, it aspires to no real good, it brands no crime, it proposes no generous policy, it does not build, nor write, nor cherish the arts, nor foster religion, nor establish schools, nor encourage science, nor emancipate the slave, nor befriend the poor, or the Indian, or the immigrant. From neither party, when in power, has the world any benefit to expect in science, art, or humanity, at all commensurate with the resources of the nation.
The passage might be shortened as follows:

The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless. . . . On the other side, the conservative party . . . is timid, and merely defensive of property. . . . It does not build, nor write, nor cherish the arts, nor foster religion, nor establish schools.
Note that the first word after an ellipsis is capitalized if it begins a new grammatical sentence. Compare 11.63.

From the Chicago Manual of Style.

There is also a three-dot method that just always has three dots. Fiction publishers generally use one or the other. I believe Tor uses the three-or-four-dot method. Four dots is used for trailing off at the end of a complete sentence.

The spacing between the dots is important. Never use no spaces or the … character Word wants to replace 3 dots with.

[Shaggy]

Thanks, Ook. So if using the three-or-four-dot method, an unfinished sentence such as "Oh my god, that's a. . . ." would use four dots, right?

So should there be a space between each dot? And why not use the '…' Word likes?

[Peter Ahlstrom]

3 dots because it's not a complete sentence. (Not all publishing houses are consistent though.)

spaces because it looks bad without them. Check fiction books and you'll see they almost always have spaces.

[The Jade Knight]

Okay, on a sentence where you skip a pronoun, what is the proper punctuation for signalling that skip?

Example, sentence A. with pronoun:

I swear it made a sound.

What I want to know is the proper punctuation for sentence B:

Swear it made a sound.

I understand it isn't correct English grammar, but I would still like to know for what I'm currently working on.

Thanks!

Personally, I add an apostrophe: 'Swear it made a sound.  But that's just my own way of representing this.

[Shaggy]

Right–thanks, Ook.

But wouldn't that not really be correct (@ Jade) 'cause the word that was left out was its own word, and not connected to 'Swear' (where you're putting the apostrophe)?

[maxonennis]

Okay, on a sentence where you skip a pronoun, what is the proper punctuation for signalling that skip?

Example, sentence A. with pronoun:

I swear it made a sound.

What I want to know is the proper punctuation for sentence B:

Swear it made a sound.

I understand it isn't correct English grammar, but I would still like to know for what I'm currently working on.

Thanks!

Personally, I add an apostrophe: 'Swear it made a sound.  But that's just my own way of representing this.

That's what I was doing because I wrote one sentence that sounded like I was addressing the reading rather than recounting an event. It was weird.

[Shaggy]

Actually, Ookla, one more question…the dot things (ellipses?) you've talked about have represented words taken out, or the trailing off of sentences, right? Well, what if it's just, like, a pause where somethone is thinking? (I know it's three dots, but what about spacing?) Example: "Well, I guess technically you're right, but. . .I just have this feeling. . . ."  What would the spacing be like for the thing in red?

[Reaves]

I think you're getting it slightly wrong, Shaggy. Three dots is for a truncated sentence; four dots is for one or more omitted sentences. Basically, you would only use the four dots in a scholarly work.