Those three little dots are driving me mad.
Three dots. Space before? Space after?
The way I see it, there are two usages for the little buggers.
- as an ellipsis, to show that something has been left out
- to imply continuation or trailing off
In my opinion, the first should have a space before and after. “She went to … School in Bognor Regis.” And if it’s at the end of a sentence, you have four dots instead – one being the full stop.
In the second case, I don’t think there should be a space between the end of the sentence and the three dots. “I think it should just be allowed to trail…” In face, if there were a space before the three dots it could lead to confusion – you might think they signalled omission.
Although I can find plenty of guidance on the use of dots as ellipses, I can’t find anything about the second usage.
If you know, please spill the beans (or if you just want to tell me you think I’m right – that tends to go down pretty well too)!
