Punctuation
Ellipsis
An ellipsis indicates that words have been left out of the material that you have quoted.
It is sometimes necessary to leave out words or lines in a quoted passage for reasons of relevance (to your point) or length. It is important that any omissions are made known to your reader. The modern way of doing this is by using three full stops (known as ellipsis).
- The conclusion is used to sum up the points that have been covered in the essay… This section should not contain any new information and should refer back to the topic/question being discussed (Cheek et al 1995, p. 102).
In this passage an extra sentence of twenty-seven words has been left out. The three dots occur at the end of the sentence. There is no need to add a full stop.
The following example demonstrates an ellipsis indicating missing words.
- This section … should refer back to the topic/question being discussed.
The most important consideration when using an ellipsis is to ensure that you do not alter the intended meaning of the original material.