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Should You… Use An Ellipsis?

By Michael Stelzner

Okay… I have to admit I have not considered this before.

My friend Anne Holland over at MarketingSherpa wrote an interesting article about how the use of the ellipsis (those little dots…) can actually help engage readers.

According to Wikipedia, the ellipsis, “refers to the row of three full stops (… or . . . ) or asterisks (***) indicating an intentional omission.”

So how can these little guys actually help you grab eyeballs? Read on…

Holland begins the discussion with this statement, “you’ve got a lot of information to get across but you know people online just don’t read paragraph text. They skim, they scan, they skip around.”

She goes on to explain:

The art of getting a paragraph — or a long sentence — read is all about catching the eye. An ellipsis gives you five glorious letter-free spaces in the middle of the paragraph to grab the eye with. An example:

Acme’s widget helps you make more money … lower your costs … impress your boss … and keep your career going strong.

Holland explains that ellipses are an alternative to bulleted lists.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this? Have your tried using ellipses?

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 10:24 pm and is filed under Writing White Papers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • WOW, that's really works! thanks Michael! i don't even get what ellipsis stated here means before. thanks for your information, i gain some knowledge from you!
  • I tried it before and I find that it actually works. I love to use them once in a while to give varieties to the style. It spice things up.
  • hi,

    i'm in another field, the arts, but liked your short take and wanted to say i use ellipses a lot in my poetry

    i tend to use it as a pause, or moment, and its meaning will vary in it's tone, based on the word images or activities, and connotations around it...

    there's also a style of poetry i like to do where i come up with examples, usually images, though sometimes actions or activity, and the ellipses link each image/action segment, usually to the title

    an exp is: www.adanlerma.com/blog/2585#poem titled "a daughter sometimes is..."

    thanks,


    adan
    www.adanlerma.com

    ps - i also tend to use four dots to end a continuing stream of ellipses
  • It does make it easier to consume larger text area's. Right now I'm looking at some of direct mailing brochure that is using ellipses too...
  • I use it oftenly too...But just now I know that it's called ellipses. I think ellipses could express special impression to the readers.
  • Rick
    Fortunately, it's easier to use than to spell.
  • PS - Oops. I think I may have spelled ellipsis wrong in my haste to leave a comment.
  • I find that an ellipse in the place of a period softens the tone in email communication. Something about that trail-off makes your standard business-speak somehow more palatable...

    Dina
  • Thanks for your comments everyone!!
  • mac
    i use ... habitually. ive never considered it a good or bad thing!
  • Rick
    Direct mail marketing copy has used ellipses in this way for years. Never thought about using them in white paper editorial content but ellipses may be worth trying for short lists of not too many words.
  • art
    Ellipsis. I often use it as a sign of a pausing moment. Also as a method to decorate my post =..=
  • I'm with Sean -- I like dashes. I got into the habit of using them while in college after reading too much Laurence Sterne. Dashes give your copy energy and let you connect thoughts without having to come to a full period stop. I use them so much I have to weed them out of my copy.

    My pet peeve is people who use a hyphen instead of a full dash - like this. Ack!
  • Hi Michael..^^

    I don't know why..but I've always used ellipsis..when I post comments, text or write some notes..^^

    For me..it is more easier and less boring to read..^^...anyways great post!..^^
  • I consider myself an expressive writer (my wife says...too much!) so I am constantly going back and reducing / editing my copy. I use everything I can to get my point across ...it may come from my art training. So, I have been using this technique forever. Nice to see it may be beneficial to getting their attention (or) hanging on my page a while longer.
    Ciao!
  • I like the ellipses, but my personal preference to creating a pause, both internally and on through the white space on the page, is by using the dash. It's almost like an arrow pointing the reader in the direction you want. I also teach college composition, and I encourage my students to use the dash, too.
  • mac
    i always use ellipses in my blog. Till now i never thought that it is an attraction to readers. Im using it as sign for a continuing thoughts.
  • My own personal take on this is that the power of this approach is not the ellipses but the white space that they create! It is a well known fact that link elements at the bottom of a vertical list that have white space below them get a disproportionate number of clicks and in effect the ellipses create the same effect but in the horizontal direction. Off to test some interesting ways to use this in relation to embedded links.
  • I do use ellipses in a couple of different situations. For example, when I want to convey that a thought continues, have my readers fill in the blank themselves, or have them pause to think about what I said. However, I tend to use them only in more casual writing such as my blogs and some articles and not in more formal copy such as my website or white papers.
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