# Technical question on writing mechanics



## markobeezy (Jan 30, 2012)

When you have one character telling another character a story, you use quotation marks, just like normal dialogue, correct? Well, what about when the character telling another character a story wants to say what _someone_ else said in that story to _them_?

I know it sounds confusing, so let me put an example:

Mary is telling her friend about her husband, John, who beats her...

"After John hit me, he told me, "you're gonna die, woman!""

Ya'll see my confusion?


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2013)

"After John hit me, he told me, 'you're gonna die, woman!'"


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2013)

To answer the other part of your question, it depends on how you are presenting it.

For example, if the story is being told in dialogue, the quotation mark goes at the beginning of each paragraph of the dialogue, but only at the end of the last paragraph of dialogue. For example:

"blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.
blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.
blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.

"blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.
blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.
blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah."

If the story is being told in a narrative format (story within the story) you would set it off by indenting it slightly from the body of the text to indicate this is a separate story.

blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.
blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.
blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.

  la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la 
  la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la 
  la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la 
  la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la 
  la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la 

  la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la 
  la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la 
  la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la 
  la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la 
  la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la 


blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.
blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.
blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.


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## Dee Ernst (Jan 10, 2011)

So,Julie...get much sleep last night?


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2013)

Dee Ernst said:


> So,*****...get much sleep last night?


Sleep? What is this sleep thing you speak of?


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## NathanWrann (May 5, 2011)

David Stephens said:


> Julie beat me to it.
> 
> On this forum, you probably can't see any space between the closing single and double quotes. On a properly-designed typeface, especially in larger sizes, you can. In a paper book, with proper design and typography, they might well use a very thin space between the closing single and double quotes. That might not be so easy with word processing, HTML, and various eBook formats.
> 
> Seems like CMoS addresses this, but I'm too lazy to look it up.


Do you need the end single quote? I think I had been told (a long time ago) that it wasn't necessary to put the single and double quote together at the end and that the double quote alone would close it off. Not challenging the previous statements, just wondering.


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## SFWriterNorm (Jun 3, 2013)

Hiya Mark,

Whenever I have a question like this I go to friend Google and just ax. There are always folks who are smarter than me or who have already figured it all out. For example, what's the correct way to board a camel's hump. From the right side or the left side? Stuff like that.

So, I went to Google and asked your question. Now I have NO idea if the answer is correct or not, but since it mirrors my own thinking on the matter, I'll tell you what I found out..

*Before:*
"After John hit me, he told me, "you're gonna die, woman!""

*After*
"After John hit me, he told me, 'You're gonna die, woman!' "

Elegant, possibly erroneous, but sublime. Even if the editors don't get it, the audience will.

Your constant fan,
Norm
Way down in Cowchip Land



markobeezy said:


> When you have one character telling another character a story, you use quotation marks, just like normal dialogue, correct? Well, what about when the character telling another character a story wants to say what _someone_ else said in that story to _them_?
> 
> I know it sounds confusing, so let me put an example:
> 
> ...


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## Jude Hardin (Feb 5, 2011)

Julie got it right, for American usage anyway. Single quotes inside double quotes. Not sure about the UK. They use single quotes for dialogue, where we use double. And they spell things funny.


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## Sparrowhawks (Apr 9, 2013)

.

Of course what you people have said is correct, but 'rules' seem to be getting more _open to interpretation_ than used to be the case. (I remember once having received a thrashing at school for ending a sentence with a preposition!) 

Personally, I like the (technically incorrect) option ......

"After John hit me, he said _'You're gonna die, woman!'_ "

Wasn't it Winston Churchill who once said ..._ "Rules are intended to be unquestioningly obeyed by the masses, and intelligently interpreted by all others." _ ? 

KK

I shall now take cover!


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## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

NathanWrann said:


> Do you need the end single quote? I think I had been told (a long time ago) that it wasn't necessary to put the single and double quote together at the end and that the double quote alone would close it off. Not challenging the previous statements, just wondering.


Yes, ALWAYS. You always close-quote your quoted-quote, even if it's at the end of the dialog line and you're going to use a double quote anyway.

(I should also note here that British English uses single quotes as their default quotes, and quoted-quotes are double quotes. Just to confuse you further.)

What you're thinking of is when a quotation is very long and must be broken up into paragraphs. In that case, you do not close the quote at the end of the paragraph, but you do start the next paragraph with an open quote. You keep starting your paragraphs with open quotes until you reach the end of that character's speech, and then you finally close the quote.

If you are striving for grammatical correctness, you don't do anything to quoted-quotes other than use a single quote-mark to designate them. That means no italics with the single quotes. It's overkill. You can do whatever works, though, as long as your readers are willing to go along with it. That whole "rules are made to be broken" thing is technically true, but really, if you break rules in ways that make you look unaware readers aren't likely to respect you, and readers DO care about these kinds of things. Either designate quotes-quotes with italics and nothing else, or single quotes and nothing else.


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## Sparrowhawks (Apr 9, 2013)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Sleep? What is this sleep thing you speak of?


.

Sleep? What is this sleep thing of which you speak?

(Just trying to save you from a thrashing, my dear.) 

KK


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## Sparrowhawks (Apr 9, 2013)

Jude Hardin said:


> Julie got it right, for American usage anyway. Single quotes inside double quotes. Not sure about the UK. They use single quotes for dialogue, where we use double. And they spell things funny.


.

Jude,

_*WE*_ spell things funny? 

It is you rebellious colonials who don't know that there is another 'U' in many words, and that 'Z's are not very often used in polite company! 

KK


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2013)

Sparrowhawks said:


> .Of course what you people have said is correct, but 'rules' seem to be getting more _open to interpretation_ than used to be the case. (I remember once having received a thrashing at school for ending a sentence with a preposition!)


There is actually NO grammar rule that claims that you should never end a sentence with a preposition. This is one of the grammar myths. Some of these things we "think" are grammar rules are not actually rules of English grammar, but Latin grammar. If your teacher was yelling at you over that, he or she was an idiot.


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## Sparrowhawks (Apr 9, 2013)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> There is actually NO grammar rule that claims that you should never end a sentence with a preposition. This is one of the grammar myths. Some of these things we "think" are grammar rules are not actually rules of English grammar, but Latin grammar. If your teacher was yelling at you over that, he or she was an idiot.


'
Julie,

My teacher was a very large gentleman, with a _very_ big stick.

The lessons he taught me may have been wrong, but I remember them! 

KK


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2013)

Sparrowhawks said:


> '
> *****,
> 
> My teacher was a very large gentleman, with a _very_ big stick.
> ...


One of my teachers used a dunce cap and a brain coral. The student who made the most valuable contribution to the class got the brain coral for the following day. The student who made the dumbest comment had to wear the dunce cap. People would compete over who could make the dumbest statement in class to earn the privilege of wearing it.

I went to a weird school with weirder people.


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

If you're a real "quote mark nerd" you owe it to yourself to check out John Barth's short story collection _Lost in the Funhouse_. He has one story that goes six or more levels deep, so that dialogue starts looking like:

" ' " ' " 'I don't know,' " ' " ' " he said.


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## NathanWrann (May 5, 2011)

What if it's: "I was talkin' to Frankie and he said, 'hey, I ran into Joe The other day and he told me, 'I'm gonna kill you.' ' "

ETA: I guess Jan answered that.


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## Andrea Harding (Feb 27, 2013)

Jude Hardin said:


> Julie got it right, for American usage anyway. Single quotes inside double quotes. Not sure about the UK. They use single quotes for dialogue, where we use double. And they spell things funny.


Actually we don't use 'single quotes' and 'double quotes at all - we use "speech marks" and 'quotation marks' - which makes explaining it a hell of a lot easier - the person is speaking, ergo the speech marks (or 'double quotes'), and they are quoting what someone else is saying within their speech, hence the quotation marks (or 'single quotes') too!

Most UK English writers use speech marks for speech, there is a very small minority - both here AND in the US - who use quotation marks for speech. Until I get my red pen out, anyway


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## Carol M (Dec 31, 2012)

Julie beat me to the answers about quotation marks and about ending sentences with prepositions. She's right in both instances.


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## Lummox JR (Jul 1, 2012)

Putting a space between the closing inner and outer quotes should not be done by you. That's the job of the font and its kerning. If the space isn't that visible it isn't the end of the world anyway, but you should always keep the text pure in its intentions. Adding any variation on a space will just muddy your intentions, therefore confusing any device that could read the text. Remember also that even if you could do a smaller space in your word processor, it won't look the same consistently across all devices.

For the closing single quote, the only time you should leave that off is when one paragraph is followed directly by another by the same speaker. In that case, you'd also lose the closing double quote, because the _direct_ speaker hasn't changed either. This is the same rule as when you're only using one set of quotes; only going into a new paragraph entitles you not to close the double quote. In both cases, you'd reopen the quotes in the new paragraph. Obviously the case of one character quoting another for several paragraphs comes up infrequently.


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## SFWriterNorm (Jun 3, 2013)

We have been watching quite a bit of Brit mess shows here lately on Netflix like Foyles War, Touch of Frost, and even a Swedish show shot in Brit talk called Wallander. Since our native language here in Cowchip Alabama is southern *******, which is some different from colonial speak, I spend a great deal of time saying, "HUH?" (I have absolutely no idea if I used the quote thingies correctly. My wife, for no reason I can think of is often able to translate britspeak into engrish I can understand.

The first Brit Engrish word I ever heard was "aluminum." Now, even southerners know that it is pernounced as "a-loom-uh-num." However, when you hear some staunch limey gentleman utter it, it comes out "al-you-minium."

C'mon, give me a break. Here's the deal. It is WELL KNOWN that anybody from England CAN speak good Amurican engrish anytime he is paid to do so. Some of our best American actors have been British. Take Battlestar Galactica, for example. The admiral's boy, what's his name. Talks like any good American farm boy. (While the cameras are rolling.) And everyone knows about Scarlet and Ashley in Gone With The Wind. Oh fiddle-dee-dee.

Even Patrick McGoohan was once just about the most southern speaking "ya'll come on in and set a spell" judge character ever seen on film. I forget the movie. Something about a yankee on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon line who gets a speeding ticket...

So, IF a Britisher is paid, he or she will stand up and speak good Amurican...even southern Amurican engrish on command! But as soon as the paycheck stops, then it's right back to "Pass me the al-you-minium, if you please. Right. Jolly good show! Ruther."

You constant fan,
Norm way down in Cowchip/AL



Sparrowhawks said:


> '
> Julie,
> 
> My teacher was a very large gentleman, with a _very_ big stick.
> ...


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## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

Sparrowhawks said:


> It is you rebellious colonials who don't know that there is another 'U' in many words, and *that 'Z's are not very often used in polite company! *


And we have the audacity to call them zees instead of zeds!

IT'S COLONIAL MADNESS!!!


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## AndreSanThomas (Jan 31, 2012)

ElHawk said:


> And we have the audacity to call them zees instead of zeds!


And it's obvious that zee is correct. See? ABCDEFG HIJK elammenno P QRS TUV WX Y and Zed doesn't rhyme.

Silly, silly.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

SFWriterNorm said:


> Hiya Mark,
> 
> Whenever I have a question like this I go to friend Google and just ax. There are always folks who are smarter than me or who have already figured it all out. For example, what's the correct way to board a camel's hump. From the right side or the left side? Stuff like that.
> 
> ...


I recommend depending on CMoS rather than the vagaries of Google.


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2013)

SFWriterNorm said:


> C'mon, give me a break. Here's the deal. It is WELL KNOWN that anybody from England CAN speak good Amurican engrish anytime he is paid to do so. Some of our best American actors have been British. Take Battlestar Galactica, for example. The admiral's boy, what's his name. Talks like any good American farm boy. (While the cameras are rolling.) And everyone knows about Scarlet and Ashley in Gone With The Wind. Oh fiddle-dee-dee.


That reminds me of the first time Mike saw an interview with Andrew Lincoln (Rick from _The Walking Dead_) and he was all "What's wrong with his voice?"

"No, honey. There is nothing wrong with his voice. He's just British."


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

markobeezy said:


> When you have one character telling another character a story, you use quotation marks, just like normal dialogue, correct? Well, what about when the character telling another character a story wants to say what _someone_ else said in that story to _them_?
> 
> I know it sounds confusing, so let me put an example:
> 
> ...


You could try to avoid these kind of sentences. (I'm a master-avoider)

John hit me. "You're going to die, woman."


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Andrew Ashling said:


> "You're going to die, woman."


Am I the only one who would capitalize woman, here? It is being used instead of the person's name. I notice many authors will capitalize mom or dad when used in place of the person's name, but not son, man, woman, etc.

/threadjack


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## markobeezy (Jan 30, 2012)

Cherise Kelley said:


> Am I the only one who would capitalize woman, here? It is being used instead of the person's name. I notice many authors will capitalize mom or dad when used in place of the person's name, but not son, man, woman, etc.
> 
> /threadjack


I would never capitalize an improper noun after a comma. If you are going to capitalize mom, dad, etc...you should keep that capitalization consistent for the entire work. The only other time would be to start a sentence.


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2013)

Cherise Kelley said:


> Am I the only one who would capitalize woman, here? It is being used instead of the person's name. I notice many authors will capitalize mom or dad when used in place of the person's name, but not son, man, woman, etc.
> 
> /threadjack


In this specific case, I don't read it as a replacement of her proper name, but treating the character as an object or non-person. You are correct that generally you would capitalize in those cases where the noun is used as an alternative to the actual name. But in this specific instance, you are dealing with an abusive man who probably sees her as property and not a person.


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## Lummox JR (Jul 1, 2012)

David Stephens said:


> CMoS disagrees and definitely uses a space.


CMoS also thinks there should be spaces between the dots of an ellipsis. Both make zero typographic sense, and look terrible. The fact that the space will confuse all word processors and e-readers into breaking cements the point. They're just plain wrong on that.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Lummox JR said:


> CMoS also thinks there should be spaces between the dots of an ellipsis. Both make zero typographic sense, and look terrible. The fact that the space will confuse all word processors and e-readers into breaking cements the point. They're just plain wrong on that.


I agree.


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2013)

Lummox JR said:


> CMoS also thinks there should be spaces between the dots of an ellipsis. Both make zero typographic sense, and look terrible. The fact that the space will confuse all word processors and e-readers into breaking cements the point. They're just plain wrong on that.


One thing folks have to remember is that CMoS is a STYLE GUIDE not a GRAMMAR GUIDE. There is actually a fundamental difference. Though a style guide will involve grammar discussions, those grammar points will always be within the context of formatting, citation of sources, and standardization of presentation across a spectrum of entities. CmoS is also an academic style guide first and foremost. Most large trade publishers of fiction use in house style guides. It isn't really a matter of them being "right" or "wrong." It is simply a matter of recognizing the different needs of academic writing in comparison to general fiction writing.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> There is actually NO grammar rule that claims that you should never end a sentence with a preposition. This is one of the grammar myths. Some of these things we "think" are grammar rules are not actually rules of English grammar, but Latin grammar. If your teacher was yelling at you over that, he or she was an idiot.


EXACTLY!

No such rule exists. It never has.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

David Stephens said:


> I checked CMoS and never found a specific citation for using a space between the closing single and double quotes, but there were several examples where they definitely used a space, probably a thin space.
> 
> In Word your best bet is probably the non-breaking word space (Insert>Symbol>Special Character) or Cntrl+Shift+Space. You could also use the 1/4-em fixed space. The non-breaking word space would expand along with the regular word spaces in justified text, while the 1/4-em fixed space would not, so it would be the preferred choice if you knew what the ultimate result would be in the various eBook formats. They produce different code in HTML.
> 
> ...


There are times when you may well want to establish an in-house guide rather than going with CMoS. That's what publishing houses do but most in the US start with CMoS as the established standard and establish where they want to deviate. Fowler's seems to be usually the standard in the UK. (I refuse to space between dots LOL)

I would disagree with Julie about the style guide that is used most for academia although certainly CMoS is used at time. In my experience, it is the MLA that is standard for graduate students and professional papers except in a few specialized fields.


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2013)

JRTomlin said:


> There are times when you may well want to establish an in-house guide rather than going with CMoS. That's what publishing houses do but most in the US start with CMoS as the established standard and establish where they want to deviate. Fowler's seems to be usually the standard in the UK. (I refuse to space between dots LOL)
> 
> I would disagree with ***** about the style guide that is used most for academia although certainly CMoS is used at time. In my experience, it is the MLA that is standard for graduate students and professional papers except in a few specialized fields.


CMoS is big with social sciences and history. MLA is used predominately with language arts (except journalism, which usually using AP). And neither is normally used with the hard sciences. If my memory serves me, that would be the AMA guide.

In fact, methinks we need a guide to keep track of the guides!


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## Nick Endi Webb (Mar 25, 2012)

I use AIP, but I'm weird like that. 

Physicists.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> CMoS is big with social sciences and history. MLA is used predominately with language arts (except journalism, which usually using AP). And neither is normally used with the hard sciences. If my memory serves me, that would be the AMA guide.
> 
> In fact, methinks we need a guide to keep track of the guides!


I think the AMA is used a lot in the sciences but also I've seen the CSE referenced. There is some variation in who uses CMoS and the MLA, but it seems to be a rare English department that doesn't use MLA as far as I can tell. Possibly we do need a guide for the guides. 

You made me wonder why CMoS tends to be the fiction standard with so many editors having language arts degrees. Odd, but I have yet to see anyone say they based their style outside academia on the MLA. But then it's been long enough since I did an academic paper (thank god!) that I've really forgotten how much difference there may be.

ETA: I keep a current copy of CMoS on my bookshelf but haven't owned an MLA in years.


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## WHDean (Nov 2, 2011)

Well, there is a grammatical component that's being lost in the fray here. First the typographical marks are used for specific functions. The three-dot ellipsis [...], for example, is called an "ellipses" because it was used for elided text. Note that _ellipsis _ and _elide _ are cognates ("leave out").

1. So when you quote a text with words cut from sentences, you use a three-dot ellipsis:

_He's not likeable or a good man. / He's not...a good man._

2. The four-dot ellipsis signals that the elision has crossed one or more sentences:

_He's not a likeable man. He's not a good man. / He's not....a good man._

3. The three-dot plus period is for elisions of more than one sentence with the beginning of a sentence:

_He's not good or likeable. He steals chowder from orphans. / He's not good....He steals chowder from orphans. _

4. Three spaced dots are used for clipped speech; e.g., when a character in a fiction text trails off or trails off and picks up again:

_"I thought I saw..." "I thought I saw him...Bill?"_

Note that *nothing is being elided*, so there's no ellipsis. The character just stopped talking and started again.

Now, whether you go by CMS or put pictures of yourself in places of trailings off, I don't care. But you should at least know what the things do and why.

Who uses what: There's a disciplinary style guide for each social science. Psychologists, for example, use the APA's Publication Manual. Academic natural sciences and engineering use (mostly) the CSE. Academic medicine uses the AMA/JAMA style guide.

But non-fiction published by university and commercial presses uses CMS. The "in house style guide" is a bit of misnomer, because these guides are really formatting guides, not style guides. Second, they're invariably based on CMS.

Final note: about a quarter of CMS is grammar (Bryan Garner wrote it).

ETA: Not all the punctuation is going to come through because it depends on the fonts used, etc.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

WHDean said:


> Well, there is a grammatical component that's being lost in the fray here. First the typographical marks are used for specific functions. The three-dot ellipsis [...], for example, is called an "ellipses" because it was used for elided text. Note that _ellipsis _ and _elide _ are cognates ("leave out").
> 
> 1. So when you quote a text with words cut from sentences, you use a three-dot ellipsis:
> 
> ...


In my experience, this is inaccurate, and all this varies with the style guide one is using.


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## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

SFWriterNorm said:


> We have been watching quite a bit of Brit mess shows here lately on Netflix like Foyles War, Touch of Frost, and even a Swedish show shot in Brit talk called Wallander. Since our native language here in Cowchip Alabama is southern *******, which is some different from colonial speak, I spend a great deal of time saying, "HUH?" (I have absolutely no idea if I used the quote thingies correctly. My wife, for no reason I can think of is often able to translate britspeak into engrish I can understand.
> 
> The first Brit Engrish word I ever heard was "aluminum." Now, even southerners know that it is pernounced as "a-loom-uh-num." However, when you hear some staunch limey gentleman utter it, it comes out "al-you-minium."
> 
> ...


Not to mention half the people on The Walking Dead series.

This was so funny! I laughed so loud, it was a good thing I was home alone, or I might have gotten locked up.


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## Greg Banks (May 2, 2009)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> There is actually NO grammar rule that claims that you should never end a sentence with a preposition. This is one of the grammar myths. Some of these things we "think" are grammar rules are not actually rules of English grammar, but Latin grammar. If your teacher was yelling at you over that, he or she was an idiot.


Damn. I didn't even know that.


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## Tim_A (May 25, 2013)

Andrea Harding said:


> Most UK English writers use speech marks for speech, there is a very small minority - both here AND in the US - who use quotation marks for speech. Until I get my red pen out, anyway


I'd agree that 66 and 99 is becoming more common in UK English, but I'd dispute that 6 and 9 is a very small minority. Definitely not, based on a straw poll of books grabbed off the shelf in WHSmith at lunchtime.

But also, like most people, if the man with the paycheck says "do it this way," or 'do it that way,' then that's the way I do it. 

Al oo min um. See I can even say aluminium wrong!


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## WHDean (Nov 2, 2011)

Cherise Kelley said:


> In my experience, this is inaccurate, and all this varies with the style guide one is using.


I don't know what the "this" is that's "inaccurate"/"varies," so I'll assume you misunderstood. There are three things at work here: (1) operations, (2) punctuation, and (3) punctuations symbols.

*1. Operations*. The three operations are (a) elided words from one sentence, (b) elided words from more than one sentence made into one, and (c) representing speech that trails off.

*2. Punctuation*. Both (1.a) and (1.b) have to be punctuated in certain ways for academic/due diligence reasons. You need three-point ellipses (...) to signal that you excised words from one sentence and four points (....) to signal that you elided two or more sentences. This is the same across all disciplines and style guides. Speech that trails off (c) is conventionally represented by three discrete points (. . .), which is not technically an ellipsis, and never by four points-again, standard across all guides.

*3. Symbols*. There are minor differences in the number and nature of the symbols contained in the fonts/typefaces that perform these operations. For example, some fonts have three points separated by spaces (. . .) and ellipses (&#8230. But some only have ellipses; and some automatically add spaces between each end of the ellipses (a &#8230; a) and some don't (a...a). Likewise, some fonts have four-point ellipses (&#8230;.) for two or more elided sentences and three-point ellipses plus a period (&#8230; .) for end punctuation in elided sentences-others only have four-point ellipses.

Before I'm accused of telling people what to do, let me repeat that I don't care what you or anyone else does. I wrote this for people who are interested, so they can investigate for themselves.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

WHDean said:


> *3. Symbols*. There are minor differences in the number and nature of the symbols contained in the fonts/typefaces that perform these operations. For example, some fonts have three points separated by spaces (. . .) and ellipses (&#8230. But some only have ellipses; and some automatically add spaces between each end of the ellipses (a &#8230; a) and some don't (a...a). Likewise, some fonts have four-point ellipses (&#8230;.) for two or more elided sentences and three-point ellipses plus a period (&#8230; .) for end punctuation in elided sentences-others only have four-point ellipses.


This is informative! Thanks for posting it.


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