Please Pardon, Oh Authorities, My Many Uses of the Ellipse…

On my four effective and clearly understood innovative uses of the ellipse, and, being new and innovative, are as yet still unauthorized by the writing authorities (for they cannot authorize what they cannot conceive, hence this column...)

Let us consider the lowly ellipse:
here it is…
here it is…
such a beautiful thing
so little used
given one lowly ignoble task-
to indicate a sentence is not complete in its syntactic structure,
such as…

Oh, I cry over its suppression,
repression, and imprisonment
by the stuffy, heartless authorities…

Let me breathe new life into the mark
and in the process explain my several new uses of it-
for I have found it suited to to several tasks,
not just indicating the unfinished syntax of a sentence;

MY FIRST UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THE ELLIPSIS

I use it for indicating unfinished contemplation, emotion, and thought, like this…

You see? You were forced to extend your thought upon the matter, asking,
“Why is he trailing off? What matter is this that deserves my further contemplation?
What is he trying to get me to think more deeply on by pausing like that?”

So there is my first unauthorized use for the neglected ellipse- I use it for inducing deeper contemplation,
offering the reader a needed mental pause and a push…


Now if I were writing legalese,
of course I would not leave it to my opponents
to finish my thoughts,
although there may be uses in trying to dupe a novice jury…!


MY SECOND UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THE ELLIPSIS

Ah… and therein lies my second unauthorized use of the lowly ellipsis-
at the end of a statement that requires some thought
and image forming before ‘getting it’,
or before realizing there is a humorous punch line,
or before arriving at a difficult revelation;
for without the ellipses before the exclamation
the author would be assuming the reader immediately understands it,
and that is often not the case.

Also, an exclamation point with no ellipse gives the impression
of the author standing a bit too proud…

like this!

See how unnecessary it is for me
to stand with my back so erect and my finger so high in the air?
Also consider how abused the exclamation point has been used,
and you can sympathize my aversion to using it straight-up…



MY THIRD UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THE ELLIPSIS

A third unauthorized use of the under-appreciated ellipse
is at the end of a poetic stanza entering a line break,
where a full period stop would kill the flow of the piece
and lose the reader.

Like that.

Like this.

Like it is time to get up and go get a cup of coffee,
and never return...

So you see how periods erroneously indicate
that a piece with a line break is over?

Like this.

Done.

So…

in order to have the reader continue through a line break,
I employ the ellipsis,
my lovely ellipse,
my many, many wonderful ellipses…

See how you soared right over the line break,
landing in the fine thoughts of the next stanza?






MY FOURTH UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THE ELLIPSIS

A fourth and last unauthorized use of the three little dots:
pure style.

Has it worked?

Yes.

Consider the anonymous contest.
I have been ‘identified’ just by my writing style,
and I attribute it to my many effective (and consistent, since they make sense) but unauthorized uses
of the ellipse.





Now, after having to have expended all this effort to explain
my obvious uses and intentions concerning the ellipsis,
I may personally go out and beat the stodgy authorities over their heartless,
uncaring, unseeing, power-crazed and quite dull bureaucratic heads...

and if you agree with me, come along and join in the fun…!