This is a real life example that I thought was ridiculous. Here is an email back and forth I had with a customer who we sold some product to. I’m also going to point out that I’m not a grammar wizard so it’s mere observation because I’m sure a grammar Nazi could pick my shit apart at will.
I wrote:
Vicki,
Can you verify that this is the size that you would like?
She wrote:
This is correct….thanks.
I wrote:
Sorry I spelled your named incorrectly. It’s a 170-T. This is what you’ve ordered in the past so I was making sure.
She Wrote:
That is what is says on the box…but I also show T170B? But the sizes are the same.
She wrote:
Thanks…and I didn’t even notice….
The Misuse of an Ellipsis
Immediately after I hit send on my first email I looked back at her e-mail and noticed I misspelled her name. I make it a practice to never screw this up so I was immediately going to fire off another email acknowledging when I received her email saying “this is correct” with her ellipsis. In the back of my mind I considered that she was using the ellipsis as a way of pointing out that I spelled her name wrong, but this was probably reaching. Now when she uses her ellipsis in the 2nd email, I can she has no idea how to use an ellipsis. The capital “but” after a question mark is also not proper. At the end, the ellipsis is being tossed around like a red headed step child.
I did quick research on the Ellipsis and this sums up my findings.
Now, on to the other use of ellipses that you frequently see in e-mail: the ellipsis that’s used to indicate a pause or a break in the writer’s train of thought. “Ellipsis points suggest faltering or fragmented speech accompanied by confusion, insecurity, distress, or uncertainty.”
You should not replace all normal punctuation with ellipses. You should not allow the sweet lure of ellipses to muddle your ability to write a complete sentence. To quote the book Grammar for Dummies, “Using ellipses in this way can get annoying really fast.”
Whenever I write, I do it as I think. Like that comma after write, I just paused in my thought and added a comma. Same thing there. I honestly have no idea what the rules are for commas or the rest of grammar which is why I don’t fuck with it. I’m not using exclamation points unless my mind was blown. I certainly am not using an ellipsis unless I’m 100% positive it works in the sentence. When I know I don’t know it, I don’t use it.
Points for realizing it is 3 dots. Anything more is certifiable.
I had a screenwriting teacher in college who failed roughly 65% of the class for misuse of ellipsis in their scripts. The students took it to the board. The teacher, a successful TV scriptwriter, noted to the board: “The people in this industry who you want to read these scripts have 5 boxes of them sitting by their desk each day. When they read one, all they do is look for one reason to put it down and move onto the next one. Punctuation matters to them. All I’ve done is prepare our students for the world we are positioning them to succeed in”.