Cheryl Singhals wrote: > OK, you grammar-hammers and "prissy-faced English teachers" out > there -- Some of us find it quite flattering to be considered a grammar- hammer, if not a prissy-faced English teacher. (I don't even teach English, for crying out loud! <G>) I'm happy to help, but my remarks here are subject to a caveat that I must reserve for the end of this message. For now, let us just address the general usage of the ellipsis. > If an ellipsis follows the end of a sentence are there 3 dots or 4? Four. The dot at the left is the one that ends the sentence. It is also correct usage to place four dots when you stop quoting in the *middle* of one sentence and resume it at the *beginning* of another, within the same pair of quotation marks. Four dots are also a popular way to end a quote in midsentence, but I think one period suffices and is less distracting. > If an ellipsis follows a clause which ends with a , do I leave the , ? Take it or leave it, but most writers prefer to leave the comma out. > Quote marks with punctuation -- > if the quoted material ends with a . it's inside the quote, yes? Of course. > If the quoted material from the center of a sentence but is at the > end of the new sentence the . is outside the quote, right? No, in almost every case the preferred usage is to put all periods and ellipses inside the quotes. The major exception concerns the usage of APA-style parenthetical citations. Then the quote will end on a word, with no punctuation aside from the closing mark, followed by the citation material in parentheses with the period after the closing parenthesis. Now for the caveat. > The material I'm working with has it all ways, and I want to > standardize punctuation for clarity to the 21st century reader, most > of whom don't have a clue what the rules are in the 21st century but > will promptly be on an anomaly like fur on a kitten. Meanwhile, > seeing so many deviations from the norm I thought I knew in the > beginning has me looking up whether all sentences must end with a . Transcribing an original, are you? If you want to modernize the punctuation, that is your choice -- though I do hope that you include a notice with your transcript that says, "I have modernized the punctuation." The ellipsis, however, poses a special problem when it appears in original documents. It is used in published works to condense quotations and make it more economical to print them. Good transcription practice will hardly permit you to dispense with them, but to leave them in without explaining them will only sow confusion among your readers, who may suspect that you have removed some material and condensed the document. Therefore, your notice should also say: "Ellipses appear in the original text." Austin W. Spencer "Austin W. Spencer" <[email protected]>