Ellipses, or ellipsis points, are three equally spaced dots. Ellipses usually indicate that something has been omitted from a quoted passage. Just as you should carefully use quotation marks around any material that you quote directly from a source, so you should carefully use ellipses to indicate that you have left out some part of a quotation that otherwise appears to be a complete sentence. Ellipses have been used in the following example to indicate two omissions—one in the middle of the sentence and one at the end of the sentence.

ORIGINAL TEXT

The quasi-official division of the population into three economic classes called high-, middle-, and low-income groups rather misses the point, because as a class indicator the amount of money is not as important as the source.

—Paul Fussell, “Notes on Class”

with ellipses

As Paul Fussell argues, “The quasi-official division of the population into three economic classes … rather misses the point.…”

When you omit the last part of a quoted sentence, add a period before the ellipses—for a total of four dots. Be sure a complete sentence comes before the four dots. If your shortened quotation ends with a source citation (such as a page number, a name, or a title), place the documentation source in parentheses after the three ellipsis points and the closing quotation mark but before the period.

Packer argues, “The Administration is right to reconsider its strategy … ” (34).

You can also use ellipses to indicate a pause or a hesitation in speech in the same way that you can use a dash for that purpose.

Then the voice, husky and familiar, came to wash over us—“The winnah, and still heavyweight champeen of the world … Joe Louis.”

—Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings