Ellipsis marks ( . . . ) allow you to keep quoted material to a minimum and to integrate it smoothly into your text.
To condense a quoted passage, you can use the ellipsis mark (three periods, with spaces before, after, and between) to indicate that you have omitted words. What remains must be grammatically complete.
Union surgeon Fitch’s testimony that all women and children had been evacuated from Fort Pillow before the attack conflicts with Forrest’s report: “We captured . . . about 40 negro women and children.”6
The writer has omitted several words not relevant to the issue at hand: 164 Federals, 75 negro troops, and.
When you want to omit a full sentence or more, use a period before the three ellipsis dots.
Ordinarily, do not use the ellipsis mark at the beginning or at the end of a quotation. Readers will understand that the quoted material is taken from a longer passage. The only exception occurs when you think that the author’s meaning might be misinterpreted without ellipsis marks.
Do not use an ellipsis mark to distort the meaning of your source.
Exercise: Integrating sources in Chicago (CMS) papers 1
Exercise: Integrating sources in Chicago (CMS) papers 2
Exercise: Integrating sources in Chicago (CMS) papers 3
Exercise: Integrating sources in Chicago (CMS) papers 4