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) to indicate that you have omitted words. What remains must be grammatically complete.

Roman (2003) reported that “social factors are nearly as significant as individual metabolism in the formation of . . . dietary habits of adolescents” (p. 345).

The writer has omitted the words both healthy and unhealthy.

When you want to omit a full sentence or more, use a period before the three ellipsis dots.

According to Sothern and Gordon (2003), “Environmental factors may contribute as much as 80% to the causes of childhood obesity. . . . Research suggests that obese children demonstrate decreased levels of physical activity and increased psychosocial problems” (p. 104).

Ordinarily, do not use an 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.