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 leave out one or more full sentences, use a period before the three ellipsis dots.

At 3:30 p.m., Forrest demanded the surrender of the Union forces, sending in a message of the sort he had used before: “The conduct of the officers and men garrisoning Fort Pillow has been such as to entitle them to being treated as prisoners of war. . . . Should my demand be refused, I cannot be responsible for the fate of your command.”²

Ordinarily, do not use an ellipsis mark at the beginning or at the end of a quotation. Your readers will understand that the quoted material is taken from a longer passage, so such marks are not necessary.

The only exception occurs when you have dropped words at the end of the final quoted sentence. In such cases, put three ellipsis dots before the closing quotation mark.

Make sure omissions and ellipsis marks do not distort the meaning of your source.