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.

And in Mississippi, legislators passed “a ban on bans—a law that forbids . . . local restrictions on food or drink” (Conly A23).

The writer has omitted the words municipalities to place before local restrictions to condense the quoted material.

On the rare occasions when you want to leave out one or more full sentences, use a period before the three ellipsis dots.

Legal scholars Gostin and Gostin argue that “individuals have limited willpower to defer immediate gratification for longer-term health benefits. . . . A person understands that high-fat foods or a sedentary lifestyle will cause adverse health effects, or that excessive spending or gambling will cause financial hardship, but it is not always easy to refrain” (217).

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 and parenthetical reference.

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