How Punctuation Can Improve Your English Writing (Part 5)

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In this final part of the punctuation series, let’s consider ellipsis and two kinds of brackets: square and round.

 

Ellipsis

An ellipsis is a set of three dots (…) that are evenly spaced. It’s most commonly used to show omission, i.e. not including some words in a sentence, usually ones that aren’t important.

 

Used	Example
to shorten quotations	The rule book clearly states that “members must return any borrowed item ….”
to indicate hesitation	See, the thing is … he’s broke.

 

Remember, if the ellipsis appears at the end of a sentence, it is placed along with the full stop, making it a series of four dots.

 

Square bracket

Square brackets can introduce an explanation that provides clarification, or may provide a short translation of a foreign word that appears in a quoted sentence. They may also be used to indicate that the writer feels something in the original material is a possible error.

 

Used	Example
to provide clarification	The year I got married [2007] was an important one in my life.
to provide short translations of words in quoted materials	Diana says in the interview: “He whispered je t’aime [I love you] as I walked by.”
to indicate a possible error	The book says he was born in Venice [Verona?].

 

Round bracket

Also known as parentheses, round brackets are mostly used to add extra information; this may be a single word, fragment or complete sentence.

 

Used	Example
to provide additional information	The governor (and his family) will attend today’s event.
to provide short translations of words	He said cześć (hello) as soon as he saw me.
to expand abbreviations or acronyms that the reader may not be familiar with	She became CTO (Chief Technical Officer) of the company in 2012.

 

It is worth remembering that the content between brackets should not be grammatical integral to the main sentence.

 

Punctuation is one of the simplest language features to learn, so use it appropriately; people will think you are being careless if you don’t!