Are you using 3 dots the WRONG way in an Ellipsis?
Are you using 3 dots in your writing, whether it’s on social media or in a juicy book you’ve just published?
Let me be frank (yes, I know I’m Teena, but I do love that phrase!). An Ellipsis consists of 3 dots, and can represent all kinds of pauses when reading out loud, or just reading silently. It’s dramatic and it’s for effect, and I admit I use ellipsis daily 🙂
Every day I see people using ellipsis online in social media Posts and on advert images for their books.
It breaks my heart to see 9 out of 10 people adding 3 dots RIGHT NEXT TO a word on the left – or on the right (blasphemy!).
It’s essential to think of ellipsis as a separate word or phrase which needs a space on either or both sides.
Did you know that if you don’t ADD the space/s then the search engine robots might add those 3 dots to the spelling of the word it’s next to, which means those little search engine robots think it is a NEW word of some type.
If you know anything about search engine optimisation (SEO), then knowing that those 3 dots can be misinterprested might make a bit more sense now. For example, if I write:
- alarming… – then the SEO robots see “alarming…” as ONE word!
- author… – then the SEO robots see “author…” as ONE word!
If you learn this ONE THING, it will improve your writing TODAY! Woohoo! You will be admired by those who KNOW about ellipsis, who will cheer you on from afar, and be proud of your writing prowess 🙂
Congratulations – taking this step forward puts you on a wonderful level of English understanding, punctuation and grammar knowledge – bravo!
To chat with me, send me a quick email, or pop over to Facebook and say hi — let me know how you get on!
Cheerio for now,
Teena Hughes
