What Does an Ellipsis Do?
Have you ever noticed how three little dots can say so much? Just look at Star Wars, which kicks off its opening crawl with the legendary line, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…" — and boom, the audience is hooked. In this context, an ellipsis builds
suspense and sparks curiosity, so it's a useful tool for screenwriters, authors, speechwriters, poets, and other areas of creative writing. The ellipsis also has a place in professional and academic settings, where it is used to omit superfluous words in direct quotes. The rules for using it this way are...