No, the book does use dots. I mean, there are spots where dashes are used as well but these spots with dots are mainly in dialogue, where someone is speaking haltingly. As in "What? ... No, I ... I don't know..." Trailing off, as opposed to dashes which in my experience usually signify being interrupted. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cindy" <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx> To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 11:10 AM Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: elipses > Boomerdad, you're right about what elipses are -- but > usually what appears in your examples would be an > em-dash. Are the dots in the book itself, i.e., do you > have a sighted person around who can check the book? > I'm validating a "Fair" book now which has dots but > the book itself as the em-dash. (I'm sighted and can > look at the book), so I'm correcting it. The file I'm > working with is a txt file rather than an rtf file; I > don't know if the conversion to txt is what caused > what might have been em-dashes originally to become > the 3 dots of which you speak or not. > > But in the context of the example you give, I'd say > dashes are more common and moe correct than the dots, > though stylistically an author or publisher might > choose differently. > > If you want and I can get the book, maybe I can check > some pages for you where the dots appear and let you > know what they're supposed to be. > > Cindy > > --- boomerdad <boomerdad@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Okay, I don't know if they're called elipses or > > not--elipses may be referring to journalistic dots > > to signify words being removed from quoted text or > > dialogue. What I'm talking about is in fiction, > > when there are dots in the narrative. I ask one of > > you sighted folk here to help me settle an issue > > once and for all that's been bugging me for quite > > some time. Here's a fake paragraph illustrating > > what I'm talking about: > > > > John walked into the bar ... > > > > ... and found himself staring into the eyes of his > > beloved. > > > > "John..." she breathed. > > > > "Susan...?" he responded. > > > > "... You're ... looking well," she stammered. > > > > > > Anyway, you get the idea. I'm overusing them, just > > to make sure there's no doubt about what I'm > > referring to. > > > > My question is this: I don't know how to fix these > > dots. Many times, instead of being clumped together > > there are spaces between them. (instead of "..." > > you get ". . ."). Sometimes, when someone is > > speaking, there's a space between the last word of > > dialogue ("John..." instead of "John ..."), and when > > the dots occur at the beginning or end of a > > narrative paragraph, I never know whether to put > > spaces between the last word and the dots or not, > > or, as the case may be, the first word of the new > > paragraph and its dots. OCR isn't consistent as to > > how to deal with this, and I'd just like to know how > > to fix them when they're wrongly recognized. Yes, > > it's petty, and doesn't interfere with legibility > > ... but I'm a perfectionist in my own editing, and > > would like to know this for my own writing as well; > > I may not be putting spaces where there should be > > spaces and such. What's the "right" way to use > > these? How's it done in print books? Thanks. > > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com >