Sunday 16 March, 2008

Periodicity

Filed under: Grammar etc.

I have two grammatical questions to which I need answers:

  • If I end a sentence with a bracketed clause that itself ends in a period-demanding abbreviation, should there be an additional period after the closing parenthesis?
  • If a sentence ends with an ellipsis, should this be succeeded by a terminating period, given that the ellipsis merely signifies missing words?

My style of choice (is this a matter of style?) is to double up on the period in the first conundrum, while refraining from adding a fourth dot in the second. My argument for the former is that I wouldn't omit a question mark, so why should I omit a period, an argument that should also apply to the latter, but somehow doesn't.

Thought? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone


Posted by dan at 7:22pm | Permalink | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)
Comments

Dan,

With regard to the first situation, I agree, add the extra period. But you might also want to consider the possibly more elegant option of simply not using the abbreviation.

In the second, I also agree, refrain from adding the fourth period (or "full stop", as I sometimes like to still call them). My own logic for this is that the sentence hasn't really ended properly (hence the ellipsis), so doesn't need the full stop.

Cheers,

Nick

Posted by Nick 8:52pm, Tuesday 18 March 2008

i have it on good authority (ie. Chapterhouse proofreading and copy-editing which you're now familiar with as well), that a full stop should follow an ellipsis at the end of a line. It looks a bit shit, but apparently it's correct....

I'm still inclined to use three though.

Posted by Steve 10:48pm, Tuesday 18 March 2008
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