proper use of ellipses

The more The Bachelorette DeAnna Pappas and fiance, Jesse Csincsak, update their website, the uglier the grammar gets.

The homepage of their we’re-preserving-our-reality-TV-fame site, www.DeannaAndJesse.com, boasts an astounding number of language errors.

A few mistakes will hit the casual reader over the head, such as the random capitalization of Fans and Best.

We would like to thank all of our Fans for all of the continued support…your the Best!

Your support may be the best, but as fans, you’re the best. Contractions combine two words by removing one letter or more and substituting an apostrophe in that spot. You’re stands for you are. Couldn’t stands for could not. She’ll stands for she will. And so on.

Here’s another statement on the lovebirds’ homepage. This one contains three different types of errors (not counting the inconsistent use of an ampersand).

We want to give special thanks to: Patti Campana & Bob Goohs , Mark and Adam, the Kalo’s , the Rothgery’s, the Strickler’s, and everyone else who helped put together this memorable event…

First, a tip to keep in mind when it’s time to address holiday greeting cards (or engrave a granite rock to place on your front yard): Do not use an apostrophe to make a last name plural. Simply add an “s” to the last name or add an “es” if the name ends in z or s. For example, you could correctly address a card to the Millers, the Hernandezes or the Joneses.

DeAnna should have written: “We want to give special thanks to the Kalos, the Rothgerys, the Stricklers and everyone else who helped put together this memorable event.”

I’ve corrected the other two mistakes in that sentence. One, DeAnna shouldn’t have used a colon to thank the people. Colons are only used after statements that are complete sentences — whether or not it’s a list. She could have written, “We have many people to thank: the Kalos…” because the statement preceding the colon is a complete sentence. But “We want to give special thanks to” is an incomplete sentence, and there is no need for a colon.

Second, there is no need to end the sentence with an ellipsis (one set is ellipsis, multiple sets are ellipses). The Bachelorette has a penchant for ellipses, the crutch of a lazy or uncertain writer.

DeAnna recently wrote a homepage update that consists of eight sentences. One ends with an exclamation point. One has no punctuation mark whatsoever. Two end with periods, and four end with ellipses.

Ellipses have their proper place and time, but in general, they are woefully overused.

For example, writers use an ellipsis to indicate that a statement is left unfinished, that there is much more to be said on a subject. “It is doubtful that they often have anything particular in mind, and the device seems a rather cheap one,” Harry Shaw cautions in his book “Punctuate It Right!” He adds, “Alert readers will probably assume the truth: more might be said but the writer wasn’t certain just what or how.”

There are six reasons to use an ellipsis:

1) To indicate missing words
2) To show hesitation
3) To indicate that a list continues beyond the named items
4) To indicate the passage of time
5) To indicate that a statement is left unfinished
6) To separate short groups for emphasis

In the musical Mamma Mia!, for instance, Sophie reads her mom’s diary, noting the “dot, dot, dot” used to hint at the consummation of a date. Here, the ellipsis is used properly: It signals the passage of time and conveys hesitation to further name the list of activities. We know that Donna deliberately left the sentence unfinished, and we have a pretty good idea what remains to be said.

As a writer, ask yourself if you can name other items on a list or articulate remaining thoughts in an unfinished statement. If you can, you are justified in using an ellipsis. Still, use it sparingly. Frequent ellipses make a writer look like an airhead, with ideas seeping out of the brain before they can be pinned to the page.

American humorist Don Marquis once wrote: “When you see . . . three little dots . . . such as these . . . in the stuff of a modern versifier . . . even in our stuff . . . it means that the writer . . . is trying to suggest something rather . . . well, elusive, if you get what we mean . . . and the reason he suggests it instead of expressing it . . . is . . . very often . . . because it is an almost idea … instead of a real idea . . .”

Of course, DeAnna may have run out of real ideas, having expressed so many eloquent insights while filming The Bachelorette.

Or not.