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Talking about punctuation abuse, people that litter their emails or texts with ellipses is something I can't figure out: "Hey! I haven't heard from you in a wh
by mysterypie 9y ago
Talking about punctuation abuse, people that litter their emails or texts with ellipses is something I can't figure out:
"Hey! I haven't heard from you in a while... I'm still in Boston... Can't complain cause it's been good... I saw the circus before it closed..."
What do they think they're saying with all those crazy unneeded ellipses?
- oddlyaromatic 9y agoLots of people do this to connect loosely related sentences because to them the "..." reads like a little pause. I guess it feels more comfortable, less formal, and let's them get the words out without worrying about structure too much.
- 3pt14159 9y agoTwo otherwise very smart family members of mine both used to do this. It takes sitting down and explaining that email isn't a voicemail. We're not "hearing" the pause when we read, we're just confused and it makes the person writing seem dumber than they actually are.
- cup-of-tea 9y agoI believe it is due to an unwillingness to make a concrete statement. A full stop is strong and is equivalent to speech in a flat and confident tone. The ellipsis seems to stand in for short disclaimer phrases like "by the way", "in my opinion", "in case you were wondering", etc.