Tuesday, August 29, 2006

A bit late

This should have been posted yesterday but I've had trouble with t'internet again. I'm not sure if it's BT or us. Anyway, back to what should have been yesterday's post.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/meet_the_bloggers.shtml
It's only a quarter of an hour slot but it's on for a number of weeks. Today's is the first in the series and the two bloggers featured are transport linked. But they're nowhere near as boring as that sounds.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Most of today, when I've been sitting at the computer, I've been muttering to myself, 'I really should go upstairs and get my glasses.' Only apathy prevented me. When I eventually did, my glasses were nowhere to be seen (even allowing for my lack of glasses).

Back downstairs I discover them ... right next to the computer.

I tried several options in that sentence. Should I use a colon? Or a dash? As you see, I settled for ellipses. Or is that an ellipse? Wait.

That should be ellipsis (singular) and it's not right. ellipsis - a figure of syntax by which a word or words are left out and merely implied (Chambers).

I wasn't leaving anything out, just putting in a gap to create an effect. I need to consult another expert. But first I will tell you that a dipchick is the same as a dabchick - the little grebe. I just noticed that in passing.

Mr Fowler confused me thoroughly but according to Lynne Truss (may her name be carved in stone), an ellipsis may also be used when the writer wants to 'trail off in an intriguing manner ...' I wasn't doing that either so I must have used the wrong punctuation. It is truly a minefield for the poorly-trained foot-soldier.

4 comments:

jomoore said...

An ellipsis is my very favourite bit of punctuation, as I aspire to be intriguing...

Chris said...

I didn't even know it had a name. To me it's a row of dots that correspond to those in my mind. However I DO like that word. It's a bit like and eclipse with a lisp.

Shirley said...

I use whatever punctuation is fashionable at that time (fashionable in my stoopid head).
Semi colons confuse me, what are they for?

Anna said...

You did leave out words: 'I did discover them[. They were] right beside the computer.' or a variation on this. Whatever, there are missing words, cause 'right beside the computer' isn't a proper sentence. So you are using it correctly after all!