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The ellipsis mark consists of three dots (periods). We use the
ellipsis mark in place of missing words. If we intentionally omit one
or more words from an original text, we replace them with an ellipsis
mark.
Suppose we want to quote "The film focused on three English
learners from Asia who were studying at university."
Perhaps we want to omit "from Asia who were" to save space.
So we write:
"The film focused on three English learners...studying at
university."
The new sentence still makes sense, but the ellipsis mark shows the
reader that something is missing.
We sometimes also use an ellipsis mark to indicate a pause
when someone is speaking, or an unfinished sentence. Look at these
examples:
She turned to James and said, "Darling, there is something...I
need to tell you. I have never felt like...like this before."
" Do we use a space with an ellipsis mark? That is a question
of style. Many style manuals recommend no space, like this:
three English learners...studying at university
Others recommend using a space before and after an ellipsis
mark, like this:
three English learners ... studying at university
The important thing is that you choose one style and use it
consistently. Do not mix your styles.
Punctuation Styles
Although there are general rules for English punctuation, there
can be differences of style. For example, some people don't put a full
stop (period) after abbreviations (Dr, Ltd); others do (Dr., Ltd.). Some
people don't use an apostrophe in the plural form of dates (1990s);
others do (1990's). Some prefer single quotation marks ('example')
rather than double quotation marks ("example").
These differences in punctuation style can be found between:

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