I just discovered something new the other day. I think that it is a pretty cool trick. There are these things called ellipses (…) that make things take on new meaning. There are also these things called brackets ([ ]) that can completely change the meaning of a quote while still making it genuine. Let us look at some examples.
Robin once said, “It’s time for something real. Let me start with…ambiguous…$100…armpits.”
-Extracted from the post Get Off This Blue Marble.
Stev-N once said, “This post…sometimes…feeds…Hailey…for…a…date.”
-Extracted from the post How to Never Miss a Post, Comment, or Just About Anything Else on the Internet (Intro to RSS).
Wow, that was some good use of the little dot dot dot action. Let us see how the other part goes.
78 Pirates once wrote, “your [dad is about to be approved for a $10,000 loan with 0% APR for 12 months. Torpedo boats, with displacement hulls, were first developed in the early 20th century as an inexpensive way to deliver torpedoes which could destroy ships as heavy as battleships without the massive weight necessary for large caliber guns. By WWII, the initial mission of the American PT boats was to battle destroyers, which themselves were originally created as a defense against torpedo boats. In fact the name "destroyer" is actually a shortening of the name "torpedo boat destroyer" from the World War One era. Though many would question the military effectiveness of the boats in this role, their psychological impact in deterring Japanese attacks was significant. The Navy's impetus for building the PT boat fleet was for both economic and material reasons. Ten PT boats could be built for the cost of one modest-sized destroyer escort. Another reason was a shortage of steel at the beginning of the war, which had to be conserved for building larger ships. Towards the end of the war, the US was able to build a massive naval fleet, and the wood construction of the PT boats enabled more steel to be used for that purpose. Later in the war, the boats were much more effective as gunboats against targets their own size, such as armored barges that the Japanese used to shuttle troops and supplies between islands.]”
-Extracted from the post your mama
I have no idea how to use these things, so any english majors can feel free to correct me on it’s usage. I don’t know what it is. Could it be misrepresentation?
Have any of you ever devoted so much to something and just lost all interest in it? I feel that is what is happening with all of my music projects. I am just now finishing up something that I wrote years ago. It is hard for me to stay focused for long. Maybe I need to cross my own Rubicon or something. I don’t know, why not. If you see any let me know.
” Well no one told me about her the way she lied
Well no one told me about her how many people cried”
-The Zombies
May 18th, 2008 at 9:12 PM
“I just discovered…Robin…feeds…Hailey…a…massive…torpedo.”
-Extracted from the post MisReRresenTaTion
YOUR RIGHT! That is fun.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:59 AM
wonders never cease
May 19th, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Helpful tip from Africa: When you use the ellipsis to misrepresent, make sure you add a fourth “dot” to include transitions from sentences. But don’t get carried away.
For example, I’m now going to quote the above while “hopping” from my beginning sentence (after the colon) to the second sentence: ” . . .use the ellipsis . . . .But don’t get carried away.”
However, if you cross more than one sentence, it is not necessary for another period; i.e. if there were two sentences I crossed between “ellipsis” and “But” in my example, there would still only be 4 dots. Thus, you will always only use three or four dots. The fourth dot represents a break in the flow of ideas; i.e. the quote is not a continuous sentence.
Not sure what to make of the bracketed bit. Have to look that one up.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:55 AM
And if you’ll notice, the spaces between periods are not only conventional, but look better as well.
May 19th, 2008 at 12:40 PM
Whether spaces in between looks better is debatable and I will debate it. Some fonts include a special character for the ellipsis, such as Verdana and Courier New. However, I will concede that if you foresee use of the four period variety, which I’ve only just now seen, you may wish to use periods, as I haven’t seen this in its own character in any font (this makes me suspect Robin of terrible lies).
May 19th, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Stephen, have you and my degree in English met?
May 19th, 2008 at 2:15 PM
It’s a license to lie and calumnize.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:25 PM
Calumny may defame!
May 19th, 2008 at 10:28 PM
There’s a simpler way to put the whole shebang: Use the three-dot ellipsis for quoting within a sentence, and the four-dot ellipsis for quoting between sentences. And make sure you put lotz of spaces for Niedzielski.
May 20th, 2008 at 9:40 AM
n i ed ziel
ski
May 20th, 2008 at 9:41 AM
RIVERS OF CALAMITY!
May 21st, 2008 at 10:18 AM
billy, at first glance your gravitar looks like a scull but with a little looking I see two naked women. still cool.
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:31 PM
Nope nope, I don’t see it. Hailey’s gravatar has boobs, let’s stay focused on that.
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:34 PM
That last comment was probably me.