Ellipses: Omitting Portions of a Quote

 

To omit certain portions of a quote (doesn’t fit your point), use an ellipsis enclosed in brackets:  [. . .]

*When you are finished, the sentence should still be grammatically correct and still make sense.  You also cannot alter the author’s intended meaning!

 

Page 608, ¶8:

 

*We learn of the harmful effects of gambling when Gold and Ferrell reveal that “[c]ompulsive gambling has been linked to child abuse, domestic violence, [. . .] and a host of other criminal and social ills” (608).

 

Beginning: No [. . .] if removed portion is at beginning of quote

 

*Gold and Ferrell reveal the severity of the financial devastation caused by gambling: “[E]mbezzlement, bogus insurance claims, bankruptcies, [and] welfare fraud [. . .]” (608).

 

End:

·       If omission is at the end of your sentence and there is no citation (author in text, source TV/radio, etc.), put your period after bracket but before quotation marks:  [. . .].”

·       If there is a citation, put final period after it:  [. . .]” (608).

 

 


An entire sentence or more: 

        A.  If you take out material at the end of a sentence and      then a sentence or more:  [. . .].

 

Page 608, ¶6:

 

We see the escalation of this problem when we learn that “[n]ever before have bettors blown so much money—a whopping $50.9 billion last year [. . .].  A substantial share of those gambling losses [. . .] pours from the pockets and purses of chronic losers hooked on the adrenaline rush of risking their money [. . .]” (Gold 608).      

 

B.  If you take out a sentence and/or sentences and then the beginning of a sentence:  . [. . .]

 

Page 612, ¶39

 

The lure of the possible win and the inability to let it go is revealed when we learn that “[a]t 11 P.M. on a Tuesday night, with a bankroll of $55 [. . .] [Rex] is at a poker table in Gardenia. [. . .]  [H]e talks about leaving, getting some sleep.  Midnight comes and goes.  [. . .] ‘I’ll go at 2.  Win, lose, or draw’” (Gold 612).