Thread by @BCDreyer

#CopyeditingProTip

In quoting someone else's writing, there's no reason to introduce ellipses at either the beginning or the end of the quoted matter.

In the middle, to signify deletion, absolutely. But not at the start or the finish.

Also, to make the quoted matter contextual with your writing, you may change an opening capital letter to a lowercase one, or vicey versey, without resorting to brackets,* but you knew that.

*Exceptions are allowed for lawyers or scholars aiming for extreme punctiliousness, but otherwise nah.

We know that the words you're quoting are not the last or first words ever written, so you don't have to tell us with dots.

Sometimes, if the writer is quoting material that itself include ellipses, the writer will set their own ellipses in brackets [. . .], but that's just incredibly complicated.

Look at me, Mr. Singular They.

Ten years ago I wouldn't have been caught dead.

I am a willow, I can bend.

For example, here's an Oscar Wilde quote:

"Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it."

This is what you do, if you're so inclined:

Oscar Wilde famously commented that "anybody can make history," adding, "Only a great man can write it."

Of course you wouldn't do that; you'd just quote Oscar in full.

But this is the gist.

Good?

If you want to quote a bit of Bleak House thus:

In the opening section of Bleak House, Charles Dickens writes of "...Dogs, undistinguishable in mire...."

well, you just have fun with that.

Benjamin Dreyer says, "[T]o make . . . quoted matter contextual with your writing

*shivers with horror*

No, seriously, I get it, you're a lawyer writing something that's literally life-or-death, or a historian intent on making sure that no one can challenge anything you do, you do this sort of thing. I get it.