103. Who commissioned them, a minority, a less than minority ...?... Some of them are misguided, some of them are blind, most of them are ignorant. I would rather pray for them.... They do not tell me what they are attempting.
How shall we interpret the marks indicating the three ellipses in the above sentence?
The first three periods stand for words omitted from the end of an interrogative sentence, whose end-mark follows such periods.
The second group of three periods indicates an ellipsis of one or more entire sentences. If they indicated an ellipsis of only a part of the next sentence, “Some” would not begin with a capital.
The next group of four periods is composed of three periods for the ellipsis and one period for the end-mark of the sentence.
It should be noted that ellipses from quotations are of only such matter as can be omitted without affecting the sense of the language quoted.
Marks of quotation will include the marks of ellipsis that begin or end the quoted matter.
The use of stars in the first part of No. 103 will convey no more definite information than the periods give the reader; but their use in the second part of the sentence, accompanied by a period, will at once show that they stand for the ellipsis of one or more sentences:
103-1. I would rather pray for them. * * * They do not tell me what they are attempting.
Quotation-marks are either single or double. The former consist of one inverted comma and one apostrophe; the latter, of two inverted commas and two apostrophes.
The double marks are very generally used in this country for a single quotation; but some writers and some printing-offices follow the English style of using the single marks.
Quotation-marks are used by a writer to identify as the exact language of another writer a word or group of words which the first writer uses within his own language.
They are sometimes used by a writer to enclose a quotation from his own printed or spoken language. The fact that such quoted matter is his own language is practically always shown by the text.
If the quoted language contains a quotation, such quotation is identified by the quotation-marks (single or double) not used for the main quotation.
If the subordinate quotation begins the main quotation, three marks (one double and one single) are used at the beginning; if the subordinate ends the main, three marks are also used at the close.