I'm starting a new thread on the use of ellipses in sales copy here because top copywriters like John Carlton, Clayton Makepeace, and the legendary Gary Halbert (plus many others), have used them A LOT... in every sales letter they wrote!

If you want to improve your copywriting, you should be aware of this and more...

You need to understand HOW they are used effectively, as Harlan pointed out in the posts below, because...

A lot of copywriter's blow it!

So the answer to my question: "Ellipses... Eyesore or Secret Weapon?" is... YES!

(This thread is to talk about how to make sure we fall on the right side of "YES!")

The first 3 posts quoted below were posted earlier as an off-the-wall tangent in another thread, so I grouped them here for people to easily find...

Fair enough and good idea Harlan.

Ellipses should have their own thread (so I started it here) because they are a great tool in "greasing the slide" when used appropriately.

Yes, it's essential to understand how John and other top copywriters use them. In John's case, you'll see he uses them more than "sparingly".

In the sales letter of his I referred to in the earlier post, in the first 16 sentences (1 screen), there were 11 ellipses (I missed a couple earlier).

I looked at 3 older golf letters of JC's quickly, and in the top fold (including the graphic header and headline which eat up A LOT of space), I counted 11 ellipses again in the first letter, then 8 in the second letter, and 14 in the 3rd letter... just in the top fold.

This comes out to nearly 1 string of ellipses per sentence, on average, in the most important part of the letter!

Maybe Harlan was a little extreme in his "can't stand a letter full of freakin' ellipses" statement, especially since he used John as his proof (when it's apparent John gives A LOT of weight to using ellipses frequently in his sales copy).

Heck some copywriters here might've stopped using ellipses altogether because they misinterpreted Harlan's strong feelings. It was easy to read his words as "hardly ever use them if you want to consider yourself a copywriter".

I agree with Harlan that they need to be used with specific intention, not just out of habit or willy nilly.

Interestingly - John uses ellipses very sparingly in his blog, about 1/3rd as often as in his sales copy as far as I could tell in a quick comparison.

Bottom line is, if a world-class, grade A level copywriter like John Carlton uses a style or technique in almost every sentence (on average) in the top fold of the page - maybe it would help to at least notice it, eh?

And as Harlan already suggested, it's even more important to carefully look at HOW (not just how much) John or other talented copywriters use those ellipses, dashes, colons, and semi-colons to move the reader forward.

Thoughts anyone?

To be honest, I really haven't studied the "science" behind using them in compelling adcopy, nor have I given it much thought except that it seems to help the "flow", as you stated earlier.

Even in many of my posts on this board, you'll find that it has become habitual for me and has become part of my writing style.

Some of the more sophisticated, more educated writers may look at this useage as being downright lazy, but I feel it does have its' place when trying to convey my message and helps lead the reader to the next paragragh and prevents abrupt speedbumps, stop signs, and roadblocks for my reader.

In other words, it does help "move" the reader down the slippery slide.

Here's an excerpt from some copy I wrote a couple of months ago for a client. Notice how I use ellipses to move the reader along:




Try and imagine how else you could rewrite this piece without sounding boring and without the use of ellipses.

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I will continue to use ellipses unless someone can prove to me that they don't help and perhaps even hinder writing good copy.

Great discussion for a thread Tim. I hope others here will voice their opinions and maybe even show us any test results they've gotten on this subject.

I see here the use of ellipses instead of a colon.

Hey, does everyone put a space after their elipses...I neve do. Is this correct?

Good question. I just did some research and it appears that academic style guides require a space both before and after. But the real-world examples I looked at usually don't put a space on either side. I think for a sales letter you would just do whatever looks best to you (or even split-test it, if you really wanted to go that far).

The Wikipedia entry for ellipses says that in Polish, there is a space after the ellipses only, but not before, as Tim does it. Maybe that's the European style?

Good old fashioned american here and I always put a space after the elipses and never before. I don't know why.

I never put a space on either side...and I don't know why either.

But wait... I stand corrected...

I just remembered something Garfinkel has said to me...

...You sometimes put elipses at the end of one thing...

...and continue by putting them at the beginning of another.

When I do this, which is not too often, I don't put any space after the "pre-lipses" on the second part (that make sense?).

I like them...

Well, if I never paid attention to grammar rules in school while growing up in California - I'm certainly not going to pay attention to them now as an adult in Europe!

I don't know what the correct academic use of ellipses is.

I've seen top copywriters use them with spaces, without spaces, before sentences, after sentences... I don't think these technical details make much of a difference.

I personally like spaces after ellipses (within the same sentence) because it enhances one of the purposes of using them in the first place for me. It gives more breathing space, a natural pause, a lead in to an important thought... it helps me to emphasize and pace.

I use ellipses to try and convey, in writing, a pace to the reader as if I am speaking to them face to face.

They are also very effective in helping to keep the "bucket brigade" moving along.

Take a look at the last newsletter, "Killer Advertising", by Gary Halbert. The Gary Halbert Letter Look at all the copy samples in that newsletter, and you'll see quickly how Gary also used ellipses frequently to hold the reader's hand, give emphasis, and guide them forward.

Brilliant stuff.

Timothy...

99% of my usage is like yours... pacing.