Direct speech in verse.

[Maureen K Clifford]

I like ellipses... but sometimes three are not enough...........sometimes you need to draw a bigger breath or ponder for more than...who decided three was enough? Maybe there should be multiple ................................. just because there can be. They could be ellipseses Do you lose points in poetry comps for using more than 3??? How about question marks???? Sometimes one is not enough there either.

[Vic Jefferies]

Thank you Neville, Treddinick seems to agree with my understanding of writing direct speech.
Of course we are all free to do as we please regarding punctuation, spelling and setting out our writing however, it is what the reader sees, accepts and understands that matters. Although my grasp of all these subject is at best rudimentary, I do try to adhere to the old accepted rules without being too
pedantic.
I was taught that you are judged by your written work and it is a good idea to remember that you wont be there to offer an explanation or an excuse for your errors or your perceived errors.
Zondrae I remember all too well how I used to sprinkle my poems with large amounts of commas until I realised that I was using the comma to try and accentuate the metre.
At the moment I find that I am using far too many brackets when a two commas would serve the same purpose and I am a great fan of the very unfashionable exclamation mark

[Vic Jefferies]

Maureen does three ??? mean you are asking the same question three times?
I have to admit to being prone to use multiple exclamation marks but understand the use of even one is thought best avoided.
As an ellipsis is a set of three dots which indicate an omission, not a pause, the use of any more than three is not needed. The first three do the job and any more are superfluous.
Hyphens actually have a serious role to play in grammar by joining two or more words to show they should be read as one word with its own meaning.

[Zondrae]

Thanks Vic,

We often are a bit flippent when discussing punctuation. !
You have given a precise and clear explanation.
Now I would like you to de-mystify the semi colon and the colon for me, please.

[Neville Briggs]

Zondrae....from Mark Treddinick, the little green grammar book, UNSW Press, 2009

" A colon breaks a sentence to say, here comes an explanation. The sentence does not end until the explanation ends."

" The semicolon - poised, as its form should suggest, between the comma and the full stop; tougher than the first, gentler than the second- separates independent clauses of more or less the same weight ( and structure ) and makes of them a single sentence. "

Get it, got it, Good.

[David J Delaney]

Thanks you lot.......now I have a lot more words I have to google to find out what they mean....

[Stephen Whiteside]

Neville, don't forget the ascending colon, the transverse colon, the descending colon and, best of them all, the sigmoid colon! Then, when you get sick of them all, there's always the colonic wash-out...

P.S. And don't confuse the sigmoid colon with sigmoid Froid!

[Neville Briggs]

Stephen Whiteside, Professor of Scatology.

[manfredvijars]

.. who do I see for a colonoscopy ?????????????????

[Stephen Whiteside]

You could always settle for a semi-colonoscopy, Manfred. It only costs half as much.