Focus: Ellipse
Sentence: “Where’s the mic… where, wheres, where’s the mic… is the mic just there?”
Using an ellipse in a written transcript can help with finishing or continuing a spoken sentence. When people are speaking they don’t always know how they are going to finish a sentence. In writing it can be hard to express the pauses in speech where the speaker tries to think of what to say next. The ellipse (…) signifies a pause. Visually, this pause is usually expressed by the speaker looking quizzical or thoughtful so the second speaker knows not to say anything as there is still more to come, much like a gap filler. In writing, the ellipse allows the reader to see these pauses and identify how the conversation may be going. visualization of how someone is talking can assist in understanding the first speakers point. It also sets the pace, another similarity to gap filler. Sometimes, if the first speaker takes too long to continue, the ellipse will show how the first speaker couldn’t finish so the second speaker did it for them. Otherwise it would just look like the second speaker has cut across the first.