3 or 4 dots?

[Tan Elaine]

Tom said "I want to lose weight but I cannot control my eating habit. That's why I am still fat."

In using ellipsis, which sentence is correct?

1. Tom said, "I want to lose weight ... I am still fat." (3 dots)
2. Tom said, "I want to lose weight .... I am still fat." (4 dots, the last to indicate full stop.)

Thanks in advance.

 

[lauralie2]

Tom said "I want to lose weight but I cannot control my eating habit. That's why I am still fat."

In using ellipsis, which sentence is correct?

1. Tom said, "I want to lose weight ... I am still fat." (3 dots)
2. Tom said, "I want to lose weight .... I am still fat." (4 dots, the last to indicate full stop.)

Thanks in advance.

Use four dots between sentence (three dots to represent the omission of words within the first sentence, and one dot to represent the period that ends that sentence--no spaces before or after:

• I want to lose weight....I am still fat.

 

[corum]

I do this:

I want to lose weight... . I am still fat.

 

[lauralie2]

I do this:

I want to lose weight... . I am still fat.

Well, don't do that. The problem is that the omission before "I" is left unrepresented. To represent it we'd have to write something like "weight... . ...I am still fat" which is clumsy, and the reason for the all inclusive four-dot "weight....I am".