English grammar question regarding ellipses?

Ellipsis

Scroll down until you reach the paragraph that discusses how the Chicago Manual of Style (a book you should own) suggests you use…in formal text.

Personally, I would use a colon there if it is for a brochure.

I’m with fireside.

It’s a list of questions, so I would use a colon =)
(Agreeing with fireside)

Agreeing with fireside, although both are technically valid.

Personally I feel the ”...” is a bit too pushy and sales-like, it gives me that late-night-TV infomercial vibe. I feel a colon would be more professional.

Colon is “better”, like Fireside and the rest said. But ellipses are accepted, especially if you want to be kinda “cute”...

I agree with the colon but either way is correct.

A colon is not correct, strictly speaking, not in this grammatical construction. There is a grammatical relation between what precedes and what follows a colon, and the elements aren’t properly arranged for it here.

The example in the question is for an advertising brochure. A lot of very good rules are generously overlooked in advertising literature. There is a right kind of wrong and a wrong kind of wrong. This isn’t a wrong kind of wrong.

If I were the editor of this brochure, I would say, “We would never do this in formal prose, you know, pallen123, and not even in an article for a popular magazine. But promotional literature occupies a special category in writing. So in this case the answer is, ‘If you are going to do this, yes, this is a fine way to do it. Don’t do it in your master’s thesis.”

By the way, you don’t have ellipses (plural) here. The three dots used together in this way are an ellipsis, and the dots (periods) are ellipsis points.

Colon.

@Jeruba,

You’re likely right, but can you find a reference for a list of questions following an ellipsis?

(Just curious!)

Thanks

@bpeoples, I’ll look in my office tomorrow. Most of my style references and usage guides are there; I have only two or three at home (Chicago, of course). Unless I am following a particular style guide for a specific project, in which case I stick with one for consistency, I like to consult several. I’m more interested in a good case than a majority view and don’t mind following the odd man out—or none of the above—as long as I know exactly why I’m doing it.