Ellipsis: What's missing?

Sometimes writers create cohesion by omitting words which are unnecessary (ellipsis). They rely on the reader to supply these words in their head, because they know what to expect. For example, Mr Brown loved coffee. His wife didn’t [love coffee].

Usually, if the missing words were included, it would sound repetitive. Instead the reader or listener makes the link between the two points. This helps create cohesion since without making the link to the earlier information, we would not know what the second part was referring to. Look at the example on the ‘What’s missing?’ sheet. Ask the children to work out which words have been omitted – they will need to refer back to the earlier part of the sentence or sentence before. Discuss why the examples using ellipsis of the expected words sound better. (The answers are printed on the second page of the PDF.)

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