In punctuation what does an ellipse look like?

Answer 1

Elipsis means omitted material is indicated by three spaced dots (as in ...).

Suppose you were quoting this passage: "During the war, manufactured goods, fresh produce, and luxury items were difficult to obtain."

But the subject you're writing about is manufacturing and distribution. You don't need the whole passage. So you can leave out part of it and put in an ellipsis (ellipsis points, which are three dots) to show where the omission occurred. Then you would quote it like this:

"During the war, manufactured goods . . . were difficult to obtain."

For a short passage, you probably wouldn't do this, but for a longer passage it might be necessary. You do have to be careful not to distort the meaning, though.