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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/26468
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

When we speak, there are often small pauses between syntactic units such as sentences. In writing, these pauses are signified by punctuation:

> I can come if you want. (without pause)
> 
> I can come, if you want. (with brief pause)
> 
> I can come. If you want. (with longer pause)

But sometimes we briefly hesitate in the middle of syntactic units, for example, when we hesitate to utter a word that the listener might find objectionable:

> This man, this (pause) _monster_, has done something despicable.

We can italicize such a word, as I have done, to show an emphasis. But that emphasis does not necessarily imply a pause:

> This man, this _monster_, has done something despicable. (emphasis, but no pause)
> 
> This man, this...monster...has done something despicable. (pause, but no emphasis)

But the last example shows why using an ellipsis to signify a pause may be confusing. A reader, who does not know what I want to say, may wonder whether I have left out words before and after "monster", or if I mean that the speaker is trailing off twice, creating two longish pauses. The last example may look to a reader more like two broken off sentences instead of one sentence with two pauses:

> This man, this... What a monster... He has done something despicable.

A full stop has been better used to create unmistakeable pauses in unconventional places:

> I am going to tell you one last time: Go. Home. Now.

But a full stop is too strong a disruption in some cases. Usually, because we lack a specific symbol for a brief hesitation, we describe it:

> This man, this -- I briefly hesitate -- this _monster_, has done something despicable.

But again, this inserted description is not exactly the same as a brief hesitation.

So **how can I _show_ a brief hesitation** , for example surrounding the word "boy" in the following example?

> I was expecting the president to be a middle aged man and then this (hesitation) boy (hesitation) comes in.

* * *

I have thought about this problem in my answer to [a related question](https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/25531/showing-a-brief-hesitation), but that question itself is broader than my current problem and can be easily solved through description.

Original score: 15