The functional category of general extenders (e.g. and so on, or something, etcetera) has been mainly analysed in previous work with a focus on spoken language. The aim of this paper is to further explore its use in standard written language, through the analysis of a corpus of Italian texts. The paper shows that general extenders in written language display several specific features that need to be considered within a general account of the class: (i) from a quantitative point of view, their frequency of use is lower than that of their spoken counterparts; (ii) forms like the abbreviation ecc./etc. and the ellipsis are exclusive of written language; (iii) they are often employed in lists that exemplify a co-occurring referring expression, thus reinforcing text cohesion without the proper online categorization that regularly takes place in spoken language; (iv) their frequency of use is higher in formal texts, whereas in spoken language it increases in interactive and informal discourse.