Could you reproduce the code here that is doing that? Just the call to the_excerpt() and a couple of lines around it should do.
Without seeing the code, what I suspect is happening is that you’re trying to assign the result of the_excerpt() to a variable which you then wrap in a <p> to output.
But the_excerpt will just do the output within a <p> on its own and the variable you assign will (I’m pretty sure) be empty, hence the <p></p> when you write it out wrapped.
Try get_the_excerpt() instead. It’s mentioned here in the codex but that’s all.
But I had a similar thing where I had to change the_ID() to get_the_ID() so am guessing there’s a convention there.
OK here is the code that I am using (the issue is towards the bottom):
<div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
<div id="<?php foreach((get_the_category()) as $category) {echo $category->cat_name . '-'; } ?>tag">
<!-- VARIABLE CAT IMAGE -->
<?php
$the_cat = get_the_category();
$category_name = $the_cat[0]->cat_name;
$category_description = $the_cat[0]->category_description;
$category_link = get_category_link( $the_cat[0]->cat_ID ); ?>
<a href="<?php echo $category_link; ?>"><img title="<?php echo $category_description; ?>" src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/images/<?php echo $category_name; ?>-tag.png" alt="<?php echo $category_name; ?>" /></a>
</div>
<!-- THUMB IMAGE -->
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>">
<img src="<?php $values = get_post_custom_values("thumb"); echo $values[0]; ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="thumb" /></a>
<!-- HEADING -->
<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<span class="entry"><?php the_excerpt(); ?></span>
</div>
And this is what is generated:
<div class="post-46 post hentry category-nw" id="post-46">
<div id="news-tag">
<!-- VARIABLE CAT IMAGE -->
<a href="http://www.oldnumbernine.com/mcjh/?cat=3">
<img title="" src="http://www.oldnumbernine.com/mcjh/wp-content/themes/default/images/news-tag.png" alt="news" /></a>
</div>
<!-- THUMB IMAGE -->
<a href="http://www.oldnumbernine.com/mcjh/?p=46" title="and another one"><img src="http://www.oldnumbernine.com/mcjh/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/GripTrixPhoto-180x180.jpg" alt="and another one" class="thumb" /></a>
<!-- HEADING -->
<h2><a href="http://www.oldnumbernine.com/mcjh/?p=46" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to and another one">and another one</a></h2>
<span class="entry"><p>eu quam, turpis amet Pellentesque fames mi habitant vitae morbi ultricies ultricies tempor sit semper. ac eget, egestas. quam et tortor placerat [...]</p><p></p></span>
</div>
Hope thats not too much information.
EDIT: get_the_excerpt() returns nothing for me. Just an empty span.
Instead of:
<span class="entry"><?php the_excerpt(); ?></span>
Do:
<span class="entry"><?php echo(get_the_excerpt()); ?></span>
That worked for me.
The excerpt could have it’s own <p></p> in it as well if you’ve entered it explicitly, eg using headspace2 or something.
