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Brackets
Use brackets [ ] in quotations when you need to insert a word that does
not appear in the original in order to make a reference clear or to alter
the grammar of the quotation to fit with your own sentence. Brackets in
quotations are most frequently used to alter the tense of a verb or case
of a pronoun in the original.
Captain Ramsay Park wrote in his war diary, "A
small rear party of seven officers and 24 other ranks [would
be] remaining to deal with the case of C-5292 Pte.
Pringle, H.J., sentenced to die by being shot, on a charge of murder."
(Writing in the present tense, Capt Park
would have used the verb "are" in his diary entry.)
Sometimes a noun or pronoun in the quotation needs some clarification.
A brief defining phrase can then be inserted into the quotation in brackets.
In the example below, the student is quoting from a novel in an English
essay:
Sherston asks, "How could one connect
[the front line soldier] with the
gross profiteer whom I'd overheard in a railway carriage remarking
to an equally repulsive companion that if the War lasted another eighteen
months he'd be able to retire from business?" (247).
(The original had the word "him" where the bracketed
phrase appears.)
If a word is misused or misspelled in a quotation, and you deem it necessary
for the sake of scholarly accuracy to indicate to the reader that you
are aware of the error, the Latin term sic (meaning "in this manner")
may be inserted into the text in brackets. The example below appears in
a history text that cites a letter by a Canadian war bride, who makes
some pronounced spelling and sentence structure errors:
We landed in Tilbury England and were taken to a
small hotel somewhere on the outskirts of London. There we cleaned
up and stood in line first for the washroom and the bath and then
for our meal. It was all done in Army style, not very luxurius [sic].
The next day, we entered the train in London which was to take us
to Liverpool. It was a very long trainride [sic]
in old trains, the people were friendly, the food was terrible.
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Help!
Do not use [sic] to belittle a writer you are quoting or
to call attention to stupid mistakes. If there are spelling or usage
errors in a passage you wish to use in an essay, consider paraphrasing
the point before you decide to quote directly and use [sic]. You
risk being considered snobbish.
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Brackets should only be used when necessary, to avoid confusion or to
avoid committing a grammar error. |
