I love all things grammatical and language related. Recently I have noticed something being used, mainly in reporting style writings, which I cannot remember ever learning about! It is where the writer is reporting on something that someone else has said or re-stating something already written and they do this - [His] attention was twice called to the warning signs. So what do the [ ] 's denote?
Can anyone enlighten me please?
2007-03-25 12:01:30 · 5 answers · asked by Tatsbabe 6 in Education & Reference ➔ Other - Education
ms_silverwing - Thanks very much! I should really have known that as I am a 3rd year English Degree student! Ssshhhh.... don't tell anyone!
2007-03-25 13:20:34 · update #1
It means that the person didn't say it but they are adding it into the report or article or whatever to make it clearer.
You must know that the way some people talk doesn't come across on paper very well as most people are physically expressive, using there hands and such to indicate what they mean, or just don't say certain things half way through a conversation, and because your on the other side it makes perfect sense to you but written it looks like they were talking in code.
So really it's just to clarify speech.
2007-03-25 12:11:13 · answer #1 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A quote must be a direct replica of what a person actually said. Sometimes a small quote is taken from a longer piece of writing. The shortened version wouldn't make sense to a reader without some additional information to give us some idea of the context it was used in. Words such as [His] or [the first time] are added in square brackets to help us understand the subject matter.The brackets indicate that these words weren't in the original quotation and have been added by the new author.
2007-03-26 01:01:20 · answer #2 · answered by fionio 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Those brackets indicate that the writer has added that word. Sometimes the writer has changed a word, or the capitilization of the word.
2007-03-25 12:11:21 · answer #3 · answered by istitch2 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the brackets denote that the following sentence was said or written by another person and they use( his) so that they dont have to write the name every time.
2007-03-25 12:12:24 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its just like when you read a play the brackets denote text not to be read.
2007-03-25 12:05:53 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋