BRACKETS.
Rule I. Quoted Passage.—When words are inserted by another into a quoted passage, either to correct a mistake or explain the meaning, they should be inclosed in brackets.
EXAMPLES.
“A variety of pleasing objects meet [meets] the eye.”
“‘My dear lady,’ returned the schoolmaster [Mr. Graham], ‘when I have on good grounds made up my mind to a thing, I always feel as if I had promised God to do it; and indeed it amounts to the same thing very nearly. Such a resolve, then, is not to be unmade, except on equally good grounds with those upon which it was made.’”—George Macdonald.
REMARKS.
1. Punctuation marks are sometimes required, when the brackets are used. The same remarks apply to the brackets that apply to parenthetical marks.
2. In reporting speeches, brackets are used, when words are introduced by the reporter which do not form a part of the speech; as,—
“We would have our Union to be a union of hearts, and we would have our Constitution obeyed, not merely because of force that compels obedience, but obeyed because the people love the principles of the Constitution [long continued applause], and to-day, if I am called to the work to which Abraham Lincoln was called sixteen years ago, it is under brighter skies and more favorable auspices. [Applause.] I do hope, I do fervently believe, that, by the aid of divine Providence, we may do something in this day of peace, by works of peace, towards re-establishing, in the hearts of our countrymen, a real, a hearty attachment to the Constitution as it is, and to the Union as it is. [Long continued applause].”—President Hayes.—Chicago Tribune.
3. Parenthetical marks are frequently used instead of brackets.