9/8/13 Using Round and Square Brackets - Grammar Lesson on Brackets

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Using Round and Square Brackets

Round brackets () are used to insert additionalinformation. Square brackets [] are usually used to

make a quoted text more understandable.

Round Brackets for Additional Information

Round brackets are used to insert additional information in text. If you were to remove thebrackets and the information inside, the text would still work. For example:

Set in the 17th century, The Three Musketeers ("Les Trois Mousquetaires" in French) is a novelby Alexandre Dumas.

Although they are relatively common off Australia, California, South Africa and Mexico, greatwhite sharks usually inhabit coastal waters where the water temperature ranges 12-24 degreesCelsius. They generally hunt by detecting the electrical fields (They can detect less than onebillionth of a volt.) emitted by the movements of their prey.

Round Brackets to Denote Singular or Plural

For brevity, round brackets can be used to show that a word could be either singular or plural.For example:

Please write the name(s) of your guest(s) in the section below.

Ensure the rod(s) is(are) aligned with the top section.

Square Brackets to Make the Text Clearer

Square brackets are used to add information that explains the text it follows. (The information isusually added by someone other than the original author.) For example:

Hedy Lamarr once said: "Most people save all their lives and leave it [their money] to

somebody else."

"It [electricity] is really just organized lightning."

Square Brackets to Modify the Original Text

Often, square brackets are used to replace text in a quote to make the quote clearer for thereader. For example:

Hedy Lamarr once said: "Most people save all their lives and leave [their money] to somebodyelse."

Alice Cooper famously said that "from the moment [he] leave[s] [his] house or hotel room, thepublic owns [him]."

Square Brackets: [sic]

The term "[sic]" is used to show that the word it follows featured in the original text. Often, "[sic]" is used to indicate that a grammar error in the text was written by the original author. Forexample:

The minister believed that his statement was "appropriate and did not undermine the moral[sic] of ourtroops." (should be "morale" not "moral")

Your demand for a "full compliment [sic] of men" cannot be met at this time. (should be "complement" not "compliment")

Square Brackets: [...]

Ellipsis is used to show text omitted from a quote. Ellipsis is usually written "..." or "[...]". Forexample:

It's no small irony that the government [...] ends up promoting precisely that which they would

DON'T OVERUSE ROUND BRACKETS

Using lots of brackets in your writing is usually a sign of badsentence structure. Brackets also look a little informal in seriouscorrespondence. Luckily, the latter issue is easily solved. You don'thave to use brackets all the time. In fact, you have choice betweenround brackets, commas and dashes. These are all calledparentheses. The information between the parentheses is called aparenthesis.

HOW LONG CAN PARENTHESIS BE?

Parenthesis is used to add additional information. As such, it is oftenjust a few words, but it can be a complete sentence or even a fewsentences. (If it's any longer than that, you should probablyreconsider whether it's appropriate as a parenthesis.) If yourparenthesis is a complete sentence, it should start with a capital andend in a full stop (period ), which would be inside theparentheses.

9/8/13 Using Round and Square Brackets - Grammar Lesson on Brackets

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most like to repress. (The ellipsis replaces "inevitably and invariably".)

Andy Warhol is the only genius...with an IQ of 60. (The ellipsis replaces the words "I've ever known" in this Gore Vidal quote.)

See also:

Brackets, commas and dashes - a choice of parenthesesParenthesesParenthesisEllipsis

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