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Victo Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Bracketed Capital Letter with Ellipsis
Greetings.
What does the bracketed capital letter indicate in the revised version below? Is it essential, per the rules of proper punctuation, to do so? Are the ellipsis points (i.e., the spacing of the dots) spot on in that sentence to indicate the omission of one or more sentences?
Original quotation
"It need hardly be said that shortness is a merit in words. There are often reasons why shortness is not possible; much less often there are occasions when length, not shortness, is desirable. But it is a general truth that the short words are not only handier to use, but more possible in effect; extra syllables reduce, not increase, vigor."
Revised quotation
"It need hardly be said that shortness is a merit in words. . . . hort words are not only handier to use, but more possible in effect; extra syllables reduce, not increase, vigor."
Thank you.
What does the bracketed capital letter indicate in the revised version below? Is it essential, per the rules of proper punctuation, to do so? Are the ellipsis points (i.e., the spacing of the dots) spot on in that sentence to indicate the omission of one or more sentences?
Original quotation
"It need hardly be said that shortness is a merit in words. There are often reasons why shortness is not possible; much less often there are occasions when length, not shortness, is desirable. But it is a general truth that the short words are not only handier to use, but more possible in effect; extra syllables reduce, not increase, vigor."
Revised quotation
"It need hardly be said that shortness is a merit in words. . . . hort words are not only handier to use, but more possible in effect; extra syllables reduce, not increase, vigor."
Thank you.
Top answer
Brackets indicate an editorial change that avoids changing meaning, but is necessary to obey rules of grammar. In this case, a preceding clause was left out to highlight the remainder of the sentence, so the s had to be capitalized since the remainder was being quoted as a sentence in its own right. A four-period ellipsis is usually used to indicate omission of one or more sentences, or the end of a sentence in a quote (at least according to MLA standards), while the more common three-period ellipsis indicates only the removal of words from a sentence, not of entire sentences.
- Brackets indicate an editorial change that avoids changing meaning, but is necessary to obey rules of grammar.
- In this case, a preceding clause was left out to highlight the remainder of the sentence, so the s had to be capitalized since the remainder was being quoted as a sentence in its own right.
- A four-period ellipsis is usually used to indicate omission of one or more sentences, or the end of a sentence in a quote (at least according to MLA standards), while the more common three-period ellipsis indicates only the removal of words from a sentence, not of entire sentences.
- g.
- ) and of spacing of periods in particular is quite varied from style guide to style guide, so it's not really worth worrying about too much.
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1 Answers
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Brackets indicate an editorial change that avoids changing meaning, but is necessary to obey rules of grammar. In this case, a preceding clause was left out to highlight the remainder of the sentence, so the s had to be capitalized since the remainder was being quoted as a sentence in its own right. A four-period ellipsis is usually used to indicate omission of one or more sentences, or the end o
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