Why do people sometimes put a bracket [ ] in the first letter of the first word in a citation? What is the meaning of that bracket and why do they put it like? e.g. Scholars have recognized that "[c]artography was an important tool of imperial expansion and technology of abstraction".

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Why do people sometimes put a bracket [ ] in the first letter of the first word in a citation? What is the meaning of that bracket and why do they put it like? e.g. Scholars have recognized that "[c]artography was an important tool of imperial expansion and technology of abstraction".

Question #65113. Asked by uclageographer.

Related Trivia Topics: Vocabulary

kaylofgorons
Answer has 37 votes

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kaylofgorons
20 year member
303 replies

Answer has 37 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.

Because in the original text, that word was the first letter of its sentence and had to be capitalized, but when it is quoted they change the capitalization to fit its place in the new sentence. If I quote someone saying:

Cats are very good mouse catchers.

I would say that experts have said that "[c]ats are very good mouse catchers."

Apr 27 2006, 6:21 PM

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Answer 1

yTHINKy
Answer has 3 votes

yTHINKy

Answer has 3 votes.

When a word is substituted by a "reteller" of a quote in order to clarify the quote.

Ex: [Joe] in place of "he".

Apr 27 2006, 7:07 PM

Why do people sometimes put a bracket [ ] in the first letter of the first word in a citation? What is the meaning of that bracket and why do they put it like? e.g. Scholars have recognized that "[c]artography was an important tool of imperial expansion and technology of abstraction".

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