Column: A Word, Please: The bracket may be the most neglected punctuation mark of all
Some punctuation marks get all of the attention. The serial comma, for example, is a hot topic, with 11 million Google hits plus another 11 million if you search its other name, Oxford comma.
Exclamation points, scare quotes and semicolons like to hog the spotlight, too.
But at the other end of the punctuation popularity spectrum lies the most neglected punctuation mark of all: the bracket.
Search Google for brackets and you’ll get fewer than 6 million hits, most with pictures of wall-mounted shelf hardware.
The bracket that’s a punctuation mark is such a wallflower that, in all of my years of writing this column, I don’t believe I’ve talked about them even once.
That’s not because the subject doesn’t come up in my editing work. It comes up quite a bit. Here’s an example.
“A new restaurant downtown (Luigi’s) got a great review in the newspaper,” Cheryl said.
Did Cheryl say “Luigi’s”? Or did the writer insert it as additional information for the reader? The parentheses could suggest either.
And to anyone who respects the power of quotation marks to indicate speech exactly as spoken, it’s kind of important.
This is where the humble little bracket shines.
“Brackets are used mainly to enclose material — usually added by someone other than the original writer — that does not form a part of the surrounding text,” advises the Chicago Manual of Style.
“In quoted matter, reprints, anthologies and other nonoriginal material, brackets enclose editorial interpolations, explanations, translations of terms from other languages or corrections,” the manual adds.
In other words, when you place brackets inside a quotation, you’re telling the reader in no uncertain terms that these are your words, not the speaker’s.
There’s no chance for confusion.
Technically, you can use parentheses within a quotation. They work the same way inside quotes as they do outside: “I want to tell you this (and it’s very difficult for me to say): I ate your yogurt.” But I don’t recommend it.
Contrary to this example, in which the word “me” leaves no question whose words are in the parentheses, this practice usually leaves the reader unsure.
Dashes and commas can handle these situations nicely and with zero ambiguity.
“A new restaurant downtown, Luigi’s, got a great review in the paper,” Cheryl said.
“A new restaurant downtown — Luigi’s — got a great review in the paper,” Cheryl said.
When the parenthetical information is a complete clause, you could even make it a separate sentence.
“The city just passed an ordinance. It’s called the Pothole Repair Initiative. It should make a difference.”
Sometimes brackets are used not to insert extra words but to replace words you’ve taken out.
For example, if the speaker is using pronouns in a way that could confuse the reader, you can use brackets to insert nouns instead.
“He gave him $20,” Jen said.
“[Bruce] gave [Alex] $20,” Jen said.
Obviously, at some point you have to ask whether you’d be better off just paraphrasing instead of quoting. But when that’s not an option, brackets can help a lot.
There’s another situation where brackets apply: Parenthetical information inserted within parenthetical information. “We saw Harry (the dog [a golden retriever]) running through the park.” You can see why that doesn’t come up a lot.
Finally, if you’re citing written text that already has brackets in it, the Chicago Manual advises inserting a note like “brackets in the original” or something to that effect.
But, as you can imagine, that doesn’t come up much either.
JUNE CASAGRANDE is the author of “The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know.” She can be reached at JuneTCN@aol.com.