Sometimes it
is necessary to alter a source of quoted material
to indicate an alternate or incorrect
spelling or
incorrect grammar
to addmissing word/s
or
to
clarifya particular point.
In these
instances, place brackets
[ ]
around words added to quoted material.
Nigel
Winthrop claims, “Criticism of Shakespearian [sic]
tragedy is fraught with accidental
misinterpretations and purposeful
misinterpretations” (89).
Here, sic
is used to denote that the author spelled the word
that way, not the writer of the paper.
Shakespearian in this case follows the English
spelling.
“She
[Janice Joplin] had a great influence on me as a
singer,” added Melissa Etheridge.
Here, the
bracketed information has been added by the writer
for the sake of clarity, quite similar to an
appositive.
