Why are brackets used to offset one letter of a word such as the capital T in the word the?

Answer 1

That is done with quotations, when the quoted text is actually from the beginning of a sentence, but you are using it in the middle of a sentence.

For example, say you are quoting this sentence from a book written by a guy named T. J. Howard: "The movie Night of the Living Dead is a metaphor for Communism."

You might write: According to T.J. Howard, "[t]he movie Night of the Living Dead is a metaphor for Communism," but in my opinion, it's more about the Vietnam War.

Similarly, say you're quoting this sentence: "Although George Romero was a great filmmaker in his day, lately his films have become less and less scary, and the metaphors more and more convoluted."

If you only wanted to use the last half of that sentence, you would replace "his" with "Romero's," to make it clear who you're talking about.

For example, you'd say: While T. J. Howard insists that, "lately [Romero's] films have become less and less scary, and the metaphors more and more convoluted," I do not agree.

It's also done if you want to change the verb or its conjugation. Say you're quoting this sentence, again by our imaginary friend T. J. Howard: "Romero failed to break new ground in the zombie movie genre, after his original Night of the Living Dead trilogy."

You might say: While T. J. Howard says that, "Romero [fails] to break new ground" in his newer zombie movies, I think this is a gross overstatement.

You also might see this from time to time: [sic] That indicates that there is a mistake in the quoted text.

For example, if you're quoting someone who said, "I'm no Pamela Sue Anderson."

It's Pamela LEE Anderson, not Pamela SUE Anderson. So when you quote that person, you'd write: Although Gina Winters insists that she is, "no Pamela Sue Anderson [sic]," most of her fans would not agree.