Why do journalists [put] words in [brackets] when writing an [article] that contains an [interview]?
Journalists use brackets within quotations to put words in people’s mouths. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Sometimes journalists have to insert words to help to clarify a statement. Brackets are often used to identify ambiguous pronouns in a direct quotation. For example: “They [the 8th Federal Infantry] fought bravely under the most adverse circumstances during the Civil War.” You can also use brackets to properly place a quote within the syntax of a sentence. To decapitalize a word, for example, “Doctor Fielding’s written opinion states that ‘[p]atients are often deceitful.'” Square brackets are also used in conjunction with the “[sic]” punctuation, which is a way of distancing yourself from a misstatement or a misspelling.
