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I know why we use square brackets in quotations. But can we also use it for changing punctuation, in order to make it fit better with the sentence?

For instance:

Original Quote: "We went to the mall today, and had a lot of fun."

Bracketed Quote: "[They] went to the mall today[.]"

I'm doing this because I want to include only part of the statement, and not all of it. Thanks.

FeliniusRex - gone
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Samantha
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    Does this answer your question? What is the proper use of [square brackets] in quotes? – niamulbengali Jan 21 '21 at 00:34
  • You never need to put a period in brackets. In this case, where a comma is replaced by a period, just put a period outside the quotation marks, and then it belongs to your text, not the quoted material. – Robusto Jan 21 '21 at 02:51
  • No. Try: They said, "We went to the mall today..." or They said that they "went to the mall" that day. – Tinfoil Hat Jan 21 '21 at 03:33
  • @niamulbengali no it didn't say anything about punctuation. – Samantha Jan 21 '21 at 14:30
  • @TinfoilHat I like the first one with the ellipsis, since the actual quote I'm trying to use is quite big and not in-text. I'll be using that. – Samantha Jan 21 '21 at 14:32
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    @Robusto, putting the period outside the quotation marks is indeed the right thing to do, but it is, alas, liable to get one into trouble if one has the misfortune of labouring under an editor who is paid to enforce the Chicago rules, even when they are irrational. – jsw29 Jan 21 '21 at 22:41
  • @jsw29: Yeah, nitpickers are ... nitpicky. This leads writers to adopt dodges like adding a superfluous word to avoid the difficulty: "[They] went to the mall today," apparently. Editors also strike those out as well. You can't win. – Robusto Jan 21 '21 at 22:55
  • As an editor who is paid to enforce the Chicago rules even when they are irrational, I can vouch for jsw29's comment—and my tactic for avoiding the resulting ambiguity is precisely the one that Samantha suggests: adding [.] before the close quotation mark. – Sven Yargs Jan 28 '21 at 21:38

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