Writing and Talking About History > Resources for Writing Papers > Using Ellipses and Brackets

Using Ellipses and Brackets

ELLIPSIS DOTS (...) indicate that you have left something out of a sentence.

BRACKETS ([ ]) indicate that you have added something to or changed something in a quotation. (Parentheses cannot be used in place of brackets.)

The following items cover these rules:

Ellipsis Dots:

• Never begin a sentence with ellipsis dots or a lower-case letter.
• If you use a quotation in the middle of your sentence, make the quotation's first word lower-case.
• Use ellipsis dots to omit words and to take out punctuation you no longer need.
• Do not use ellipsis dots with obviously incomplete sentences.
• When an ellipsis ends a sentence, use both ellipsis dots and a period (i.e., 4 dots), with all of them inside the quotation marks.

Brackets (not parentheses):

• Use brackets to change the verb tense of a quotation.
• Use brackets to adds both words and punctuation to a quotation.
• Use brackets to substitute words in a quotation to make the quotation clearer or to make it fit better into your sentence.
• Use sic or sic ro indicate that you are using a quotation with an error in it.

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