I think I remember, from junior high school, that brackets [ ] are meant to surround any text that you want to take out, and parentheses ( ) are for any text that you want to insert. But I’m not sure, it could be the other way around.
This would be an example:
** I ain’t got nobody. **
would be edited like this:
** I [ain’t got] (don’t have) [nobody] (anybody). **
Unfortunately, I can’t find any Internet page that specifically mentions this.
So, how would you show excision and insertion of words and phrases?
The brackets indicate words have been substituted for other words that are implied (and that maybe would be less understandable). I learned this in expository writing in high school. I don’t know why parentheses would be used.
There are actually specific marks that can’t be made on the keyboard.
The delete mark looks sort of like a cursive “L” connected to the characters you wish to delete. To insert characters, you draw a caret at the point of insertion and then write the characters in the margin followed by a “/.”
Yo might want to see a copy of the Government Printing Office (GPO) manual for a list of editing marks. They may also be in Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, but I won’t swear to it.
I proofread and marked up for a small commercial typeshop for 7 years, was involved in book production for about 7 years, and have been editing (books or journals) for the last 3 years.
I have proofread in Spanish (Prudential policy books) and have proofread Spanish copy at Du Pont without manuscript for reference (I felt pretty confident at the time).
