April 3rd, 2010 | 
Author: A lot of the time, in movie or book reviews I see brackets around words that, if you took those words out the review would make no sense. Why do people do that?
Example:
“Will leave [fans] breathless for more.”
“[A] riveting fantasy.”
Why??
A lot of the time, in movie or book reviews I see brackets around words that, if you took those words out the review would make no sense. Why do people do that?
Example:
“Will leave [fans] breathless for more.”
“[A] riveting fantasy.”
Why??
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Those words were inserted by the reviewer (in a quote) to make the statement clearer to the reader or to make the statement grammatically correct. But those words were not actually said by who was being quoted so they are put into brackets to make that known.
So, the reviewer probably took “riveting fantasy” out of a longer sentence stated by someone else but to make it grammatically correct they inserted the “a” making it “[A] riveting fantasy”.
In using the first example, the quote may have originally said “Will leave them breathless for more”, but to clarify who the speaker was referring to, the interviewer inserted “fans” making the quote read “Will leave [fans] breathless for more”.
Typically it is used when someone was speaking, the bracketed words are words not actually spoken.
I really loved [Tom] in it.” they could have said him in original speech.