this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023
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Moving to: m/AskMbin!

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I came across this usage in excerpts from the dissent by Justice Kagan to the US Supreme Court's decision [see image I will attempt to attach, that I snagged from here: https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2023/06/john-roberts-demonstrates-a-justified-lack-of-confidence-in-his-arrogation-of-congressional-and-presidential-authority]. I'm going to guess that it indicates a tense change, so like in my example in the post title maybe the quote was "asked you" and I changed it to "ask[ ] you" to fit my sentence. I went to a lot of schooling but I don't recall this empty brackets usage. I figure, why not Ask Kbin!

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your analysis is correct. This is how you attribute a quote where you have removed a letter for readability in a different context.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

And here I’ve been using an elipsis like a fool

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@RMiddleton Yep. Means the author removed a letter from the word. So in the image above the author removed a d or s from the word waive. It just helps the quote make sense in context of the passage.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's worth noting that this is nothing to do with legal writing in particular. You'll find this in all academic writing as well, and in journalism.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

For some reason I have never noticed this before, or else I have just forgotten it in the 3 decades since I was in college.

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