Bracket notation
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Bracket notation is a text-based method of tracking changes to a document. This is different than the physics Bra-ket notation.
It's simply three sets of square brackets. The first set denotes deletion, the second set denotes addition, and the third set denotes a comment. It's easiest to explain by example. Let's start with a simple sentence plagued by two typical errors:
They called to say that their coming over in an quarter-hour.
An editor might revise the sentence to:
They called to say that the[ir][y're] coming over in a[n] quarter-hour. [][][Be careful with "their" and "they're".]
The edits are deciphered like so:
- the[ir][y're]: "their" was used when "they're" was meant. To fix this problem the editor suggestions deleting "ir" and replacing it with "y're".
- a[n]: "An" should only used before a word that begins with a vowel-like sound. The editor suggests removing the "n" of "an".
- [][][Be careful...]: The editor is reprimanding the author for forgetting the rules of English. Notice the two sets of empty brackets that prefix the comment. They are needed to make sure that comment cannot be confused for an addition or deletion.
After you use braket notation for even a little bit, the order of the brackets will become second nature. But, if you need a mnemonic, just remember that a number line always goes from negative to positive. The same is true of the markup, it starts with subtraction and goes to addition. Now let's try a sentence in drastic need of some complex editorial help,
The silver quick-browed fox jum over their lazy dog.
This might be edited as so:
The [silver] quick[-][ ]brow[ed][n] fox jum[][ped] over th[ier][eir][Remember, I before E, unless after C. Unless the word is weird.] lazy dog. [][][Shouldn't "their" really be "the"?]
This looks a bit scary at the outset (the density of comments is pretty high), but it is easy to follow the edits:
- [silver]: Delete "silver".
- [-][ ]: Delete the hyphen and add a space. Notice how easy it was to show changes dealing even with white space.
- brow[ed][n]: Delete the "ed" and add a "n", resulting in "brown".
- jum[][ped]: Don't delete anything and add "ped", resulting in "jumped".
- [ier][eir][Remember ...]: Delete "ier" and add "eir", resulting in "their". The editor has included a somewhat ironic comment about the inconsistency of English spelling.
- [][][Shouldn't ...]: Like in the first example, this is simply a comment.
Thus, if all changes were accepted, the edited sentence would be:
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
