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How would I comment inside a quotation? Ex. if I had a quote "We randomly threw balls at the wall" and I wanted to clarify on what random signified could I do: "We randomly [by the process of using a dartboard to determine the next location relative to the current location] threw balls at the wall"?

Additionally: Do you know how this would work within certain styles? My focus is Chicago at the moment though information for APA and MLA would be great as well

Note: The example was a random one thought on the spot. The point i'm trying to use it for specifically in this instance is if I have a quote using random ex. "The chromosomes were randomly generated" I want to specify that their traits were random not their creation or the amount of them for example.

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[sic] is a comment on the quote it's in and I've never seen it formatted any other way. Though I think when the comment is longer than the quote you might want to re-work the text. – Monica Cellio May 31 '12 at 18:15
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"By the process of using" is redundant anyway. Five words where two would do. Also, for a comment that long it's surprisingly unclear and raises more questions than it answers. (What exactly did you do to the dartboard? If you threw darts at it, then why not skip the hassle and just throw the balls at the wall? If you didn't throw darts at it, then what did you do? And can I call a throwing "random" if I am not allowed to throw the ball any way I want but have to throw it in a specific direction that has been predetermined for me?) Better have a footnote describe the process in detail. – RegDwighт♦ May 31 '12 at 19:07

closed as off topic by simchona♦, Matt Эллен, MετάEd, FumbleFingers, tchrist Sep 3 '12 at 1:55

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1 Answer

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I'd have to check what any given style manual says on the subject, but it's common to include very brief notes in a quote by enclosing them in square brackets, as you did in your example. But typically this is limited to one or two words. Like, "This product is made in York [Pennsylvania], and then shipped to Canada." I might include the "[Pennsylvania]" to make clear that I don't mean York in North Yorkshire, England. But if you really need more than 2 or 3 words, I don't think it's appropriate to embed it in the quote. Give the quote, than write your explanation.

Like:

As Jack Miller explained, "We randomly threw balls at whe wall." By "random" here he means that we rolled a 20-sided die, and then multiplied the resulting number by 18 degress to determine the angle in the X-Y plane ...

Etc.

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thank you, that is what I was looking for to some degree. Honestly I was looking for something I could put inside a quote because I was thinking about clarification with a focus on block quotes, but your approach works for small quotes. Thank you! Note: the York [Pennyslvania] was the approach I am familiar with for small additions, that's why I asked this question regarding long quotations – Eiyrioü von Kauyf May 31 '12 at 21:44
If you have a very long quote and you think an explanation is required in the middle -- like you're afraid the reader may misunderstand line 2 and you don't want them to carry that misunderstanding to line 47 -- I think your best bet is to break the quote into two smaller quotes, with your explanation in the middle. In general, long "[...]" explanations in the mi ddle of a quote would be throwing the reader off -- putting a long block of your own text inside what you are claiming to be someone else's text. – Jay Jun 1 '12 at 19:34

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