Use of square brackets in quotes introduced after colon

Question

I am writing an academic document related to legal research, and have a doubt - Wherever I am quoting someone like this:

Mr. A of X Institute states as follows:

"[t]he suggestion that the number of enrolments is too few couldn't be further from the truth"

I understand that square brackets are used whenever I am quoting something from the start of a sentence in the middle of my own sentences, but the doubt I have is, can the quote which comes after a colon as shown above be treated as being in the middle of a sentence?

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure that this wouldn't be treated as in the middle of your sentence, since the quote isn't continuing your sentence, rather it's independent as a quote.

If instead it was:

Mr. A of X Institute states that "[t]he suggestion that the number of enrolments is too few couldn't be further from the truth."

that would work since the sentence without the quotation marks makes sense, but your original sentence wouldn't.

In MLA style, quotes that come after a colon are left with their original capitalisation, since it's acceptable and helps you avoid implications.

Here is a site I found that explains square brackets in quotes quite clearly: https://style.mla.org/capitalizing-start-of-quotation/#:~:text=If%20the%20first%20quoted%20word,Room%20with%20a%20View%20E.%20M.