The Elegance of Bracket Notation

December 21, 2008

What’s the best way to annotate an electronic document with revision notes and comments? Mainstream word-processing products include revision tools, but they’re complex and only work in the context of this or that piece of software.

It turns out that the simplest thing that could possibly work also works in all text-editing situations: bracket notation. I first read about bracket notation in an article on the Humanized blog and thought it quite clever. So, when a friend recently called on me to make some revisions to a letter he’d sent me via email, bracket notation came to mind and fit the bill perfectly.

Not entirely satisfied with the Humanized system, I invented my own derived form. The general formula is as follows:

([old text] [new text] [notes/reviser])

The third bracket, containing any notes or the reviser’s name, is optional.

To demonstrate bracket notation in action, I’ve provided a sample below. The text comes from a slightly modified (for demonstration) passage from Strunk and White.

Draft

The most powerful writing is concise. A sentence should not contain any unnecessary words; a paragraph no unnnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine should have no unnecessary parts.

With Bracket Notation

([The most powerful] [Vigorous]) writing is concise. A sentence should ([not contain any] [contain no]) unnecessary words([;] [,]) a paragraph no ([unnecessary] [unnecessary]) sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine ([should have no] []) unnecessary parts ([Well said!]).

Revised

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.