What’s the official name for things within parentheses? (what do you call it when something is worth mentioning, but not in the main text, so you put it in parentheses)
When you have two of the above that relate to the previous sentence, but not to each other, how do you handle them? Where do you put them?
For example…
I end a sentence "blah blah blah dog " Then I want to say two things about dogs, both of which are unrelated to eachother. 1. “With short legs” 2. “I have 3 dogs”?
I’ve always come up against this dilema and wondered what to do (I usually just put them both within one set of parentheses, and put a full stop (period, for Americans) between them)
3. (It was originally two, but I thought of this extra one while I was typing 2) What do you do when something within parentheses needs parentheses? (like above - “Period, for Americans”) I am sure just nesting them is wrong. DO you simply find a way to re-word the sentence? Or is there a definite method for it?
Lobsang, I have always referred to the material within parentheses as a parenthetical expression, but I believe the “official” name is parenthetical matter.
My personal choice would be two combine the two unrelated statements into one parenthetical statement, but the method for combining would depend on the information itself. The pound was looking for good homes to adopt dogs. (Most of their dogs have short legs. I have adopted three of their longer-legged dogs.)
If you need parentheses within parentheses, use a bracket open [ and a bracked closed ] for the most interior information. (If you find that [the use of brackets] hard to understand, just look at this sentence.)
As a recovering parenthesis abuser, I think I have some qualifications to answer this.
Comments within parentheses are “parenthetical comments.” Less formally, you might also call them asides. There are probably some other terms that others here will remind us of.
As a general rule, try to eliminate parentheses whenever possible. It’s easier than you think. In the case of your two unrelated statements, you might put the more important one at the end, separated by a comma or semicolon. Or just male it a separate (unparenthesized) sentence. Then put the second in parens as a separate sentence.
As for nesting parenthetical comments within parenthetical comments, see above: try to eliminate one. For instance, you can set off the inner comment with commas or dashes.
Another option to keep in mind at all times is to cut out the parentheticals altogether. Be concise, don’t distract your readers with less important stuff. You could be weakening your writing.
Zoe’s technically right about the use of brackets within parens, but (no disrespect, Zoe) as an editor I don’t think I’d let an example like hers stand. It’s just over the top. Recast and simplify.
Incedentally. I pride myself on being reasonably articulate, and can usually eliminate parentheses if I try, but I am also lazy and as a result I use them quite a lot.
I am a frequent – perhaps too frequent – user of parentheticals in my writing. When I am writing something that seems to call for nested parentheticals (a parenthetical within a parenthetical), my first choice is to rewrite what I am saying to eliminate the nesting, perhaps by setting off a clause by commas. Failing that (and assuming that dropping a footnote is impractical), I go to another punctuation mark – the dash.
The dash – signalling an abrupt break in the sentence – can often nicely set off parenthetical thoughts. Where necessary – like here as a (not too forced) example – you can use parentheses within a parenthetical clause set off by dashes (or in those cases – rare but sometimes occurring – where it gets your point across better, vice versa).
A parenthesis, a parenthetical expression, parenthetical comments – there’s no official name. There’s no official anything in grammar.
In this case, since “with short legs” is part of the sentence, it would be
I have a dog (with short legs). (I have three dogs.)
But if you had two complete sentences to append, it would be
I have a dog. (He has short legs.) (I have three dogs.)
I am not sure if that is standard, but it seems right to me.
Just nesting them is perfectly correct, if I am to go by the many instances of such usage I have encountered in various books. Using brackets, though equally standard, can create confusion since brackets are often used to denote changes by someone other than the author or speaker (such as the editor, translator, or transcriber).
And I would have to disagree with commasense on a few things. It may be possible to say something more concisely by removing the parentheses, but that doesn’t make the parentheses bad. Good writers should always be searching for better alternatives, whether it’s parentheses they’re dealing with, or commas, or anything else.
If presented with two sentences, one with bad wording and simple syntax, and the other with only slightly better wording but more complicated syntax, I would surely choose the latter. Inelegant wording causes the reader to think less of you; inelegant syntax does not.
I don’t understand, Mr. Mook. Do you think there is some rule against it, or is it a personal preference?
But regardless, enclosing complete sentences in parentheses is very useful and very common. There is no rule against it, and there’s nothing illogical about it. If you don’t believe me, look up parenthesis in the dictionary.
Use parentheses [ ( ) ] to include material that you want to de-emphasize or that wouldn’t normally fit into the flow of your text but you want to include nonetheless. If the material within parentheses appears within a sentence, do not use a capital letter or period to punctuate that material, even if the material is itself a complete sentence. (A question mark or exclamation mark, however, might be appropriate and necessary.) If the material within your parentheses is written as a separate sentence (not included within another sentence), punctuate it as if it were a separate sentence.
Thirty-five years after his death, Robert Frost (we remember him at Kennedy’s inauguration) remains America’s favorite poet.
Thirty-five years after his death, Robert Frost (do you remember him?) remains America’s favorite poet.
Thirty-five years after his death, Robert Frost remains America’s favorite poet. (We remember him at Kennedy’s inauguration.)
If the material is important enough, use some other means of including it within your text—even if it means writing another sentence. Note that parentheses tend to de-emphasize text whereas dashes tend to make material seem even more important.
The Maroon Book has the following to add:
Stuff between parenthesis is a parenthetical element.
Use parenthesis and dashes to distinguish overlapping parenthetical elements.
drop commas, semicolons, colons, and dashes before closing and opening parenthesis.
