Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

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Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Complete sentence in parentheses

When including a complete sentence in parentheses, what are the rules? For example, someone just sent me this in an email:

“I always change some of the readings from semester to semester (for example, I am trying out the book on migration for the first time this semester and am not sure if I will keep it in the Fall).”

But I could just as easily see it written this way:

“I always change some of the readings from semester to semester. (For example, I am trying out the book on migration for the first time this semester and am not sure if I will keep it in the Fall.)”

Are both acceptable? Is one preferred? 

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Comments

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Brackets_and_parentheses

jayles the unwoven Apr-05-2016

3 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

"A sentence that occurs within brackets in the course of another sentence does not generally have its first word capitalized just because it starts a sentence. The enclosed sentence may have a question mark or exclamation mark added, but not a period."
Eg
Alexander then conquered (who would have believed it?) most of the known world.

Parentheses are somewhat "jarring to the reader and best avoided where feasible" - as per West Michigan University

I would remove the parentheses from your alternative stand-alone sentence

jayles the unwoven Apr-05-2016

2 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

Complete sentence in parentheses

Parentheses (constantly utilized as a part of sets) allow a writer to provide additional information. The parenthetical material may be a solitary word, a part, or various complete sentences.

Whatever the material inside the brackets, it must not be syntactically fundamental to the encompassing sentence. If it is, the sentence must be recast. This is a simple mix-up to keep away from. Just read your sentence without the parenthetical content. If it makes sense, the the enclosures are satisfactory; if it doesn’t, the punctuation must be altered.

http://wordmaker.info/ending-with/fe.html

wordy smith May-19-2016

8 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

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