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7.29 Parentheses, General

Parentheses, or round brackets, are used to enclose additional information serving to explain, amplify or provide comments on adjacent material. Commas and dashes are also used for this purpose (see 7.14 Restrictive/non-restrictive(c), 7.42 Interruptions, pauses, afterthoughts, clarifications and emphasis and 7.44 Material in apposition). Parentheses, however, are generally used for words that are less closely related to the rest of the sentence than material which would be set off by dashes or commas. They are also more convenient for parenthetic elements which run to some length or contain internal punctuation, although it is best to avoid lengthy parentheses wherever possible.

7.30 Clarification

Parentheses may save the writer from other punctuation problems, such as the confusion created when apposition commas and enumeration commas appear together, as illustrated below:

  • Carla Tavares (a recent MBA graduate), Lisa Thompson and three students

not

  • Carla Tavares, a recent MBA graduate, Lisa Thompson and three students