Timeline for How to use English Punctuations?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
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| Aug 6, 2023 at 11:22 | comment | added | James K | I agree, this is a good and useful answer. The final example could be improved but the rest is +1 from me. | |
| Aug 6, 2023 at 11:00 | comment | added | Biblasia | @JamesK The OP wasn't asking about good writing. The OP was asking about proper spacing and punctuation. The examples I gave illustrate that. It is up to the writer to determine when to use the brackets, but the how is as I demonstrated. | |
| Aug 6, 2023 at 10:58 | comment | added | James K | @Biblasia it's not wrong, it's just that usually, it isn't good writing. If something is off-topic it should be cut altogether, or put in a footnote. If I ever want to put a whole sentence in brackets, that is a sign that I'm not writing clearly. I stop and think if I can phrase my thoughts in a more logical and structured way. | |
| Aug 6, 2023 at 10:24 | comment | added | Biblasia | I'm surprised people here seem unacquainted with whole sentences in brackets. This usage seems ubiqitous, from my experience. Brackets can be used to inject an entire explanatory clause or sentence into the middle of something else which would otherwise change its topic and render the paragraph confusing. The brackets indicate that this explanatory information is off-topic to the rest of the thought, and, while giving the reader useful information, indicate that this information is a side-note and not part of the main topic. | |
| Aug 6, 2023 at 10:20 | comment | added | James K | The actual example in the answer is not great, since "he doesn't like cabbage" couldn't be part of the sentence. If you removed the brackets you would get something that is ungrammatical. I suggest an example like "He wouldn't eat any vegetables (like cabbage)." Here "like cabbage" can be removed from the sentence without breaking the grammar or significantly changing the sense. | |
| Aug 6, 2023 at 10:17 | comment | added | James K | One should avoid putting whole sentences into brackets. Brackets are to indicate parenthetical insertions, and if you have a whole sentence that can be removed you should remove it (perhaps to a footnote). If it needs to be there, then don't put it in brackets. | |
| Aug 6, 2023 at 10:01 | comment | added | Michael Harvey |
(He doesn't like cabbage.) - this looks odd. Could you clarify when someone might need to write such a thing?
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| Aug 6, 2023 at 9:59 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| Aug 6, 2023 at 9:51 | history | answered | Biblasia | CC BY-SA 4.0 |