Why is parentheses used

Ok, that second reason is highly subjective, but, in my opinion, the overuse of both em dashes and parentheses make a document look ugly.

In the example in my previous comment, I used double hyphens in place of em dashes. They were converted to dashes, more or less.

In any case, this is another way to show that example:. Thanks for the explanation. English is not my mother tongue and I had never even heard of the em dash, or any other dash, for that matter. Thanks for the different purposes of parentheses Mark. Precise: thanks for sharing your thoughts, your comments are very helpful as well.

When describing thoughts or points that might occur within other thoughts or points which have been set off with parentheses, would it be proper to use nested parentheses, or does that apply only in mathematics?

Is this a permissible use of nested parentheses, or is such usage strictly illegal and confusing? In what way would this be better worded? If necessary, straight brackets — [ and ] — should be used within parentheses, just as single quotation marks are used within double quotation marks, but the usage should be avoided if possible. An alternative solution to your example follows:. Stop making those embarrassing mistakes! Subscribe to Daily Writing Tips today!

You will improve your English in only 5 minutes per day, guaranteed! You'll also get three bonus ebooks completely free! Try It Free Now. Francoise on May 04, pm Thanks for another good article. Other punctuation marks with parentheses. Don't put any punctuation mark before parentheses, and put a comma after the closing parenthesis only if the sentence needs a comma anyway. Use a pointed stick a pencil with the lead point broken off works well or a similar tool.

No comma appears before or after the parentheses. If you were to remove the parenthetical remark, the remaining sentence would not need a comma: Use a pointed stick or a similar tool.

Banging the wall and screaming unrestrained by his father, I might add , Sam was acting like a brat. In the preceding sentence, no comma appears before the parentheses. A comma follows the parentheses because if the parenthetical comment is removed, the rest of the sentence would require a comma: Banging the wall and screaming, Sam was acting like a brat.

Punctuation within parentheses. Do use a question mark or an exclamation mark if it is called for. If the parentheses enclose a complete sentence that can stand alone, place the period inside the closing parentheses.

Treat parentheses or brackets and the words inside them as separate from the rest of the sentence. Any sentence that contains a parenthetical element should still make sense if the element is removed. Meena studied all night for the grammar test. Meena studied for the grammar test.

Periods , question marks , and exclamation points should go before the closing parenthesis or bracket only if they belong to the words inside the parentheses or brackets. If the punctuation belongs to the surrounding sentence, put them outside the parentheses or brackets. Never put a comma immediately before a closing parenthesis. After dinner an enormous, healthy salad, Posey treated herself to ice cream.