- Dashes- (Parentheses)

[Brackets]

Dashes Use dashes mainly to set off

explanations, to show an abrupt change in the flow of the sentence and to set off a thought that is repeated for stress or emphasis.

I saw Harry the other night--didn't he used to live here?--and he looked terrible.I went to check out that used car--the one I told you about yesterday--to see if it was a good deal.Sonny finally bought a CD outfit--Sony or Hitachi, I forget which--and he wants me to see it later.

Dashes Use a dash before a clause that

summarizes a series of words or phrases. The dash is used in place of terms like namely, in other words, that is and similar expressions. Printers, scanners, digital cameras, CD recorders– all

are gadgets that can be hooked up to your computer.

Terns, geese, and warblers--all migratory birds--fly hundreds of miles each year.But ideas--opinions backed with genuine reasoning--

are extremely difficult to develop.

Dashes Use a dash to set off an interruption that

is important to the meaning of the sentence but not grammatically part of it:It matters not where or how far you travel--the farther

commonly the worse--but how much alive you are.For the first time in my three years at Clear Lake

College--I can hardly believe it--I agree with Dean Rack.

In typing, make a dash with two hyphens (--) and leave no space on either side.

ParenthesesUse parentheses to enclose information or explanatory matter (a

single word, a number, or short sentence) that is added to a sentence but is not considered of major importance.

Harriet Tubman (1820-1912) is remembered for her work with the Underground Railroad.

In the United States, the term bank holiday (in the England, the words mean legal holiday) refers to the closing of all the banks by Franklin Delano Roosevelt on March 5, 1933.

When enclosing a full sentence inside parentheses (when the sentence is inside another full sentence) do not capitalize the first word of the information inside the parentheses.

Parentheses Be sure that any material enclosed in

parentheses can be omitted without changing the basic meaning and construction of the sentence. › George Eliot (whose real name is Mary Ann Evans)

wrote poems and several well-known novels.

For setting off incidental matter, commas, dashes, and parentheses are frequently interchangeable.

George Eliot, whose real name is Mary Ann Evans, wrote poems and several well-known novels.

Parentheses Use parentheses to enclose numbers

and letters.› Recipe for a great day: (1) Drive to the

mall; (2) Whip out the charge card; (3) Shop to you drop.

› Motherhood is in trouble, and it ought to be. A rude question is long over- due: Who needs it? The answer used to be (1) society and (2) women.

Brackets Use brackets to enclose explanations within

parentheses or in quoted material when the explanation is not part of the quotation. Words may not be changed, but remarks may be added. › Waving a sheet of paper, Bernice yelled to Ike

Canon, “This [a copy of the zoning variance] doesn’t give you authority to start construction.”

› “Wanna bet,” he replied still aiming his bulldozer at the oak. “Phil Grymm [legal counsel for Dumble and Tweed] says we can, and I take my orders from him.”

Brackets [sic] – This Latin abbreviation (meaning

thus) is used inside a quotation when the original quotation contains an error. This term indicated that the quotation was copied correctly. This abbreviation should be italicized. › Jane Austin wrote, “The colour [sic] of the

buggy was a putrid shade of green.”

Sources

Hairston, Maxine and John J. Ruszkiewicz. The Scott Foresman Handbook for Writers. Scott, Foresman and Company: Glenview. 1988. Print

Rozakis, Laurie E., Ph.D. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Grammar and Style. Second Edition. USA: Alpha. 2003. Print

Warriner, John. Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition: Fifth Course. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1982. Print.