Dashes, Parenthesis, and Brackets

Advanced Composition

Dash

Use a dash to indicate an abrupt break in thought. The boy down the road—I don’t know his name

—is annoying. My homework—that stupid essay for Ms. Roy—

is on my desk.

Dash

Use a dash to mean “namely”, “in other words”, or “that is” before an explanation. Competitive members of the GWOC South—

Lebanon, Springboro, and Franklin—dominate the entire tri-state area in sports.

In Word press hyphen twice; do not put a space, and immediately start typing your next word.

Parentheses

Use parentheses to enclose informative or expository material of minor importance. Mary Jane (sophomore) dates Johnny (junior).

Brackets

Use brackets to enclose an explanation within quoted or parenthetical material. “I want to thank them [my parents] for

supporting me.” Hammer the nail into slot B. (See page 10

[Diagram B] for an illustration.)

Homework

Exercise #9 Do not write the entire sentence! Tell me the correction

“I love it [the class].” (junior)…