Ok, this is a short answer. A full stop appears inside the brackets, if the bracket contains a complete sentence.
She wore the red dress that evening. (Her sister wore the gold one.)
John needed the answer for question 7. (Jeff was struggling with question 1.)
The full stop appears outside of the brackets if the brackets don’t contain a complete sentence.
She wore the red dress that evening (and her sister wore the gold one).
John needed the answer for question 7 (however Jeff was struggling with question 1).
Simple, no?
Tags: brackets, full stops
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I’ve always wondered about that! Thanks for clarifying :-)
Hey Matt
Glad to help!
Sarah
argh! thanks so much. i’ve been writing essays recently and been thinking about that.
does that apply to all punctuation?
Because if it’s not a full sentence, the full stop is actually punctuating the whole sentence, not just the bit in brackets.
I must admit, I do get confused on where the full stop or comma appears in relation to quote marks. Any advice, please?
but what if there’s a question mark to end half a sentence appearing in brackets? would it be supposed to go inside the brackets (if you know what i mean?)
a full stop would go outside but a question mark goes inside?
Hey mudwig
Yep, that’s right.
It’s really hot today (don’t you think?).
a question mark and full stop together at last! amazing. they say you learn something new every day but i think this can be my new learnt thing for at least a week.
tyvm
Yes, that’s clear, thank you. But what about a list within brackets, ending with an abbreviation, e.g. ltd. or etc.
As in:
A relationship between wine consumption and lower rates of heart disease can be seen in many Mediterranean countries (Italy, France, Spain, Greece, etc.).
or
The company has changed its official name a number of times (originally it was registered as Acme Ltd.).
I can’t find any reason to leave out either of the full stops, but the sight of ‘dot-bracket-dot’ makes me uncomfortable. Any insight?
Thanks
H
That’s perfectly acceptable. The way round it of course is to write A relationship between wine consumption and lower rates of heart disease can be seen in many Mediterranean countries (e.g. Italy, France, Spain, Greece).
Or The company has changed its official name a number of times (originally it was registered as Acme Limited). The company has changed its official name a number of times; originally it was registered as Acme Ltd.
Wow, thank you for the reply!
You’re right – there are ways around it, but it’s also good to hear that “.).” is ok. (Ha, that looks like an emoticon!)
Of your suggestions, the semicolon is definitely the most elegant.
H
refreshing to get a straight answer to a straight question. need more of this online!
Ahh, thanks for this (I always wondered, finally thought to clarify!). :p
What a helpful and clear explanation to somehting that always causes me so much grief!
Thank you so much,
Nicola
Thanks Nicola. Glad to help.
Yo
I am not sure at all the first few sentences are accurate. I mena, isn’t a bracket used to separate two sections within a phrase? What would be the point of a bracket system containing a whole phrase in this condition? I have never seen an example of this type of contruction (Iwould be glad if you could provide me with a link).
Hi Christophe
The examples are correct. If you want to find out more check out the Penguin Guide to Punctuation. http://amzn.to/t5XLUa
What about commas, are they always outside the bracket?