Full stops. Inside or outside of brackets?
Jun
19
2009
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?
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?
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Thanks for this!
Solved a long running tiff between the missus and I!
Following you on Twitter now!
Thanks
Stu
Glad to be of service. Good to see people discussing punctuation even whilst backpacking. Very British.
One has to keep up standards. Can’t let these things slide!
Hi
Can you clarify the order of punctuation for speech within a bracket ending with question and speech marks?
Many thanks
Hi Diane
As in
It’s really hot today (don’t you think?).
Hey everyone. John is late into the office today (as his “train is running late again”!).
In the second sentence, the exclamation is mine as John has told me his train is running late again and I don’t believe him. So exclamation outside speech marks and then bracket and then full stop to finish the sentence.
Oh and congratulations. You were the first person to post a comment on my new site which just went live
what if u cite in text, do we have to put before or after the bracket??
Hey Hama
Not sure what you mean. Can you give me an example?
Thanks Sarah
Is a full stop always used after brackets at the end of a sentence, even though a question or exclamation mark is contained within the bracket?
Yes that’s right. A complete sentence ends with a full stop. Even if there’s a bracket in the sentence that ends with a question mark or exclamation mark.
Hi Sarah,
Will the following sentence have a full stop outside the brackets at the end of “(TXT files)”?
Drag and Drop or Copy and Paste into the Kindle’s “Documents” folder — Kindle (AZW files) non-encrypted. Portable Document Format (PDF files) non-encrypted or non-password protected. Mobipocket (MOBI and PRC files) non-encrypted. Plain-text (TXT files)
Hey Errol
(TXT files) is not a complete sentence. It’s part of the overall sentence with the word Plain-text. So outside the bracket.
‘Mobipocket (MOBI and PRC files) non-encrypted. Plain-text (TXT files).’
Just as you did with the sentence before.
‘Mobipocket (MOBI and PRC files) non-encrypted.’
It doesn’t matter where the bracket comes. If it’s a part of an overall sentence then it’s outside. If it’s a whole sentence in the bracket, the full stop goes inside.
‘Mobipocket (MOBI and PRC files) non-encrypted. Plain-text files. (Also known as TXT files.)’
Is that a list of places you can you can drag and drop? You could separate with a semicolon rather than full stop.
‘Drag and Drop or Copy and Paste into the Kindle’s “Documents” folder: Kindle (AZW files) non-encrypted; Portable Document Format (PDF files) non-encrypted or non-password protected; Mobipocket (MOBI and PRC files) non-encrypted; and Plain-text (TXT files).’
Sarah,
Thank you for answering my question. I bought your book a few months ago and found it very helpful.
Thanks Errol. Glad the ebook is useful.
This is all excellent stuff and clear and with charm and with wit. Thank you.
I am re-doing a book on how to get into drama school. It has just come back from the editor and I feel like a schoolkid – except I have gone into punctuation meltdown. Things I knew with certainty at age 13 are now a mush of indecision.
Could you remind me of where to punctuate whenn using quotation and speech marks? Thank you thankyouthanks.
Andy Johnson.
Hey Andy
This is the page on quote marks from my punctuation and grammar ebook. It’s only 99pm (normally £6.99) at the moment so now’s a good time to buy it.
Hope this helps.
3.9 Quotation marks. Sometimes they’re like “this”. Sometimes like ‘this’
Also known as inverted commas and speech marks, quotation marks are used to surround a direct quotation.
So the client replied “if you think I’m paying for that you’ve got to be kidding.”
“What the heck is that?” asked John.
Double or single quotes?
You can use either. Just be consistent. If you do a quote within a quote use the mark you haven’t used yet.
John made his case for the IT department. “As Bill Gates once said ‘be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.’”
The MD continued. ‘The end of year figures are “challenging”. I hope we do better in the first quarter of next year.’
In the US “double quotes” are preferred. In the UK ‘single quotes’ are preferred.
Where does punctuation go? Punctuation goes outside of the quotation mark unless it’s part of the quote.
“I love that!” said Jackie.
David told her to ‘get on with it’.
In the US a full stop is placed inside the quotation mark, whether it belongs or not.
Bought it. Bargain. Brilliant.
You the ‘BEST’!
And I cant spell annymore
[...] full stop must go inside the brackets, not outside them. (Sarah Turner of Turner Ink has written a wonderfully concise post explaining these conventions.)Here’s my ‘technically correct’ remix:It’s not a glass. It’s a chalice. (Made of [...]
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what about this scenario please:
…….blah blah blah (blah blah blah etc.).
…….blah blah blah (blah blah blah etc).
The first one!
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