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Writing Skills

Brush up on your grammar and punctuation skills to polish your final drafts.

Parentheses

Parentheses are used to explain the statement or provide explanatory information in the sentence. This is usually to indicate a full interruption in thought.

Parentheses Uses

To offset extra information

  • CORRECT: I told Alistair that mozzarella was the most overrated cheese (which is putting it mildly).

Can be used to substitute for a word "or" in certain types of sentences.

  • CORRECT: What part(s) are available?

Parentheses are also used in figure captions and with numbers of items in lists.

  • CORRECT: Figure 1 shows two examples: (1) the handle orientation and (2) the frame structure.