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Young people use parentheses much differently than did their elders. Parentheses are now often employed to create emoticons, those smiley- or frowny-face symbols that scatter throughout social media. Tweeters express their feelings with ;) or :( or some other punctuation pileup.
Parentheses purists (certainly most of us older than 50) remember when parentheses were employed for much different purposes and always in pairs. (Those were the days!)
In the old grammarian world, there were just a few appropriate times for parentheses. First was to signify dates. For example, parentheses are used correctly here: Based on what we know about him, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) would have liked the sad emoticon.
We also may use parentheses to spell out an acronym, as in: Did you know that the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) has declared war on emoticons?
Most commonly, we purists use parentheses to set apart a passing comment. If she doesn’t stop using emoticons (those obnoxious Minion faces), I’m going to unfriend her! The parenthetical phrase isn’t necessary but adds to the depth of detail.
If you are going to use parentheses (correctly), be careful how you use commas and periods around them. The period should be inside the second parenthesis. (For example, this sentence has a period in the wrong place).
In fact, when in doubt, put the punctuation inside the parenthesis, and you will be right more than 90 percent of the time (which is close enough for grammar).
Neil Chethik, aka the Grammar Gourmet, is executive director of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning (www.carnegiecenterlex.org) and author of “FatherLoss” and “VoiceMale.” The Carnegie Center offers writing classes and seminars for businesses and individuals. Contact Chethik at neil@carnegiecenterlex.org or
859-254-4175.