Parentheses

Parentheses ( ) are punctuation marks that are always used in pairs and contain material that is secondary to the meaning of a sentence. A sentence should make sense if you delete any text within parentheses and the parentheses.

The original Robocop is the best movie I have seen (so far).

Your spinach and garlic salad is one of the most delicious (and nutritious) foods I have ever tasted!

Exercise 1

Clarify the following sentences by adding parentheses. If the sentence is clear as it is, write correct.

  1. Are you going to the seminar this weekend I am?
  2. I recommend that you try the sushi bar unless you don’t like sushi.
  3. I was able to solve the puzzle after taking a few moments to think about it.
  4. Please complete the questionnaire at the end of this letter.
  5. Has anyone besides me read the assignment?
  6. Please be sure to circle not underline the correct answers.

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The Writing Textbook Copyright © 2021 by Josh Woods, editor and contributor, as well as an unnamed author (by request from the original publisher), and other authors named separately is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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