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Anonymous Posted 22 years ago
Grammar

Brackets and periods

Hi, if there is a transcript of a person named Jerry speaking and making demonstrations to an audience, how would something like the following be punctuated:

This is the "live long and prosper" sign in Star Trek [Jerry demonstrates]

A. This is the "live long and prosper" sign in Star Trek. [Jerry demonstrates.]
B. This is the "live long and prosper" sign in Star Trek [Jerry demonstrates.].
C. This is the "live long and prosper" sign in Star Trek. [Jerry demonstrates]
D. This is the "live long and prosper" sign in Star Trek [Jerry demonstrates].

A, B, and C look incredibly wrong to me, but I'm not 100% sure. Isn't D the right way to write it? To go a bit further, what if it was written like this:

This is the "live long and prosper" sign in Star Trek [Jerry illustrates with a demonstration]

There is still only one period (for the whole sentence) after the closing bracket, and no period inside it, correct? Also, are there any situations for there to be a period inside the brackets, or for the period to come before the opening bracket?

What if you have a sentence like the following:

Well, I don't know what that means [audience laughter].

Is there still just that one period after the closing bracket?



Thank you very much for any help that can be offered.
  

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Doesn't anybody know this stuff?

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Doesn't anybody know this stuff?

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