Punctuation

Question

Hi.Can two commas act as parentheses for giving extra information in a text?Are both correct for such purpose?Which one is more common in scientific texts?Ex. Several students, John, Jack and Jane, played truant on Monday.Thanks for your help and time in advance

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Use long dashes or parentheses.

Ex. Several students —John, Jack and Jane — played truant on Monday.

Ex. Several students (John, Jack and Jane) played truant on Monday.

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Can two commas act as parentheses for giving extra information in a text?Are both correct for such purpose?

Which one is more common in scientific texts?

Ex. Several students, John, Jack and Jane, played truant on Monday.

Thanks for your help and time in advance

Parentheses are fine in a scientific text. In non-scientific prose, good writers tend to avoid parentheses.

Dashes are another alternative. Plenty of people on the Forum like them in good writing, but I find them casual.

The position of 'and' in your example makes me think you mean

several students + John + Jack + Jane.

You could reword your example like this.

eg John, Jack and Jane, all students, played truant on Monday.

As regards your very specific example, 'several' sounds odd when you then proceed to list them.

The word 'students' seems unnecessary, because only students can play truant.

The phrase 'play truant' is well on he way to being archaic, at least in N. America.

Clive

Hrsanei · Answer

Thank you very much for your explanation.

So when do we use two commas?

In your example " John, Jack and Jane, all students, played truant on Monday." do you consider all students as extra information?

Thanks

JohnParis · Answer

Hello Hrsanei,

hrsaneiWhich one is more common in scientific texts?

Clive is correct in saying that both commas and parentheses are acceptable and that dashes are too casual (and can frequently create confusion).

hrsaneiEx. Several students, John, Jack and Jane, played truant on Monday.
Thanks for your help and time in advance

Any scientific editor worth his salt would, however, insist that you rewrite your example as "John, Jack, and Jane played truant on Monday", unless there were several other students who also played truant. In that case, the use of parentheses and commas in the same sentence is acceptable. "John, Jack, and Jane (plus several other students) played truant on Monday.

If your intention is to convey that the three were students and that they played truant, you could simply say "Students John, Jack, and Jane played truant on Monday."

John

Clive · Answer

Hi,

So when do we use two commas?

In your example " John, Jack and Jane, all students, played truant on Monday." do you consider all students as extra information? Yes. That's the only grammatically correct interpretation.

It's the plural equivalent of saying John, a student, played truant on Monday.

Clive

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