Question about punctuation inside Parentheses

Question

Hi teachers,(An independent parenthetical sentence such as this one takes a period before the closing parenthesis.)What about a dependent sentence or just a word? Does it take a period before the closing parenthesis too?For example: (A big number of)  (Permanently)  (Beautiful)Another question?Should the very first letter between parentheses be capitalized in my examples or not?Thanks in advance

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

(An independent parenthetical sentence such as this one takes a period before the closing parenthesis.)

A period seems appropriate here. But can you show us this sentence in context? eg What is the sentence before it? What is the sentence after it?

What about a dependent sentence or just a word? Does it take a period before the closing parenthesis too?

For example:

(A big number of) (Permanently) (Beautiful)

I don't think you really have a good understanding of how to use parentheses. Why are you using them here? They just seem wrong. Can you show us the complete sentence?

Another question?

Should the very first letter between parentheses be capitalized in my examples or not? In your first example, yes. But your seond example makes no sense.

Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to use a lot of parentheses in your writing. It suggests you are not able to organize your thoughts well,

Clive

Tenacious Learner · Answer

Hi Clive,

This was the idea. Let me give you an example. The students get this vocabulary from a previous reading.

Glossary
Synonyms for and Explanations to Some English Words
2.- A synonym for always is permanently.

25.- A synonym for pretty is beautiful.

36.- A synonym for wear is have on the body.

This is how it was, but after what you've told me, I realized I was completely wrong.

Fill in the blanks choosing (selecting) the appropriate words or phrases from the glossary. For help see the given glossary’s numbers and the synonyms and explanations between parentheses.

		Glossary: 2, 36, and 25
C.-		(Permanently) (Have on the body) (Beautiful)
	They don’t ____________ _________ _________ dresses at parties

So I decide to do the exercise this way

C.-	2.- Permanently.		36.- Have on the body.		25.-Beautiful.
	They don’t (2) ____________ (36) _________ (25)_________ dresses at parties

Isn't it better now? Could you tell me if it is or not?

Thank you for your help.

TS

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Your instructions always seem complicated to me, as you know. But you know best what your readers are looking for, so I trust your judgement.

My main concern with your post is this awful 'have on the body'. That's terrible English!

Clive

Tenacious Learner · Answer

Hi Clive,

Thank you for your reply and for trusting me.

Now these instructions are not acceptable at all. Will you suggest me a better one?

Fill in the blanks choosing (selecting) the appropriate words or phrases from the glossary. For help see the given glossary’s numbers and the synonyms and explanations between parentheses.

C.-	2.- Permanently.		36.- Have on the body.		25.-Beautiful.
	They don’t (2) ____________ (36) _________ (25)_________ dresses at parties

The 'wear' definition was taken from an on line dictionary.

TS

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Fill in the blanks choosing (selecting) the appropriate words or phrases from the glossary. For help see the given glossary’s numbers and the synonyms and explanations between parentheses.

C.-	2.- Permanently.		36.- Have on the body.		25.-Beautiful.
	They don’t (2) ____________ (36) _________ (25)_________ dresses at parties Based on this isolated exercise, I don't really feel competent to comment on how you are using your glossary. If I were the student, I'd wonder why I can't just use the terms permanently / have on the body / beautiful. Clive

Clive

Tenacious Learner · Answer

CliveBased on this isolated exercise, I don't really feel competent to comment on how you are using your glossary.
If I were the student, I'd wonder why I can't just use the terms permanently / have on the body / beautiful.

Ok Clive. Let me tell you how it works. I'll give just a paragraph of one of the readings, to see which are the most appropriate directions a ccording to the exercise.

Now (at this moment) Robert is taking his wallet out of his jacket pocket. How much money is there in Robert’s wallet? There isn’t a lot of (a big quantity of) money, in fact (in reality) there's only (simply, just) a little (a small quantity of) money.

After the reading the students do some questions about it.

Then, there is a glossary of the explained vocabulary between paretheses in alphabetical order, something that I'm going to ignore here, due to the example.

Glossary

Synonyms for and Explanations to some English Words

1.- A synonym for now is at this moment.

2.- A synonym for a lot of is a big quantity of.

3.- A synonym for in fact is in reality.

4.- Synonyms for only are simply and just.

5.- A synonym for a little is a small quantity.

Then comes the fill in the blanks exercise according to the reading.

Fill in the blanks choosing (selecting) the appropriate words or phrases from the glossary. For help see the given glossary's numbers and the synonyms and explanations (I don't know how to write after it)

1.- At this moment. 2.- A big quantity of. 3.- In reality. 4.- Simply and just. 5.- A small quantity.

(1) _____ Robert is taking his wallet out of his jacket pocket. How much money is there in Robert’s wallet? There isn’t (2) ___________ money, (3) __________ there's (4) _________ (5) ___________ money.

I should tell you that the given synonyms are explained in a a table much simpler that the way I wrote it, but I don't know how to use tables in here.

The questions is, 'Which are the most appropriate fill in the blanks directions'?

Thank you for your patience.

TS

Tenacious Learner · Answer

Hi,

Fill in the blanks choosing (selecting) the appropriate words or phrases from the glossary. For help see the given glossary's numbers and the synonyms and explanations (I don't know what to write after it.)

The idea is to practice the synonyms. The next class I ask them orally as a game. Most of the synonyms are repeated in the next readings along with new ones and so on.

Maybe it is so simple. Maybe the directions should be, 'Fill in the blanks choosing (selecting) the appropriate words or phrases from the glossary. For help see the given glossary's numbers.

TS

Clive · Answer

Hi,

I just think directions should be as simple as you feel you can make them. With a lot of teachers, I feel their directions are more difficult to understand than the language point they are trying to teach.

Do you need to add 'selecting' in parentheses? Isn't 'choosing' sufficient?

Clive

Tenacious Learner · Answer

Hi,

Thank you Clive.

Do you need to add 'selecting' in parentheses? Isn't 'choosing' sufficient?

No, it isn't. If I use the word 'selecting' it is much easier for the students to understand the word 'choosing'.

Why? Because 'selecting' is closer in meaning to 'seleccionar' which is a Spanish word.

TS

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