Punctuation Sensation
Commander Venus+
A quick question. How do I treat the punctuation in the follow sentence:
I'm merely making my point (and it's a good one!).
I'm not sure if this is grammatically correct or not. I'd like to include
the exclaimation _inside_ the brackets because that's where the emphasis
lies (rather than on the entire sentence).
Suggestions and guidance is appreciated.
--
Commander Venus+
"Let's dance." (circa 2003)
command...@rogers.com
CyberCypher
news:bg7hq9$m3f2r$1...@ID-125704.news.uni-berlin.de:
> Hail,
>
> A quick question. How do I treat the punctuation in the follow
> sentence:
>
> I'm merely making my point (and it's a good one!).
>
> I'm not sure if this is grammatically correct or not. I'd like to
> include the exclaimation _inside_ the brackets because that's
> where the emphasis lies (rather than on the entire sentence).
>
> Suggestions and guidance is appreciated.
I wouldn't put the important point of the sentence inside
brackets/parentheses, because they mean that the information
contained within is relatively unimportant.
"I'm merely making my point, and it's a good one!" or
"I'm merely making my point---and it's a good one!" or
"I'm merely making my point. And it's a good one!"
are all stronger.
Commander Venus+
"CyberCypher" <fra...@seed.net.tw> wrote in message
news:Xns93C883269...@130.133.1.4...
I wouldn't say that the part inside the parentheses is important, it's more
of an off-handed remark which is why I put it in there to begin with.
CyberCypher
news:bg7jdn$lmqos$1...@ID-125704.news.uni-berlin.de:
I see. The this is the way to punctuate it:
"I'm merely making my point (and it's a good one!)"
no final period outside the parenthesis.
Linz
Except in BrEnglish, where, if the sentence ends after the parenthesis, a
full stop is required.
Robert Lieblich
Well, then, given that what's inside the parenthesis marks is not an
exclamation in grammatical form[1] but a plain declarative sentence,
and given that it's an off-handed remark, there's no reason in the
world to put a bang, or anything else but the closing parenthesis
mark, after it. So just delete the bang, put a period after the
closing parenthesis mark, and move on.
[1] Proper grammatical form for exclamations, by example:
-- How lovely are thy dwelling places, O Lord!
-- What a piece of work is man!
-- Ouch!
-- Help!
--
Bob Lieblich
Not that anyone pays attention anymore
Alan Jones
"Linz" <sp...@lindsayendell.org.uk> wrote in message
news:3f27bc59$1...@news.umist.ac.uk...[...]... this is the way to punctuate it:
> >
> > "I'm merely making my point (and it's a good one!)"
> >
> > no final period outside the parenthesis.
>
> Except in BrEnglish, where, if the sentence ends after the parenthesis, a
> full stop is required.
Not when the sentence/phrase inside the parenthetic brackets has its own
question mark or exclamation mark.
Alan Jones
Linz
"Alan Jones" <a...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:OosWa.6557$OO1....@news-binary.blueyonder.co.uk...
Even when the sentence/phrase inside the parentheses has its own
punctuation, the external sentence requires punctuation.
dcw
Linz <sp...@lindsayendell.org.uk> wrote:
>Even when the sentence/phrase inside the parentheses has its own
>punctuation, the external sentence requires punctuation.
Agreed. The rule I use is that the sentence must still be correctly
punctuated if you remove everything from "(" to ")". Possibly that's
too simple.
David