When to use brackets or parentheses in writing

Parentheses are curved punctuation marks that enclose text (like this).

Can i use parentheses in a college essay

They always function in pairs, with each one curving away from the text inside it.

The word parentheses comes from the Greek parentithenai, meaning “insertion” or “to put beside.” It’s what parentheses do: They insert text in writing, beside the rest of the sentence.

Parenthesis is the singular form of parentheses. While parentheses refers to a pair of parentheses, parenthesis refers to only one of them.

The majority of the time, parentheses is the word you want (since you use two at a time).

Sometimes, you’ll see the word parenthesis referring to the word or words inside the parentheses itself, but parentheses always refers to the pair of punctuation marks.

Is the word parentheses too long?

You can use parens instead; it’s an abbreviated form of parentheses.

If you need the singular version, paren can stand in for parenthesis.

You’ll find parentheses when a writer wants to add addi

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