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55
Dashes, Parentheses, and
Other Punctuation Marks
Like commas, dashes and parentheses are
used to set off information within a sentence.
Dashes emphasize and parentheses deemphasize the set-off material.
➤
Our neighbors have taken up bird-watching, an ideal
pastime for nature-starved city dwellers.
➤
We were surprised that Jim—a man who never owned a pair
of sneakers—spends hours in the park.
➤
Carrie (who now lives in Florida) introduced them to the
hobby.
Brackets are also used to set off information from an outside source
within a quotation or to set off material within parentheses. Ellipses
indicate that words have been deleted from a quotation, and slashes indicate line breaks in quotations from poetry, among other uses.
Other Punctuation Marks and Grammar Checkers
All of the punctuation marks covered in this chapter involve
judgment calls on the writer’s part. Computer grammar checkers will not tell you when you might use a pair of dashes or
parentheses to set off material in a sentence, for example. They
may catch some errors in the use of these marks, but in general
you will need to proofread your work to make sure that you are
using these marks correctly.
55a Use the dash provided by your word-processing
program, or form it by typing two hyphens.
A typeset dash, sometimes called an em dash, is a single, unbroken
line about as wide as a capital M (—). Most word-processing programs 863
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55c
www.mhhe.com/
nmhh
For information and
exercises on dashes,
go to
Editing > Dashes
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Dashes, parentheses, and other marks
provide the em dash as a special character or will convert two hyphens
to an em dash as an autoformat function. Otherwise, you can make a
dash on the keyboard by typing two hyphens in a row (--) with no
space between them. Do not put a space before or after the dash. A
handwritten dash should be about as long as two hyphens.
55b Use a dash to highlight an explanation or
a list that begins or ends a sentence.
A dash indicates a very strong pause and emphasizes what comes immediately before or after it.
➤
I think the Comets will win the tournament—their goalie has
the best record in the league.
➤
Coca-Cola, potato chips, and brevity—these are the marks of
a good study session in the dorm.
Do not break up an independent clause with a dash.
and
➤ Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven—
/ are the most famous composers
^
of the classical period.
55c Use a dash or two dashes to insert—and highlight—
a nonessential phrase or an independent clause within
a sentence.
Dashes are especially useful for inserting clarifying information such
as a definition, an example, or an appositive (a word or phrase that
renames a noun) into a sentence.
DEFINITION
In addition to the trumpet, he played the
cornet— a wind instrument smaller than a
trumpet, with three valves.
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EXAMPLE
864
All finite creatures—including humans—are
incomplete and contradictory.
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APPOSITIVE
■
Dashes
55d
Located in east London, Smithfield Market—a
huge meat market—has a long history.
Make sure that the word or words set off with dashes appear next to
the word they are clarifying.
found
➤ On a day hike we found—my sisters and I—a wounded owl.
^
A dash or pair of dashes can also be used to insert a contrast.
CONTRAST
Watercolor paint is easy to buy—but hard to
master.
Independent clauses can also be inserted into a sentence using
dashes.
➤
The first rotary gasoline engine—it was made by Mazda—
burned 15 percent more fuel than conventional engines.
If the clause you are adding is a question or an exclamation, the question mark or exclamation point should precede the second dash: I
never imagined—how could I?—that he would return. When editing,
make sure that your sentence is clear and complete without the material within brackets.
➤
Because we wanted the tickets so badly—it was the last
performance of the season—so we stood in line for hours.
The two parts of the original sentence (without the inserted material)
do not fit together: Because we wanted the tickets so badly so we stood
in line for hours. Removing so fixes the problem.
55d Use a dash or dashes to indicate a sudden break
in tone, thought, or speech.
➤
Breathing heavily, the archeologist opened the old chest
in wild anticipation and found—old socks and an empty
soda can.
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➤
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Dashes, parentheses, and other marks
His last words were “There’s nothing here except—”
Note: Commas, semicolons, and periods should never appear
beside dashes. An opening or a closing quotation mark sometimes
appears next to a dash, as in the preceding example, but the two
marks should never overlap.
55e
Do not overuse dashes.
Used sparingly, dashes can be effective, but too many dashes make
your writing disjointed.
CHOPPY
After we found the puppy—shivering under the
porch—we brought her into the house—into the
entryway, actually—and wrapped her in an old
towel—to warm her up.
SMOOTHER
After we found the puppy shivering under the
porch, we brought her into the house—into the entryway, actually—and wrapped her in an old towel
to warm her up.
Exercise 55.1
Using dashes
Insert or correct dashes where needed in the following sentences.
—
EXAMPLE
Women once shut out of electoral office
^
—
altogether have made great progress in recent
^
decades.
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1. Patsy Mink, Geraldine Ferraro, Antonia Novello, and Madeleine
Albright all are political pioneers in the history of the United
States.
2. Patsy Mink the first Asian-American woman elected to the
U.S. Congress served for twenty-four years in the U.S. House
of Representatives.
3. Geraldine Ferraro she was a congresswoman from Queens, New
York became the first female vice presidential candidate when
she was nominated by the Democratic Party in 1984.
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Parentheses
55f
FIGURE 55.1 Dr. Antonia Novello
testifying during her confirmation
hearing.
4. Antonia Novello—former U.S. Surgeon General—was the first
woman—and the first Hispanic—to hold this position.
5. Madeleine Albright, the first female Secretary of State, has observed, “To understand Europe, you have to be a genius-or French.”
55f Use parentheses to enclose supplementary
information.
Parentheses are useful when you want to insert additional—but
nonessential—information about a sentence element. Parentheses can
enclose an explanation, an example, a brief but pertinent digression,
www.mhhe.com/
nmhh
For information
and exercises on
parentheses, go to
Editing >
Parentheses
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Dashes, parentheses, and other marks
or an abbreviation. Parentheses are always used in pairs (an opening
and a closing parenthesis).
EXPLANATION
The last four telephone bills (September to December) have each been more than fifty dollars.
EXAMPLE
Every household is filled with items (buttons, for
example) that people will never use but will not
throw away.
DIGRESSION
Envious of the freedoms adults enjoy, few children realize (I never did) how stressful adult life
can be.
ABBREVIATION
When quoting poetry in the style of the Modern
Language Association (MLA), put the line numbers in parentheses following the quotation.
Caution: Enclose information in parentheses only occasionally
in your writing. If you notice that you have used parentheses
more than once or twice in a paper, ask yourself whether, in each
case, the information they enclose could be deleted or
incorporated into your sentence without the parentheses.
55g Use parentheses to enclose numbers or letters,
according to convention.
Parentheses are used to enclose numbers or letters that label items
in a list that is part of a sentence.
➤
He wants the sales data to be updated in (1) the monthly
report, (2) the quarterly forecast, and (3) the annual budget.
Do not use parentheses to enclose the numbers or letters in a list set
up so that each entry starts a new line.
Parentheses are also used to enclose page numbers and other reference information in the MLA, APA, and CSE name-year documentation styles (see Part 4 for details). They are also used in business
writing to enclose a numeral following a spelled-out number and,
in some disciplines, to set off alternate forms of a measurement.
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➤
868 ➤
The contract will terminate in sixty (60) days.
I added the compound to 2 liters (2.114 quarts) of water.
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Capitalization/punctuation with parentheses
55h
55h Learn the conventions for capitalization and
punctuation with parentheses.
1. The first word of a sentence that stands by itself within parentheses should begin with a capital letter, and the sentence should
conclude with a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point.
➤
Folktales and urban legends often reflect the concerns of
a particular era. (The familiar tale of a cat accidentally
caught in a microwave oven is an example of this
phenomenon.)
2. The first word of a sentence in parentheses that appears within
another sentence should not begin with a capital letter unless
the word is a proper noun. The sentence should not end with
a period, a comma, or a semicolon. However, it can end with a
question mark or an exclamation point.
➤
John Henry (he was the man with the forty-pound
hammer) was a hero to miners fearing the loss of their
jobs to machines.
➤
The most popular major in this school a decade ago was
business administration (although wasn’t psychology a
close second?).
➤
Dirt absorbs light and uses more energy (clean your light
bulbs!).
3. Do not use any punctuation before the opening parenthesis
within a sentence. To decide if any punctuation should follow the
closing parenthesis, imagine the sentence without the parenthetical material.
➤
As he walked past,/ (dressed, as always, in his Sunday
best), I got ready to throw the spitball.
^
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➤
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Dashes, parentheses, and other marks
He walked past (never noticing me behind the statue),/
on his way to the assembly.
4. Quotation marks should never surround parentheses.
➤
His first poem “/ (“Eye”)”/ was also his most famous.
Exercise 55.2
^
^
Using parentheses
Insert parentheses where needed in the following sentences, and correct any errors in their use.
( )
EXAMPLE
During leap year, February has twenty-nine 29
^ ^
days.
1. German meteorologist Alfred Wegener he was also a geophysicist
proposed the first comprehensive theory of continental drift.
2. According to this geological theory, 1 the earth originally
contained a single large continent, 2 this land mass eventually
separated into six continents, and 3 these continents gradually
drifted apart.
3. Wegener contended that continents will continue to drift. They
are not rigidly fixed. The evidence indicates that his predictions
are accurate.
4. The continents are moving at a rate of one yard .09144 meters
per century.
5. The movement of the continents, (slow though this movement
may be), occasionally causes earthquakes along fault lines such
as the famous San Andreas Fault in California.
55i When quoting, use brackets to set off material
that is not part of the original quotation
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Brackets set off information you add to a quotation that is not part of
the quotation itself. Use brackets to add significant information that is
needed to make the quotation clear.
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➤
■
Brackets
55i
Samuel Eliot Morison has written, “This passage has
attracted a good deal of scorn to the Florentine mariner
[Verrazzano], but without justice.”
In this sentence, the writer is quoting Morison, but Morison’s sentence
does not include the name of the “Florentine mariner.” The writer places
the name—Verrazzano—in brackets so that readers will know his identity.
Information that explains or corrects something in a quotation is
also bracketed.
➤
Vasco da Gama’s man wrote in 1487, “The body of the
church [it was not a church but a Hindu shrine] is as
large as a monastery.”
Brackets are also used around words that you insert within a quotation to make it fit the grammar, style, or context of your own sentence. If you replace a word with your own word in brackets, ellipses
are not needed.
➤
At the end of Pygmalion, Henry Higgins confesses to Eliza
Doolittle that he has “grown accustomed to [her] voice and
appearance.”
To make the quote fit properly into the sentence, the writer inserts the
bracketed word her in place of your.
If you change the first letter of a word in a quotation to a capital or
lowercase letter, enclose the letter in brackets: Ackroyd writes, “[F]or
half a million years there has been in London a pattern of habitation
and hunting if not of settlement.”
If you are adding ellipses to a passage that already contains ellipses, you can distinguish them from the ellipses that appear in the
original by using brackets. (See 55j on ellipses.)
If you need to set off words within material that is already in
parentheses, use brackets: (I found the information on a Web site published by the National Institutes of Health [NIH].)
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Dashes, parentheses, and other marks
Note: Brackets may be used to enclose the word sic (Latin for
“thus”) after a word in a quotation that was incorrect in the
original. If you are following MLA style, the word sic should not
be underlined or italicized when it appears in brackets. The three
other styles covered in this book (APA, Chicago, and CSE) put sic
in italics.
➤
The critic noted that “the battle scenes in The Patriot
are realistic, but the rest of the film is historically
inacurate [sic] and overly melodramatic.”
Sic should be used sparingly because it can appear pretentious and condescending, and it should not be used to make
fun of what someone has said or written.
55j Use ellipses to indicate that words have been
omitted from a quotation or that a thought is incomplete.
If you wish to shorten a passage you are quoting, you may omit words,
phrases (such as the one highlighted in the quotation that follows), or
even entire sentences. To show readers that you have done so, use
three spaced periods (. . .), called ellipses or an ellipsis mark.
FULL QUOTATION
Just before noon on April 23, 1838, the Sirius, a small paddlewheel steam packet nineteen days out of Cork, limped across the
Upper Bay, its coal supply all but exhausted, and made landfall
to the cheers of a great crowd gathered at the Battery. A scant
four hours later, a second steamer, twice as big and half again as
fast, hove into view, belching black smoke. This was the Great
Western, fourteen days out of Bristol. She had been chasing Sirius across the Atlantic, and the sight of her churning toward the
city touched off even more exuberant rejoicing, as it was now
doubly clear that New York had established a maritime steam
link to Europe.
—EDWIN G. BURROWS AND MIKE WALLACE,
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, p. 649
EDITED QUOTATION
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In their account of the boom in transatlantic trade in the midnineteenth century, Burrows and Wallace describe its beginning:
872
“Just before noon on April 23, 1838, the Sirius, a small paddlewheel
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Ellipses
55j
steam packet . . . made landfall to the cheers of a great crowd gathered
at the Battery” (649).
Some instructors may ask you to use brackets to enclose any ellipses
that you add, to indicate that the elision is yours and was not in the
original source.
EDITED QUOTATION (ALTERNATE STYLE, WITH BRACKETS)
In their account of the boom in transatlantic trade in the midnineteenth century, Burrows and Wallace describe its beginning:
“Just before noon on April 23, 1838, the Sirius, a small paddlewheel
steam packet [. . .] made landfall to the cheers of a great crowd
gathered at the Battery” (649).
The following guidelines will help you use ellipses correctly for the
different kinds of omissions you may need to make. All quotations are
cited in the style recommended by the Modern Language Association
(MLA). (For guidance in using MLA style, see Chapter 24; for guidance
in using the APA, Chicago, and CSE styles to cite sources, see Chapters 25 and 26.)
1. If you are leaving out the end of a quoted sentence, the three ellipsis points are preceded by a period to end the sentence. (See also
item 4 below.)
END OF A QUOTED SENTENCE OMITTED
In describing the arrival in New York of the first transatlantic steamers on
page 649, Burrows and Wallace note that “four hours later, a second
steamer, twice as big and half again as fast, hove into view. . . .”
Note that ellipses are not needed at the beginning of the quotation
because the lowercase letter f makes it clear that the first part of the
sentence has been left out.
To add a parenthetical reference after the ellipses at the end of a sentence, place it after the quotation mark but before the final period.
EDITED QUOTATION WITH PARENTHETICAL REFERENCE
In describing the arrival in New York of the first transatlantic steamers,
Burrows and Wallace note that “four hours later, a second steamer, twice
as big and half again as fast, hove into view . . .” (649).
2. If you are leaving out a sentence or sentences, use three ellipsis
points preceded by a period.
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Dashes, parentheses, and other marks
ENTIRE SENTENCE OMITTED
Burrows and Wallace recount the arrival of the second steamer:
A scant four hours later, a second steamer, twice as big and half
again as fast, hove into view, belching black smoke. . . . She had
been chasing Sirius across the Atlantic, and the sight of her
churning toward the city touched off even more exuberant
rejoicing, as it was now doubly clear that New York had
established a maritime steam link to Europe. (649)
3. If you are leaving out the last part of one sentence and the first
part of the next, use three ellipses points.
PARTS OF TWO ADJACENT SENTENCES OMITTED
Burrows and Wallace describe a joyful scene: “This was the Great
Western, . . . and the sight of her churning toward the city touched
off even more exuberant rejoicing, as it was now doubly clear that
New York had established a maritime steam link to Europe” (649).
Note that the comma after Western has been retained because it is needed
before the coordinating conjunction and, which is joining two independent
clauses. Commas and other punctuation marks that are not needed in the
new sentence can be dropped.
4. If you are leaving out the last part of a sentence and one or more
of the sentences that follow it, use three ellipsis points followed by
a period.
LAST PART OF ONE SENTENCE AND ONE OR
MORE SUBSEQUENT SENTENCES OMITTED
“[A] second steamer, twice as big and half again as fast, hove into
view. . . . She had been chasing Sirius across the Atlantic, and the sight
of her churning toward the city touched off even more exuberant
rejoicing . . .” (Burrows and Wallace 649).
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Note that ellipses are not needed at the beginning of the quotation
because the letter A in brackets indicates that the first part of the
sentence has been omitted. At the end of the quotation, the sentence
period follows the parenthetical citation, and the three ellipsis points
represent the omission of the end of the quoted sentence.
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Ellipses
55j
Note: If the quotation begins with a capitalized word, rather
than with a lowercased word or one starting with a bracketed
capital letter, ellipses should precede the first word of the
quotation so that readers will know that the first part of the
sentence has been left out.
The arrival of the steamers in 1838 meant that “. . . New York
had established a maritime steam link to Europe” (Burrows and
Wallace 649).
5. Ellipses are usually not needed to indicate an omission when you
are quoting only a word or phrase.
PHRASE QUOTED —NO ELLIPSES
According to Burrows and Wallace, the arrival of the two steamers
caused “exuberant rejoicing” in the city (649).
6. To indicate the omission of an entire line or more from the middle
of a poem or a paragraph or more from a prose quotation, insert a
line of spaced periods. (Otherwise, the rules for omitting words
from a poetry quotation are the same as those given in items 1–5.)
Shelley seems to be describing nature, but what is really at issue is the
seductive nature of desire:
See the mountains kiss high Heaven.
And the waves clasp one another:
..........................
And the sunlight clasp the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me? (1-2, 5-8)
Ellipses should be used only as a means of shortening a quotation, never as a device for changing its fundamental meaning or
for creating emphasis where none exists in the original.
You can also use ellipses to leave a thought or statement hanging or to suggest that a series continues.
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Dashes, parentheses, and other marks
INCOMPLETE THOUGHT
She glared at me and said, “If I have to come over there one
more time . . .”
INCOMPLETE SERIES
The chores were seemingly endless. Feed the animals, make
breakfast, wash the dishes, make the beds, sweep the floors . . .
and then do it all over again the next day.
55k Use a slash to show line breaks in quoted poetry,
to separate options or combinations, and in electronic
addresses.
When quoting two or three lines of poetry within a sentence, use a
slash to show where each line of poetry ends. Add a space before and
after the slash.
QUOTATION WITH SLASHES
In “The Tower,” Yeats makes his peace with “All those things
whereof / Man makes a superhuman / Mirror-resembling dream”
(163-65).
Reproduce the capitalization and punctuation of the original poetry,
but add a period if necessary to end your sentence. If you leave out
the end of the last line you are quoting, add ellipses (see 55j). Do not
use slashes in block quotations or extracts of poetry. (see 55d).
You should also use slashes to mark divisions in Internet addresses (URLs) and in fractions.
➤
www.mheducation.com/college.html
➤
3/4, 1 2/3
Note: There is a space, not a hyphen, between the 1 and the 2/3.
Slashes are also used to indicate a choice or combination.
➤
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credit/noncredit
owner/operator
and/or
Note: Although this use of the slash is common in business
writing, it is discouraged in academic writing, especially in the
humanities.
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Exercise 55.3
■
Slashes
55k
Using brackets, ellipses, and slashes
Insert brackets, ellipses, and slashes where needed in the following sentences, and correct any errors in their use. Refer to the following excerpts from a poem and an essay.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs, the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
’T is not too late to seek a newer world. (54–57)
—from Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had
come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great
river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had
made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost something, too. I
had lost something which could never be restored to me while
I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of
the majestic river!
—from “Two Views of the Mississippi” by Mark Twain
EXAMPLE
The speaker in the poem Ulysses longs to
seek “./ ./ ./ a newer world” (57).
1. Ulysses is tempted as he looks toward the sea: “The lights begin
to twinkle from the rocks; The long day wanes . . .” (54–55).
2. In “Two Views of the Mississippi,” Mark Twain writes that “I
had mastered the language of this water. I had made a valuable
acquisition.”
3. Twain regrets that he “has lost something”—his sense of the
beauty of the river.
4. In Tennyson’s poem, “the deep the ocean / moans round with
many voices” (55–56).
5. In Ulysses the ocean beckons with possibilities; in “Two Views of
the Mississippi,” the river has become too familiar: “All the grace
had gone out of the majestic river!”
Exercise 55.4
Chapter review: Dashes, parentheses,
and other punctuation marks
Edit the following passage by adding or deleting dashes, parentheses,
brackets, ellipses, and slashes. Make any other additions, deletions, or
changes that are necessary for correctness and sense. Refer to the following excerpt as necessary.
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This is a book about that most admirable of human
virtues—courage.
...................................................
Some of my colleagues who are criticized today for lack of
forthright principles—or who are looked upon with scornful
eyes as compromising “politicians”—are simply engaged in the
fine art of conciliating, balancing and interpreting the forces
and factions of public opinion, an art essential to keeping our
nation united and enabling our Government to function.
— JOHN F. KENNEDY, Profiles in Courage, pp. 1, 5
John Fitzgerald Kennedy—the youngest man to be elected
U.S. president—he was also the youngest president to be
assassinated. He was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline,
Massachusetts. Kennedy was born into a family with a tradition of public service; his father, Joseph Kennedy, served as
ambassador to Great Britain. (his maternal grandfather,
John Frances Fitzgerald, served as the mayor of Boston.)
Caroline, John Fitzgerald Jr., and Patrick B. (Who died
in infancy) are the children of the late John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy’s background, a Harvard education, military service
as a lieutenant in the navy, and public service as Massachusetts senator—helped provide John F. Kennedy with the experience, insight, and recognition needed to defeat Richard
Nixon in 1960.
Even before being elected U.S. president, Kennedy received the Pulitzer Prize for his book Profiles in Courage
1957. According to Kennedy, “ This Profiles in Courage is a
book about that most admirable of human virtues—courage”
1. “Some of my colleagues,” Kennedy continues, “who are criticized today for lack of forthright principles / are simply engaged in the fine art of conciliating. . . .” 5.
During Kennedy’s presidency, Americans witnessed 1 the
Cuban missile crisis, 2 the Bay of Pigs invasion, and 3 the
Berlin crisis. Most Americans—we hope—are able to recognize Kennedy’s famous words—which were first delivered
during his Inaugural Address: “Ask not what your country
can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”
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