(I redesigned the entire magazine as well but that’s another story) [duplicate]
Where should the period go when using parentheses? For example:
In sentence one, I use this example (which has a parenthesis at the end.)
Should the period be inside, or outside of the parentheses? What about if the entire sentence is a parenthetical (as below)?
(Where does the terminal punctuation go here?)
Is there a hard and fast rule?
The best rule of thumb for punctuating in and around parenthetical remarks is that the sentence should be valid if you remove the parentheses and everything inside them.
Here I have an example (with a parenthetical remark).
Here is the same example (with the same remark, even.)
Removing the entire parenthetical remark from the first sentence still leaves me with a valid structure, while removing it from the second leaves me lacking any terminal punctuation; thus the first is correct.
References:
- The Punctuation Guide
- Study.com
- Grammar Girl
If only part of the sentence is parenthetical, then you put the final punctuation outside of the parenthesis:
I enjoy breakfast (sometimes).
If the entire sentence is parenthetical, then you put the punctuation inside the parenthesis.
I enjoy breakfast. (I enjoy lunch more.)
Place the period logically when parentheses are involved. In the first example, the period goes outside because the single sentence ends after the parentheses. In the second example, it goes inside because it belongs to the second sentence.
I like apples (and bananas).
He likes apples. (I like bananas.)
Well, I prefer using the British logic for placing periods even though I'm not only American, but I live in Texas. Since I don't want to portray myself as an ignorant person, I think a lot of textual decency. While I place my periods outside the quotation marks, I'm left feeling haunted by the idea that an American might think I'm the ignorant one since I'm putting periods after closing quotes when the text being quoted is part of the structure of the sentence itself, not a dialogue in a story nor a quotation of a complete sentence.