ABSTRACT
Parentheses ( ) and brackets [ ] enclose information incidental or less relevant to your main point; only the explanatory footnote is more incidental. Parentheses and brackets usually signal the presentation of detail worthy enough to include, but not important enough to grammatically integrate with the rest of the sentence.
Parentheses and brackets serve other functions as well. By allowing the writer to distinctly label material as incidental, parentheses announce the writer’s focus and direct the reader’s attention appropriately. Parentheses and brackets in the context of quoted material clearly stipulate whether it is the writer or the quoted source who is speaking. And the use of brackets in bibliographic entries can effectively separate data to enhance legibility.
It is tempting to offer parenthetical and bracketed comment in academic writing, which favors detail, nuance, and qualification. But reading a text with multiple parenthetical and bracketed asides often proves taxing, each aside interrupting the flow of the sentence and potentially impeding its readability. Parentheses and brackets should be used sparingly, and, in some cases, not at all if the comment can be set off more effectively by other means.
