Punctuation Inside ( ) While Ending a Sentence
So, I wrote this email to my girlfriend that went:
Have fun in your meeting (or don’t have fun at all!).
That leaves me with an awkward feeling; an exclamation mark, a parenthesis, and a period to end off my sentence. Can I do that and still be correct?
Dave (unregistered)
July 23, 2004, 4:55pm
Looks fine to me, although "Have fun in your meeting (or don't have fun at all)!" would make just as much sense, and probably wouldn't look as awkward to you.
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speedwell2
July 23, 2004, 5:20pm
I like Dave's suggestion.
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Coliln (unregistered)
July 25, 2004, 1:59pm
It's correct to have punctiation at the end of a sentence. It does look awkward having a bracket followed by a full stop, but then, if you want to apply an exclamation to the remark in parenthesis, you'll have to write it that way.
Alternatively:
Have fun in your meeting - or don't have fun at all! might work too.
Colin
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Glenn (unregistered)
July 26, 2004, 7:08am
Yup, it's fine. Don't worry.
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goossun
July 29, 2004, 6:57pm
I was reading the translation of Wim Wenders' The Act of Seeing and there the translator had a footnote that ended thus: ...(Trans.).
I guess that publishers use different system of punctuation. The above-mentioned book is Faber&Faber's and their stuff is very different that, say, Routledge.
However the same subject's been also discussed at:
http://www.painintheenglish.com/post.asp?id=180
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Dave (unregistered)
July 30, 2004, 5:01am
The period at the end of TRANS doesn't signify the end of a sentence, but rather an abbreviation, so it's not really comparable.
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nono
August 6, 2004, 8:17am
You don't need the period, that's all.
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ladylucy (unregistered)
September 22, 2004, 6:12am
If you don't use the period, you should put the exclamation outside the parentheses. The phrase inside the parentheses is not a sentence (It is a continuation of the sentence.), and does not need its own period or exclamation.
Have fun in your meeting (or don't have fun at all)!
or
Have fun in your meeting. (Maybe you won't have fun at all!)
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ryan (unregistered)
October 26, 2004, 10:44pm
I think the way you wrote it is just fine.
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