Parentheses are valuable writing tools; they allow writers to insert added detail within a sentence, clarify a writer’s thinking, or include citations to avoid plagiarism. It’s important to know how to use parentheses—especially for citation purposes!—but you won’t want to overuse parentheses for the purposes of inserting added detail. Be strategic about when and why you include them.

Terms You Need to Know to Use Parentheses

CITATIONS
Citations are references to quotes or ideas in other works. They are usually used in scholarly works.

3 Ways to Use Parentheses

Insert Related but Unnecessary Information
Clarify a Writer’s State of Mind
Insert Citations

1. Insert Related, but Unnecessary Information

DESCRIPTION
Parentheses can be used to insert information that is related to the topic of the sentence, but is not needed to understand the sentence.

APPLICATION
To insert related, but unnecessary information, place parentheses around the information you would like to add, and put the parenthetical phrase where it would be most helpful in the sentence. If a parenthetical phrase is inserted within a sentence and ends at the end of a sentence, the period goes after the final parenthesis. If the parenthetical comment is an entire sentence by itself, the period goes inside the final parenthesis.

EXAMPLE

Torrey goes to school in Rochester, NY (where Mickey Rooney first started his career).
(In this sentence, the parenthetical statement is not needed to understand the sentence, but it adds information related to part of the sentence.)

2. Clarify a Writer’s State of Mind

DESCRIPTION
Parentheses can be used to clarify and explain a writer’s state of mind on the subject that they are writing about.

APPLICATION
To clarify your state of mind as a writer using parentheses, place the clarifying thought in parentheses after what it is clarifying in the sentence. If a parenthetical phrase is inserted within a sentence and ends at the end of a sentence, the period goes after the final parenthesis.

EXAMPLE

McKayla enjoys (and by “enjoys,” I mean obsesses over) that YouTube channel.
(In this sentence, the parenthetical statement adds further information on the writer’s thoughts on McKayla’s enjoyment of the channel.)

3. Insert Citations

DESCRIPTION
Citations are references to quotes or ideas in other works. They are usually used in scholarly works. Parentheses are used to note these citations. Different writing style guides have varying requirements for citations.

APPLICATION
To indicate a citation using parentheses, place the parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Follow the conventions of your chosen style guide for what needs to be included in the parentheses. Note that the period go

EXAMPLE

Some ethical news values include accuracy, sufficiency, community and diversity (Patterson and Wilkins 37).
(In this sentence, the citation indicates the names of the authors and the page number on which the information is found. This is the citation style that MLA uses.)