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Transcript

00:04

Parentheses, a la Shmoop. Every Thanksgiving, Jason's mom likes to

00:08

slip a very special extra ingredient into her pumpkin pie.

00:12

The ingredient isn't Ex-Lax...

00:13

...or cayenne pepper. Nope. It's pecans. Yeah...a letdown, we know.

00:19

In the world of grammar, those pecans are a lot like parenthetical elements.

00:24

It's like this. No pumpkin pie needs pecans. They're just a little something special...

00:29

...and it's the same way with parentheses and the words, or parenthetical elements,

00:34

between them.

00:35

When an author has something to say that doesn't need to be said...

00:42

...when he or she wants to clarify something, or provide a sense of direction...

00:48

...then it's time to bust out the parentheses.

00:53

Say we have the sentence, "Jason's mom

00:55

bought Cool Whip to go on her pumpkin pie."

00:58

Okay. That's a nice, plain, serviceable sentence. But what if we want to liven it

01:02

up a little bit?

01:04

"Jason's mom bought Cool Whip...parenthesis... because there is no whip like Cool Whip...

01:09

parenthesis...to go on her pumpkin pie."

01:12

Here, the parenthetical elements don't just make the rewritten sentence more interesting.

01:19

They provide us with important information...

01:21

...namely, that Jason's mom has a deep and abiding love for Cool Whip. Mmm, Cool Whip.

01:28

What if we have the sentence, "Jason hates that his mom puts pecans in the pumpkin pie"?

01:34

Boring sentence, right? Bring on the parenthetical elements!

01:37

"Jason...parenthesis...a pumpkin pie purist...parenthesis...hates that his mom puts pecans in the pumpkin pie."

01:44

In this rewritten sentence, the words inside the parentheses give us crucial insight into

01:48

why Jason hates those blasted pecans...

01:50

...and, really, who can blame him? What kind of madwoman puts pecans in a pumpkin pie?

01:57

When using parentheses, there are a few important rules to remember. If the words within the

02:01

parentheses form a complete sentence...

02:03

...the sentence's terminal punctuation stays within the parenthesis.

02:07

If the words within the parentheses do not form a complete sentence...

02:11

...and the parenthesis is at the end of a complete sentence...

02:14

...then the sentence's terminal punctuation goes outside the parenthesis.

02:19

Example time! Say we have two sentences, one of them falling between parentheses. The sentences

02:25

would read like this...

02:26

...Jason stole his mom's pecans so she couldn't put them in the pumpkin pie...period...parenthesis...He

02:32

hid the pecans in the toilet tank... period... parenthesis.

02:36

Now, let's combine these two sentences into one, placing the parenthetical elements at

02:42

the end of the revised sentence.

02:44

Jason stole his mom's pecans so she couldn't put them in the pumpkin pie...parenthesis...and

02:49

hid them in the toilet tank...parenthesis...period. Okay, there's just one more rule to go over.

02:54

If there's a complete sentence within parentheses...

02:57

...and that complete sentence is within a complete sentence...

03:00

...then the first letter of the parenthetical sentence does not get capitalized...

03:04

...and the parenthetical sentence does not get terminal punctuation, unless a question

03:09

mark or exclamation point is needed. Say we want to talk about how much Jason loves

03:14

pumpkin pie. Let's look at a couple of different ways to write that sentence.

03:18

We could write, "Jason adores...parenthesis...we mean he would kill for...parenthesis...pumpkin

03:23

pie."

03:23

Remember, here the first word in parentheses, "we", does not get capitalized.

03:28

Here's another version of the same sentence: "Jason adores...parenthesis...should we

03:33

say he would kill for...question mark...parenthesis...pumpkin pie."

03:36

Again, the first word in parentheses—and this time it's the word "should"—

03:41

does not get capitalized. Parentheses give us a chance to provide a

03:45

little extra insight about what we're writing...

03:48

...and to fret over punctuation placement, which we all love to do so dearly.

03:54

At least we don't have to worry about finding pecans in our pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving...

03:59

...or do we?

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