Good morning!
It seems many of you have been finding Grammar Girl’s tips very helpful, so I’ll provide you with more of them this week (from The Grammar Devotional: Daily Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl™, by Mignon Fogarty). For those of you attempting your own research on her site (Quick and Dirty Tips), I regret to inform you that it is blocked because of some malicious shenanigans discovered by our trusty Help Desk.
Today’s tip is about parentheses and abbreviations (p. 23 of the Devotional).
Parentheses and Abbreviations
Let’s combine parentheses with abbreviations! (Oh, come on. Live a little!)
If the bit inside parentheses isn’t a complete sentence and ends with an abbreviation, you put a period after the abbreviation, and another period after the parenthesis to end the sentence. You can’t ignore the parenthesis and let the period end both the abbreviation and the sentence:
Squiggly likes chocolate (including chocolate mixed with yummies such as nuts, candy, etc.).
If the bit inside parentheses is a complete sentence and ends with an abbreviation, you only use one period because the final parenthesis isn’t in your way.
(Squiggly likes sweets—candy, cookies, cake, etc.)
And from a former JHA employee who is now living in Japan—a fantastic pizza box translation:
Kara Church
Technical Editor, Advisory

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