Parentheses

3.17

Grammar. It should always be possible to omit matter in parentheses (commas, dashes, brackets) without doing violence to the grammar of a sentence. Do not be afraid to change the type used in source texts (e.g. do not end a sentence on a dash but use brackets instead).

One common use of brackets in French texts is to enclose the substance of a sentence, i.e. the specific points exemplifying a general statement. In English it will often be preferable to remove the brackets and opt for a separate clause or sentence, complete with verb. Note that expanding the material in this way is not always straightforward: bracketings of the “(produits énergétiques, terrorisme, developpement de la coopération)” type — in this case supposedly listing the aims of the Community's Maghreb policy — are not uncommon.

3.18

Dashes vs hyphens. Most users of word processors do not distinguish between dashes and hyphens, using hyphens to represent both the short dashes (“en” dashes = –) and long dashes (“em” dashes = —) commonly used in typeset documents. However, please note that both en and em dashes are available in modern word processors.

3.19

Em dashes may be used to punctuate a sentence instead of commas or parentheses. However, use no more than one in a sentence, or — if used as a parenthesis — one set of paired dashes. To avoid errors if your dashes subsequently turn into hyphens as a result of document conversion, do not follow the typesetting practice of omitting the spaces around the em dashes.

3.20

En dashes are used to join coordinate or contrasting pairs (the Brussels–Paris route, a current–voltage graph, the height–depth ratio). These are not subject to hyphen rules.

3.21

Never combine a dash with a colon (e.g. to introduce a list).

3.22

Round brackets. Use a pair of round brackets when citing paragraphs from Community legal instruments, and close up to the article number:

Article 3(1), Article 3(1)(a), Article 3a(1), etc.

Note that the French use of the paragraph symbol l'article 3 §1 is incorrect in English.

3.23

Bracketed sentences. A whole sentence in brackets should have the final stop inside the closing bracket. Do not forget the stop at the end of the preceding sentence as well.

3.24

Square brackets. Square brackets are used to make insertions in quoted material. They are also used by convention in administrative drafting to indicate optional passages or those still open to discussion, so do not replace with round brackets.

3.25

Courtesy questions. No question mark is needed after a request or instruction put as a question for courtesy:

Would you please sign and return the attached form.

3.26

Do not use a question mark in indirect speech:

The chairman asked when the deadline would be fixed.