Punctuation rules are complicated enough. But what happens when you stick two punctuation marks next to one another – like parentheses and periods?
Don’t panic – chaos need not ensure.
The last parentheses goes in front of the end mark for the sentence it belongs to:
Please find January’s report attached (see January Report).
If the words within the parentheses forms a complete sentence, capitalize the first word and use an end mark before the last parentheses. An additional end mark still is needed at the end of the main sentence that the parentheses supports:
Please find January’s report attached (It is called January Report.).
Please find January’s report attached (It is called January Report.) as you requested.
Thank you for remaining calm, and may now go about your business.
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.