I do this so much at work and have to constantly remind myself not to overdo it (otherwise people will think I’m crazy).
I’ve learned to back off and realize that commas, instead of parentheses, often work just fine.
But I’ve already used commas to add more information to the sentence, how can I fit in more information without parentheses?
Stand over the person reading it and interject.
Consider the humble “em dash” — some people use it to interject a completely different sentence in the middle of another — the next time you’re trying to avoid parentheses.
Forget what everyone else said. Brackets.
You can, although probably should not, use semicolons; they can be used to join related statements that could, very frequently, also stand on their own.
Yea I try to do that too. And then make sure it doesn’t end up a ridiculous run on sentence. 😭
Commas are a pathway to infinitely run-on sentences.
Occasionally replace the parenthesis with a semicolon – or dashes – and you can get away with it more often.
The thing is - and I say that from experience (being somewhat on the ADHD spectrum myself) - that there are no limits to how many of these you can use; or at least that’s how it feels to me (sorry!).
Beautiful sentence using all of them!
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I am guilty of overusing em dashes — I just think they’re aesthetically pleasing, even if they’re often unnecessary.
i do this; i just have so much to say, and there are only so many conjugations and commas you can get away with – without it becoming a run-on sentence (i may have a run-on mind).
That’s called ADHD, but I like the name, so we can use both I guess.
Semicolon ftw
im like small sentence (heres some back story though (and some deeper context thats needed (also something vaguely related to thing))).
Usually by my third edit I’m ready to send. Of course, by then I’ve begun to question if anyone is interested in my option anyway and why am I sending this email? They probably know all this already and I’m too stupid to have realized it.
oh god I do this all the time, excessively, and have to rewrite emails and posts multiple times to get rid of them as much as possible. sometimes I’ll be writing a parenthetical and need to nest others within it…
It’s hard.
“Nested Parentheticals” can totally be the title of my 15,000 word autobiography. lol
{Nested [Parentheticals] - (An Autobiography), By Admiral Patrick}
I fight this urge frequently.
As long as you escape the inner parentheticals there is no problem (escape as in adding "" to it \(just as in programming \\\(because we do this as much as you do \\\\\\(in many languages\\\\\\).\\\)\)).
It gets fun when the side thought is longer than the original and starts getting side thoughts of its own. The context needs more context or nobody will get it.
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there have been times where the secondary thought overrides the primary thought, and i often end the message with just finishing the parenthesis. worst case scenario, I’ll even add a tertiary thought
I use paragraphs in those cases and then I don’t usually remember but if I did I would add reference numbers, kinda like this¹
¹ it’s very useful when you have multiple parentheses at different points, I still haven’t solved the problem of nesting them unfortunately, so I welcome any suggestions
I’m getting flashes of David Foster Wallace.
I like to use ellipses cause I never fully finish a thought…
Stahhhp… I do that a lot more that parentheses, and now you’ve made me self-conscious about it lol
I do both… a LOT. and now I guess I’m figuring out why.
I just want a brain that works correctly. 😔
The other day I wrote a sentence with parenthesis and inside the parenthesis there was a comma phrase, a dash, a colon, and a semicolon on here. Only realized how much of a monstrosity the comment was after writing it, but posted it anyways.
Fuck (Well happens to me (sometimes even nested))
Linus Torvalds used nested parentheses in his famous Linux announcement email (1991-08-25) so I think precedent says they’re OK.
Nested parenthesis is fairly common in most programming languages.
Last time I checked, we were talking about English, not Lisp.
Most programming languages are written in English, yes.
Most programming language don’t care if it’s written in English
What is cout in Spanish
mecouta
marafuera ?
I count in ich_iel
SPRICH
I’ve met people who’s second language is English with their first being C and assembly
I do it quite often here and I think of them as footnotes to my writing, because they are tangential thoughts, but still important to what I’m trying to express that it shouldn’t be considered a bonus: the asides are more like a public “note to self”.
It also makes the writing feel more raw and stream of conscience-y. (I don’t have a better word to describe it.)
stream of conscience-y
I think that’s why I relate to the OP tweet so much. When I’m writing a text or comment, it’s usually in a inner-voice type of thing where I’m imagining myself speaking directly to the person. And I definitely speak with lots of parenthetical “bonus thoughts”
When I’m writing out something important, an official letter or work email, etc. I take my time to form the full thoughts and put that all down in writing as properly as I’m able to.
For work email, I suggest writing it as simply and direct as possible while still being polite. People really don’t like reading essays for work emails.
Yes! I have learnt to not be ashamed of those, at least in anonymous communities
Fuck, this is totally me.
Me (check my comment history.)
And then the bonus content comes with its own bonus content (which also comes with its own bonus content [and so on]).
I always wish it was easy to “hyperlink” parts of my sentence. So that they could hover over it and see my explanation for that part. But alas, that would be too much work.
Is this an adhd thing?! I haven’t been diagnosed but this community makes me think too many times “i thought it was just me”.
Because of the tweet did i have to remove my bonus thought it felt unnatural in this context 😂
Back on track: Sometimes do i want to add a parentes in a parents and it hurts every time.
No. A lot of “ADHD thing” tweets/memes are just quirks common across a wide spectrum of people. That they happen to also be common in those with ADHD is just coincidental.
For parentheses specifically, it’s just a personal writing habit, and there are other ways to communicate “a thought followed by a bonus thought” without having to use them — hell, parenthetical clauses themselves don’t have to use them. Parentheses in particular are probably a result of some people being taught that “a sentence is a complete thought”, which is a nice description for someone just learning grammar, but also not actually true.
Yea thought so, it feels a bit like horoscopes in newspaper sometimes. I only know two with adhd and they are both very extreme cases but polar opposite to each other so i don’t have anything to base these “facts” on.
Yea i was taught that parentheses is just wrapping extra information that you won’t read out loud and can be skipped. It was meant to be there to give more context for those that is not as well versed in the subject or helpful to point out things that may not be as obvious for the reader. For example “VIP(very important person)” or “a lot of things here are brown (the tables, chairs and floor)”.
But i never even thought about how parentheses should be used until now. My teachers never really said anything about them.
I just want to say that a lot of the surface level ADHD actions are common to humans who are alive. The reason for those things various dramatically and the frequency of occurrence is definitely an ADHD thing, but simply getting distracted while focusing on something is not exclusive to ADHD, but being unable to focus because of distractions (sometimes distractions that are completely mental and exclusive to your brain) is an ADHD thing.
It’s like, you’re probably not going to be able to do your tax return next to an active jackhammer regardless of who you are, but when you’re doing your taxes in a quiet room and you’re distracted by the HVAC turning on and making a humming noise, that’s probably ADHD.
Edit to add: I’m listening to someone in another room browse tiktok, I’m listening to the furnace hum and I can hear my stomach doing its digestion thing, yet I still maintained focus on this somehow. Medication works!
Do you inhale when you breathe? It’s a common ADHD symptom
Oh no. I just discovered that 100% of people who have breathed, die.
So sad.
seems i don’t have adhd then, nice!
It’s all I can do not to nest them 🙃
Do you speak with a Lisp?
I’ve started re-writing nearly all of the emails I send with a rule of like, no more than one set of parenthesis. Somewhat funny because I do some programming and I started thinking to myself “if I’m nesting parens I should probably just re-write this
functionsentence.”
Is this one a common trait? I love writing, but I have to constantly rewrite because every sentence uses parenthetical tangents.
Hey look, it’s me
I’m in this post (and I don’t like it, but I do appreciate it for what it is)
Fuck. I go into parenthesis, then brackets, and I’ve even gone into curly brackets before.
This is a thing, eh?
ha ha I do that
