Grammar braces usage follows a special set of rules that are fairly easy to learn. Braces are also known as brackets or parentheses that can be round, square, curly, or angled. In formal writing, this punctuation mark has fairly limited usage, which is why the rules should be easy to learn. For informal writing, the brackets, braces, or parentheses can be used anywhere. In both cases, the purpose of a brace, bracket or parenthesis is to set off any incidental or optional information or thoughts.
Braces or brackets are one of the fourteen different punctuation marks found in the English language. The other marks are the period, comma, exclamation point, question mark, dash, quotation mark, colon, semicolon, apostrophe, hyphen, ellipses, parentheses. The braces, brackets and parentheses are all slightly different in style but follow similar rules, which is why they may often be used interchangeably.
Braces are also known as curly brackets ( { } ). On a qwerty keyboard, the left and right curly braces are found on the same keys as the square brackets. It is mostly used in music or poetry. The only use for a brace in writing is when a writer presents or creates a list of equal choices for a reader or in a number set.
The bracket can be square ( [ ] ) or angled ( < > ). Square brackets are especially important in academic writing because they add information to a quotation that does not appear in the original quotation. Since quotations must be presented exactly as they are found, a square bracket allows the writer to interject explanation or clarification within the quotation itself. For example, writers may need to change the tense of a verb to fit into the sentence or they may have found an error in the original quote. If writers want to add emphasis to words in the quote using bold or italic letters, this can be done and the explanatory note added in the square bracket.
Angled brackets have limited usage in writing. They are only found in a reference page to denote a url address. According to recent MLA changes, citations no longer call for urls in reference pages so the use of them is now optional.
Parentheses are also known as round brackets and have the most usage in English writing. Parentheses are used in sentences to add additional information and detail to what has already been said. The parentheses mean that the information isn’t really necessary but helpful to have. An item placed in parentheses can often be set off using commas as well.
As demonstrated above, grammar braces usage in academic writing has specific purposes for each different kind of brace, bracket or parentheses. These differences are important to remember while writing formal papers. However, their differences really aren’t that important when writing informally. The intended audience will understand the message regardless of which punctuation is used.