October 10, 2022 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The Oral History Association [OHA] is pleased to announce that Baylor University’s Institute for Oral History will be the association’s new home, effective Jan. 1, 2023. Stephen Sloan, the Director of the Institute, and associate Professor of History, will serve as the new OHA Executive Director. Steven Sielaff, […]

By Kristine McCusker and Louis Kyriakoudes August 2022 Newsletter             The Executive Office has been busy these past few months gearing up for our first in-person conference since 2019, to be held in Los Angeles at the Biltmore Hotel from Oct. 19-22. We can’t wait to reconnect with everyone face-to-face after having to hold conferences […]

By Amy Starecheski August 2022 Newsletter As we look towards the Annual Meeting in LA, and the end of my presidential term, I would like to share some updates. Our long-stalled project to create a document to provide guidance in valuing and evaluating oral history work is back underway, and the task force working on […]

6: Punctuation

6.18: Commas relative to parentheses and brackets

Chapter Contents / Commas

When the context calls for a comma at the end of material in parentheses or brackets, the comma should follow the closing parenthesis or bracket. A comma never precedes a closing parenthesis. (For its rare appearance before an opening parenthesis, see the examples in 6.129.) Rarely, a comma may appear inside and immediately before a closing bracket as part of an editorial interpolation (as in the last example; see also 13.59).

• After several drummers had tried out for the part (the last having destroyed the kit), the band decided that a drum machine was their steadiest option.
• Her delivery, especially when she would turn to address the audience (almost as if to spot a long-lost friend), was universally praised.
• “Conrad told his assistant [Martin], who was clearly exhausted, to rest.”
• “The contents of the vault included fennel seeds, tweezers, [straight-edged razors,] and empty Coca-Cola cans.”

Here are a few comments from the CMOS forum. These examples should help this rule stick in your mind!

• I went to Bob’s (he didn’t realize I was on my way) and caught him kissing my girlfriend.
Lowercase “he” and exclude the period at the end of the sentence within parens? Is this correctly punctuated?

• I told Mary (does she think I’m stupid?) that I was aware of the affair.
Lowercase “does” and use the question mark within parens? Is this correctly punctuated?

• Joe may apologize (he is such a creep!) for the affair.
Lowercase “he” and can I use the exclamation point within parens? Is this correctly punctuated?

I think that the only terminal punctuation that is omitted in parens is the period. The question mark and exclamation mark, I believe, are the only ones that can be used at the end of a sentence within parens.

The online registration form  for the OHA 2022 Annual Meeting is now available. You will need to use your Memberclicks account in order to register. If you don’t have an account, you will need to create one. #OHA22 WILL BE FULLY IN-PERSON The 2022 annual meeting will be a fully in-person meeting. While the OHA is […]

The Oral History Association is sponsoring a handful of in person meet ups around the United States. The offer went out in the June News Blast, and you can find the information about each event on this page. How it works: 1. Identify two co-chairs and send us an email to tell us what you […]