This afternoon I started off my high school writing class the same way I've started off countless other classes: by asking whether anyone had a question on the reading.
And something unprecedented happened.
Someone DID.
It was exactly what I was afraid of, too.
He asked, "what is the practical difference between a pair of parentheses and a pair of dashes?"
Maybe I shouldn't ask that anymore.
5 comments:
Wow, that's a good question.
So, what's the answer? If you don't tell me I'll be thinking about nothing else for the whole week!
It depends.
How astute is that?
In my case, parentheses are a somewhat randomly chosen method of taking rabbit trails in my writing and directing the reader to skip the text held therein. Is that a gross misuse?
No, I deem that an acceptable use (although I disagree about the value of the text held therein). But the question remains: how do they differ from dashes?
(On a related note, I wonder if it's a particular characteristic of lawyers to love parenthetic expressions -- we just know so much, it's a pity not to share it all with the world...)
oooo emily i know that one. the parentheses are better since when one is texting they are much easier and faster to use than the lowly dashes.
the end
love,
becky
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