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.
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.
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?
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.
Stand over the person reading it and interject.
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.
im like small sentence (heres some back story though (and some deeper context thats needed (also something vaguely related to thing))).
Occasionally replace the parenthesis with a semicolon – or dashes – and you can get away with it more often.
I am guilty of overusing em dashes — I just think they’re aesthetically pleasing, even if they’re often unnecessary.