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Tue 23 Sep, 2014 10:59 am
Is this a situation where parentheses have to be used?
The school opened in 1961 and named after James Gibbons, who became the Archbishop of Baltimore in 1877 and then became a Cardinal in 1886. James Gibbons was the second American in history to receive the distinction of cardinal from the Roman Catholic Church (the first was Archbishop John McCloskey of New York in 1875).
Thank you.
@FortOtt,
It's ok. I don't know that there are definitive rules for using parentheses. Personally, I would have put a period after Church and made the parenthetical phrase a full sentence.
@FortOtt,
Either is fine, so long as the parenthetical (if you ditch the parentheses) is separated as its own sentence. It's a complete thought, whereas many parenthetical asides, such as the one I used above, are fragments and can't stand on their own.
As is the case with a good deal of punctuation in contemporary English, especially the comma, the use of parentheses is a matter of style, not of grammar.
James Gibbons was the second American in history to receive the distinction of cardinal from the Roman Catholic Church behind Archbishop John McCloskey of New York who became a Cardinal in 1875.
If you are "second behind" someone, doesn't that make you third?
@FortOtt,
No. He was the "second American" and he was behind "Archbishop John McCloskey".
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