I always wish it was easy to “hyperlink” parts of my sentence. So that they could hover over it and see my explanation for that part. But alas, that would be too much work.
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?
Stand over the person reading it and interject.
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.
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.
