I've been guilty of this in the past, but I've noticed the unnecessary use of parentheses the past several months around here. Are they being used as inner thoughts? Like editorial remarks? Commas or nothing at all in a lot of these cases will work better.

I'm no genius in the english language, but find the sudden overuse of parentheses funny. Mainly because it's embarrassing to myself since I was guilty of it for a while.

Nitpicky thread. Feel free to ignore.

Who knows (I don't)

I (might -- and often) overuse punctuation, but that's probably so I can convey exactly what I'm thinking more clearly.

Parenthetical comments (within parentheses) are just additional information added, that, when removed, don't change the sentence's meaning or form. I often like to use dashes -- it's a bigger pause than a comma, but not as formal as a semicolon. However, I still like semicolons; they're cool.

Overuse of punctuation isn't nearly as bad as misuse, however. I may be guilty sometimes, but when it's all over the place it drives me crazy.

I guess that was my point, over/misuse. For example, I've seen something to the effects of "My thoughts on baseball (you don't have to agree) are..." when people could easily say the same thing as "My thoughts on baseball, and you don't have to agree, are...".

In case anyone is wondering if I'm quoting them, I'm not. I just made up a quote based on similar quotes I've seen. Baseball was chosen as a random subject for an example.

I actually prefer the former example since I can -- if written properly -- just ignore the parenthetical completely and save time by getting right to the babbling point.

Well,({[not a well where you get water]})I think that punctuation in these threads takes the place verbal intonations, so, in that respect they are functional. Like Geoff, I'm partial to the semi-colon. Commas are convenient, but sometimes overused. We are not writing to be judged (although some people love to pick out grammatical mistakes and typos), but to offer opinions, comments, and to tell a story. Over-punctuation (if there is such a thing) is as necessary as WTF, OMG, LMAO and F this and F that. No?

I like to use parentheses. It is a charming device toallow you to introduce a parallel thought or point while protecting the main purpose of the sentence from possible confusion.

Haha, Thanks Capo. Not that it matters what I have to say about music but I think Sigur Ros is shit.

(In case anyone was wondering, that's the album cover of ( ), by Sigur Rós. )