what literary device is parenthesis

Parenthesis Literary Definition: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know what parentheses punctuation is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on parentheses punctuation, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What are parentheses?

According to Grammar Monster , we often think of parentheses as a type of punctuation mark, like commas, a question mark, where you might use brackets, a dash, and exclamation point, a colon, exclamation marks, a semicolon, an en dash, an ellipsis, an em dash, a terminal punctuation, and more. However, there is actually a lot more to understanding parenthesis and parentheses. Consult a style guidebook if you are confused. A simple example is:

I am going to London tonight (the winner of the competition gets to go, and I am not a loser)!

Parenthesis is also used to refer to the words inside the parentheses; this fragment can also be offset by commas, dashes, and more. Parenthetical insertions are also a qualifying or explanatory sentence, clause, or word that writers insert into a paragraph or passage, according to Literary Devices . The overuse of parenthesis or parenthetical material can make the surrounding text outside parentheses difficult to read.

This verbal unit comes from the Greek word parentithenai meaning interval or interlude, from Late Latin para, en, and tithenai according to Dictionary . The pronunciation fo parentheses is pəˈrɛnθɪsɪs or pəˈrɛnθ-ˌsiːz. This stylistic device is often used in stanza and verse by narrators as explanatory clauses. Like hyperbole is a provocative understatement, parentheses can add to the actual purpose of a sentence for humorous effect by a poet or author, as a sign of aggregation, for logical expressions, digression, symbolic logic in syntactic construction, and more.

What are examples of parentheses?

Parentheses can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or grammatical technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of parentheses that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use.  Take a look at these parentheses examples from Literary Devices and see how many you can identify the parentheses in!

•  The Elements of Style (By William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White) “It is now necessary to warn you that your concern for the reader must be pure: you must sympathize with the reader’s plight (most readers are in trouble about half the time) but never seek to know the reader’s wants. Your whole duty as a writer is to please and satisfy yourself…”
•  Lights Out for the Territory (By Iain Sinclair) ” ‘Black dog’ is the mood of bottomless, suicidal despair suffered, most notoriously, by Winston Churchill (himself a kind of bulldog in nappies, a logo for Empire; growling and dribbling, wheezing smoke, swollen veins fired with brandy).”
•  One Art (By Elizabeth Bishop) “—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture/I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident/the art of losing’s not too hard to master/though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.”
•  The Dogwood Tree: A Boyhood (By John Updike) “A little gravel alley, too small to be marked with a street sign but known in the neighborhood as Shilling Alley, wound hazardously around our property and on down, past an untidy sequence of back buildings (chicken houses, barns out of plumb, a gun shop, a small lumber mill, a shack where a blind man lived, and the enchanted grotto of a garage whose cement floors had been waxed to the luster of ebony by oil drippings … silver water so cold it made your front teeth throb) on down to Lancaster Avenue, the main street, where the trolley cars ran.”
•  The Horse and His Boy (By C. S. Lewis) “[I]n Calormen, story-telling (whether the stories are true or made up) is a thing you’re taught, just as English boys and girls are taught essay-writing. The difference is that people want to hear the stories, whereas I never heard of anyone who wanted to read the essays.”

What are other literary techniques and devices?

There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you. 

• phrase (phr.)
•  present participle
•  modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
•  complementary
•  indirect passive
•  antecedent
•  demonstrative
•  adverb (adv.)
•  subjunctive
•  preposition (prep.)
•  interjection
•  prepositional object
•  second person
•  premodify | premodifier
•  construction
•  passive infinitive
•  comparative
•  common noun
•  intensifier
•  definite article
•  pronoun (pron.)
•  predicative
•  that-clause
•  impersonal (impers.)
•  count noun
•  superlative
•  object | direct object | indirect object
•  subjective
•  complement
•  nominal relative | nominal relative clause
•  non-finite
•  direct question
•  noun phrase
•  main clause
•  nominative
•  subordinate clause
•  sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
•  imperative (imper.)
•  participial adjective
•  double object
•  past tense
•  parenthetical | parenthetically
•  parasynthetic
•  phrasal verb
•  unmarked genitive
•  pleonasm | pleonastic
•  special use
•  instrumental
•  transitive
•  indicative
•  prepositional passive
•  present tense
•  non-referential
•  modify | modifier
•  indirect speech
•  possessive
•  apposition
•  exclamation mark
•  agent noun
•   part of speech
•  prepositional phrase
•  third-person
•  cataphoric
•  anticipatory
•  participle | past participle | present participle
•  intransitive
•  absolute (absol.)
•  appositive
•  periphrasis | periphrastic
•  accusative
•  inflection | inflected | inflectional
•  collective noun
•  conditional
•  verbal noun
•  apodosis and protasis
•  adverbial | adverbially
•  first person
•  indirect question
•  to-infinitive
•  compound | compounding
•  attributive
•  infinitive
•  auxiliary verb | auxiliary
•  cognate object
•  declarative
•  collocation | collocate
•  agree | agreement
•  interrogative
•  past participle
•  progressive
•  possessive adjective
•  proper noun | proper name
•  combining form (comb. form)
•  postmodify | postmodifier
•  construed (const., constr.)
•  determiner
•  personal pronoun
•  copular verb | copula
•  direct object
•  combination
•  indefinite
•  bare infinitive
•  possessive pronoun
•  similative
•  ellipsis | elliptical
•  direct speech
•  indirect object
•  conjunction (conj.)

Overall, parenthesis is an intervening occurrence that is used in poetry and prose to add information or as an aside..

• Glossary of grammatical terms | OED 
• Parenthesis | What Is Parenthesis? | Grammar Monster 
• Parenthesis – Examples and Definition of Parenthesis | Literary Devices 
• Parenthesis Definition & Meaning | Dictionary 

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Parenthesis

Parenthesis is a rhetorical stylistic device used in texts of every kind and literary genre. As a parenthesis, the interruption of a sentence is designated by the insertion of another sentence. In this case, the inserted sentence is placed in dashes, brackets, or commas, and is grammatically complete and independent.

The term parenthesis finds a correspondence in the Greek (παρένθεσις ~ parénthesis) and can be translated into approximately with insertion. This translation shows quite precisely what is the main theme of this stylistic figure: the insertion of a sentence [into another sentence]. Let’s look at an example.

I am, grant me the request, In your covenant the third! The above example comes from Friedrich Schiller’s Ballad Die Bürgschaft. In order to clarify the figure, we have chosen two verses from the last stanza of the work, and gave up the request for the actual upheaval after the parenthetical insertion. Thus, the style figure clearly emerges.

The parenthesis grants me the request is syntactic and grammatically independent. This means that the insert could also stand alone and thus would not be wrong. Moreover, it means that the starting sentence would get along without him (proof: “I am the third in your covenant”).

One day – it was in the middle of winter – there was a hail of cold chunks In this example, too, we find the parenthesis. In this case, it is clearly marked by dashes. Through this insertion, what is said is certainly put into the foreground, which may seem to be emphasized because we stumble upon it when we read it.

Note: Since the parenthesis is separated by dashes, commas, or parentheses from the enclosing sentence, these signs are sometimes themselves referred to as parenthesis. It is therefore advisable to check exactly what is meant by the respective identifier.

Further examples of the parenthesis A stylist can best be illustrated by numerous examples . Therefore, we would like to introduce you to other, but uncommented, examples.

We highlighted the respective inserts. It should be clear that this is syntactically and grammatically self-sufficient and thus can be separated from the “rest” without the sense of the whole being distorted or the correctness endangered.

Uncomended examples for the use of the parenthesis So I begged-it was a mistake, nothing more- For this swift action you pardon. The Social Democratic Party – let me say this very clearly – is opposed to such projects, even if they are implemented by means of direct democracy to this house, always resist! It was also not possible in your midst. – and personally I would have to do as his friend with special movement – to talk about the great designs of his soul. Master, she said-never before that evening had she given him this name; for at first she used to call him master and then father- Master! we have escaped a great danger. I would like to ask her, ladies, to come along.

Effect and function of the parenthesis It is not always useful to ascribe a function or effect to a stylistic figure. If we do that, we run the risk of breaking down the stylistic device every time. Nevertheless, the application has an effect on the reader or viewer.

And of course we can describe this effect. It is important, however, that we do not lose sight of the fact that a stylistic device can also be used contrary to our expectations and then, of course, something quite different in the receiver.

Overview of effect, function and effect of the parenthesis Parentesis is a grammatically independent subdivision into a sentence which interrupts its context without changing the syntactic order. Such an insert is either placed in brackets or placed between dashes or commas. The parenthesis has the effect that it can provide us with additional information about the respective facts and also emphasizes the inserted word group. This emphasis is based on stumbling over the parenthetical section as it interrupts the order of the sentence. This can of course be used to reinforce the pushed-in or to move to the center. The hyperbaton has a similar effect on the reader. There too the usual order is broken. However, the known structure is completely changed here.

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Related posts:

• Complex sentence
• Aposiopesis
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Stylistic Devices – Parenthesis

additional information

The normal progression of a sentence is interrupted by extra information or explanations enclosed in commas, brackets or dashes. The extra information can be a single word, a phrase or even a sentence.

• We (myself, wife Lorraine and daughters Caroline and Joanna) boarded our boat 'Lynn', a Duchess class vessel barely a year old, at Black Prince Holidays' Chirk boatyard. (4)
• The boats have remarkably few controls and we were given a thorough briefing about 'driving' ours–along with advice on mooring, lock operation and safety considerations–by Pauline, who even set off with us for a few minutes to ensure we were confident. (4)

Note: Depending on the importance attached to it, additional information can be enclosed in brackets, commas or dashes.

Brackets - not important Connor (Amy's boyfriend) bought the tickets.

Commas - neutral Connor, Amy's boyfriend, bought the tickets.

Dashes - emphasized Connor–Amy's boyfriend–bought the tickets.

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Parenthesis.

Parenthesis, a final form of hyperbaton, consists of a word, phrase, or whole sentence inserted as an aside in the middle of another sentence:

• But the new calculations--and here we see the value of relying upon up-to-date information--showed that man-powered flight was possible with this design.
• Every time I try to think of a good rhetorical example, I rack my brains but--you guessed--nothing happens.
• As the earthy portion has its origin from earth, the watery from a different element, my breath from one source and my hot and fiery parts from another of their own elsewhere (for nothing comes from nothing, or can return to nothing), so too there must be an origin for the mind. --Marcus Aurelius
• But in whatever respect anyone else is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am just as bold myself. --2 Cor. 11:21b (NASB)

The violence involved in jumping into (or out of) the middle of your sentence to address the reader momentarily about something has a pronounced effect. Parenthesis can be circumscribed either by dashes--they are more dramatic and forceful--or by parentheses (to make your aside less stringent). This device creates the effect of extemporaneity and immediacy: you are relating some fact when suddenly something very important arises, or else you cannot resist an instant comment, so you just stop the sentence and the thought you are on right where they are and insert the fact or comment. The parenthetical form also serves to give some statements a context (stuffed right into the middle of another sentence at the most pertinent point) which they would not have if they had to be written as complete sentences following another sentence. Note that in the first example above the bit of moralizing placed into the sentence appears to be more natural and acceptable than if it were stated separately as a kind of moral conclusion, which was not the purpose or drift of the article.

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These are the 5 (er, 10?) best parentheses in literature.

I love a good aside. I live for literary intrusion . I want comments on my comments, discursive thinking, footnotes. I want to be distracted, taken off course for a while before being firmly set back down. What I’m saying is this: I can’t get enough parentheticals. So on the watery occasion of it being parenthesis-master Vladimir Nabokov’s birthday (April 22), I have collected few of my favorites (with the obligatory parenthetical caveat that I know I’m missing some, too many, maybe some major ones—The Mezzanine ? I can’t remember—but due to constraints of time and space and memory, this simply can’t be helped) here.

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita :

My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning) when I was three, and, save for a pocket of warmth in the darkest past, nothing of her subsists within the hollows and dells of memory, over which, if you can still stand my style (I am writing under observation), the sun of my infancy had set: surely, you all know those redolent remnants of day suspended, with the midges, about some hedge in bloom or suddenly entered and traversed by the rambler, at the bottom of a hill, in the summer dusk; a furry warmth, golden midges.

The first parenthesis in this sentence is arguably the most famous in all of literature—because, of course, it is perfect. The arresting off-handedness, the cadence, the sonic double-mirroring—pic/nic and light/ning—the simplicity. Chef’s kiss, as the kids may or may not still say. But I also hold a candle for the oft-forgotten second parenthesis in this sentence, which is also doing a lot of work. Don’t forget this comes right at the beginning, on only the second page, which lends a note of assured self-satisfaction to the faux apology, which also functions as a strong hint: “if you can still stand my style (I am writing under observation).” It immediately introduces the “present” of the narrator, and another layer too—the comment on the comment. It’s only the beginning of the complex winding that Nabokov will do in this novel, but listen, there’s no claiming he didn’t warn you.

Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse :

[Here Mr. Carmichael, who was reading Virgil, blew out his candle. It was midnight.] . . . [Mr. Ramsay, stumbling along a passage one dark morning, stretched his arms out, but Mrs. Ramsay having died rather suddenly the night before, his arms, though stretched out, remained empty.] . . . [Prue Ramsay, leaning on her father’s arm, was given in marriage. What, people said, could have been more fitting? And, they added, how beautiful she looked!] . . . [Prue Ramsay died that summer in some illness connected with childbirth, which was indeed a tragedy, people said, everything, they said, had promised so well.] . . . [A shell exploded. Twenty or thirty young men were blown up in France, among them Andrew Ramsay, whose death, mercifully, was instantaneous.] . . . [Mr. Carmichael brought out a volume of poems that spring, which had an unexpected success. The war, people said, had revived their interest in poetry.]

All right, technically these are brackets. But they function as parentheses, all of them in the middle section of  To the Lighthouse , the section that is from the perspective (sort of) of the house itself. Like “(picnic, lightning)” part of their brilliance is in their abruptness; we’ve just read an entire section in which Mrs. Ramsay is the book’s main character, and then Woolf dispatches her in a paranthetical, “rather suddenly” indeed. (Speaking of lightning, etc.) Then Prue, then Andrew. Not Mr. Carmichael, though. I always say that To the Lighthouse  is the novel that feels most like the experience of consciousness to me, and this section, which is of course called “Time Passes,” is a big part of that—after all, this is how we hear of the marriages and deaths and successes of other people, passed on in brief, an inadequate summary, and this is what it feels like when we do: alarming, yes, distant, even if we once knew and loved them, sad, fleeting, strange.

Elisabeth Bishop, “ One Art “:

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like ( Write it!) like disaster.

The only two parentheses in this poem come in the final stanza, but it’s the last one “( Write it!)” that is the most notorious—the speaker of the poem exhorting herself to finish, to write the word “disaster,” suddenly difficult, despite the fact that it’s the fourth time she’s used it in this poem. What’s different now? That other parenthesis has a clue. . .

Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place :

An ugly thing, that is what you are when you become a tourist, an ugly, empty thing, a stupid thing, a piece of rubbish pausing here and there to gaze at this and taste that, and it will never occur to you that the people who inhabit the place in which you have just paused cannot stand you, that behind their closed doors they laugh at your strangeness (you do not look the way they look); the physical sight of you does not please them; you have bad manners (it is their custom to eat their food with their hands; you try eating their way, you look silly; you try eating the way you always eat, you look silly); they do not like the way you speak (you have an accent); they collapsed helpless from laughter, mimicking the way they imagine you must look as you carry out some everyday bodily function. They do not like you. They do not like me! That thought never actually occurs to you. Still, you feel a little uneasy.

To be honest with you, I could have chosen almost any sentence from A Small Place  for this list. The book positively bristles with parentheses; Kincaid uses them to explain, to criticize, to condescend, to name, to emphasize, to speak the unspoken, to distance herself and at the same time, to implicate herself—reflecting her dual relationship to Antigua (both native and non-resident) and to the text. Sometimes the parentheticals are a word or two; sometimes they go on for a whole page. But aside from their functional uses, they establish an almost hypnotic rhythm, a certain kind of syncopation created by the voice-within-a-voice. Also—they are funny. “(I once stood in hot sun for hours so that I could see a putty-faced Princess from England disappear behind these walls. I was seven years old at the time, and I thought, She has a putty face.)” Also—they are profound. I’ll just leave the last paragraph here too, because why not, it’s so good, and you (probably) deserve it:

Again, Antigua is a small place, a small island. It is nine miles wide by twelve miles long. It was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493. Not too long after, it was settled by human rubbish from Europe, who used enslaved but noble and exalted human beings from Africa (all masters of every stripe are rubbish, and all slaves of every stripe are noble and exalted; there can be no question about this) to satisfy their desire for wealth and power, to feel better about their own miserable existence, so that they could be less lonely and empty— a European disease. Eventually, the masters left, in a kind of way; eventually, the slaves were freed, in a kind of way. The people in Antigua now, the people who really think of themselves as Antiguans (and the people who would immediately come to your mind when you think about what Antiguans might be like; I mean, supposing you were to think about it), are the descendants of those noble and exalted people, the slaves. Of course, the whole thing is, once you cease to be a master, once you throw off your master’s yoke, you are no longer human rubbish, you are just a human being, and all the things that adds up to. So, too, with the slaves. Once they are no longer slaves, once they are free, they are no longer noble and exalted; they are just human beings.

e.e. cummings, “ [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] “:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)

This poem is so famous (read: overused) as to have become very corny in my mind—but it’s actually wild. That punctuation! That abject disregard for the least-discussed, most taken-for-granted grammatical necessity: the space. I have some theories about the “meaning” here—mostly that the speaker is so desperate to be close and to represent closeness that the spaces are deemed unnecessary, too much separation between the lover and the beloved, or even the signifiers thereof—but honestly, the audacity would be reason enough to include it here.

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Parenthesis

Definition of Parenthesis Parenthesis is a stylistic device that comes from the Greek word meaning “to place,” or “alongside.” Parenthesis is a qualifying or explanatory sentence, clause, or phrase that writers insert right into a paragraph or passage. However, if they leave it out, even then it does no longer grammatically have an effect on the text, which is correct without it. Writers mark these explanatory clauses off by using spherical or rectangular brackets, or by way of commas, dashes, or little lines. As some distance as its cause is concerned, this verbal unit offers extra facts, interrupts the syntactic waft of words, and allows readers to take note of the rationalization. However, the overuse of parenthesis may additionally make sentences look ambiguous and poorly structured. Examples of Parenthesis in Literature Example #1: One Art (By Elizabeth Bishop) “—Even dropping you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident the art of dropping’s no longer too difficult to master though it could appearance like (Write it!) like disaster.” Bishop makes use of an abrupt, excruciating parenthesis in the direction of the quit of the poem. For this, she makes use of brackets, for expressing understatement, and for suggesting how to address losses via art by way of the usage of the phrase “write it.” Example #2: The Elements of Style (By William Strunk, Jr. And E. B. White) “It is now vital to provide you with a warning that your concern for the reader should be pure: you ought to sympathize with the reader’s plight (maximum readers are in trouble approximately half of the time) but never are searching for to recognize the reader’s wants. Your entire obligation as a creator is to please and satisfy yourself…” The style guidebook offers parenthetical information several times. Here, you can see how the authors have defined the reader’s plight with the aid of giving descriptive sentence in brackets, showing how readers are in problem. Example #3: The Dogwood Tree: A Boyhood (By John Updike) “A little gravel alley, too small to be marked with a road sign but known inside the community as Shilling Alley, wound hazardously around our belongings and on down, past an untidy collection of back buildings (chicken houses, barns out of plumb, a gun shop, a small lumber mill, a shack wherein a blind guy lived, and the enchanted grotto of a storage whose cement floors have been waxed to the luster of ebony through oil drippings … silver water so cold it made your front teeth throb) on down to Lancaster Avenue, the principle avenue, wherein the trolley vehicles ran.” Look, the author has employed an in depth descriptive parenthesis on this passage. He explains in element a sequence of untidy lower back buildings, and why they give the sort of depressing appearance. Example #4: The Horse and His Boy (By C. S. Lewis) “[I]n Calormen, story-telling (whether or not the tales are true or made up) is a factor you’re taught, simply as English boys and ladies are taught essay-writing. The difference is that humans need to hear the tales, whereas I never heard of all of us who wanted to read the essays.” Here, Lewis makes use of spherical brackets to describe the story, specifying whether or not they're proper or made up. He means to mention that humans like to listen to a story, which aren't taught as are essays. Hence, essays appear boring. Example #5: Lights Out for the Territory (By Iain Sinclair) ” ‘Black dog’ is the temper of bottomless, suicidal depression suffered, most notoriously, by Winston Churchill (himself a sort of bulldog in nappies, a emblem for Empire; growling and dribbling, wheezing smoke, swollen veins fired with brandy).” In this essay, Sinclair gives the readers a unique, enlightened, provocative, disturbing, and wholly daring image of present day city life in London, and of its humans. In the process, he reveals a darkish underbelly of London, as you could see his provocative understatement and parenthetical facts approximately Winston Churchill. Function of Parenthesis Parenthesis makes the statements greater convincing, because it puts the readers in a right shape from the very starting wherein they study it as an rationalization. However, its main feature is to give extra rationalization and upload emphasis, even as its repeated use can reason attention and consequently makes parenthetical insertions a dominant characteristic of a sentence. Parenthesis also offers readers an perception into authentic feelings and critiques of characters and narrators, at the same time as they might generally tend to evade parenthetical records as unimportant. Doing this, parenthesis should go away them clueless to the actual purpose of a sentence. In addition, it regularly creates humorous impact through the use of hyperbole and understatements.

• Alliteration
• Anachronism
• Antimetabole
• Aposiopesis
• Characterization
• Colloquialism
• Connotation
• Deus Ex Machina
• Didacticism
• Doppelganger
• Double Entendre
• Flash Forward
• Foreshadowing
• Internal Rhyme
• Juxtaposition
• Non Sequitur
• Onomatopoeia
• Parallelism
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Personification
• Poetic Justice
• Point of View
• Portmanteau
• Protagonist
• Red Herring
• Superlative
• Synesthesia
• Tragicomedy
• Tragic Flaw
• Verisimilitude

Parenthesis

Definition of parenthesis.

Parenthesis is a stylistic device that comes from the Greek word meaning “ to place,” or “alongside .” Parenthesis is a qualifying or explanatory sentence, clause, or word that writers insert into a paragraph or passage. However, if they leave it out, even then it does not grammatically affect the text, which is correct without it.

Writers mark these explanatory clauses off by round or square brackets, or by commas, dashes, or little lines. As far as its purpose is concerned, this verbal unit provides extra information, interrupts the syntactic flow of words, and allows readers to pay attention to the explanation. However, the overuse of parenthesis may make sentences look ambiguous and poorly structured.

Examples of Parenthesis in Literature

Example #1: one art (by elizabeth bishop).

“—Even losing you (the joking voice , a gesture I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.”

Bishop uses an abrupt, excruciating parenthesis towards the end of the poem . For this, she uses brackets, for expressing understatement , and for suggesting how to cope with losses through art by using the phrase “write it.”

Example #2: The Elements of Style (By William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White)

“It is now necessary to warn you that your concern for the reader must be pure: you must sympathize with the reader’s plight (most readers are in trouble about half the time) but never seek to know the reader’s wants. Your whole duty as a writer is to please and satisfy yourself…”

The style guidebook provides parenthetical information several times. Here, you can see how the authors have explained the reader’s plight by giving descriptive sentence in brackets, showing how readers are in trouble.

Example #3: The Dogwood Tree: A Boyhood (By John Updike)

“A little gravel alley, too small to be marked with a street sign but known in the neighborhood as Shilling Alley, wound hazardously around our property and on down, past an untidy sequence of back buildings (chicken houses, barns out of plumb, a gun shop, a small lumber mill, a shack where a blind man lived, and the enchanted grotto of a garage whose cement floors had been waxed to the luster of ebony by oil drippings … silver water so cold it made your front teeth throb) on down to Lancaster Avenue, the main street, where the trolley cars ran.”

Look, the author has employed a detailed descriptive parenthesis in this passage. He explains in detail a sequence of untidy back buildings, and why they give such a miserable look.

Example #4: The Horse and His Boy (By C. S. Lewis)

“[I]n Calormen, story-telling (whether the stories are true or made up) is a thing you’re taught, just as English boys and girls are taught essay -writing. The difference is that people want to hear the stories, whereas I never heard of anyone who wanted to read the essays.”

Here, Lewis uses round brackets to describe the story, specifying whether they are true or made up. He means to say that people like to listen to a story, which are not taught as are essays. Hence, essays seem boring.

Example #5: Lights Out for the Territory (By Iain Sinclair)

” ‘Black dog’ is the mood of bottomless, suicidal despair suffered, most notoriously, by Winston Churchill (himself a kind of bulldog in nappies, a logo for Empire; growling and dribbling, wheezing smoke, swollen veins fired with brandy).”

In this essay , Sinclair gives the readers a unique, enlightened, provocative, disturbing, and utterly daring picture of modern city life in London, and of its people. In the process, he reveals a dark underbelly of London, as you can see his provocative understatement and parenthetical information about Winston Churchill.

Function of Parenthesis

Parenthesis makes the statements more convincing, as it puts the readers in a right form from the very beginning where they read it as an explanation. However, its main function is to give more explanation and add emphasis, while its repeated use can cause focus and thus makes parenthetical insertions a dominant feature of a sentence.

Parenthesis also offers readers an insight into true feelings and opinions of characters and narrators, while they might tend to evade parenthetical information as unimportant. Doing this, parenthesis could leave them clueless to the actual purpose of a sentence. In addition, it often creates humorous effect by using hyperbole and understatements.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the 31 literary devices you must know.

General Education

Need to analyze The Scarlet Letter or To Kill a Mockingbird for English class, but fumbling for the right vocabulary and concepts for literary devices? You've come to the right place. To successfully interpret and analyze literary texts, you'll first need to have a solid foundation in literary terms and their definitions.

In this article, we'll help you get familiar with most commonly used literary devices in prose and poetry. We'll give you a clear definition of each of the terms we discuss along with examples of literary elements and the context in which they most often appear (comedic writing, drama, or other).

Before we get to the list of literary devices, however, we have a quick refresher on what literary devices are and how understanding them will help you analyze works of literature.

What Are Literary Devices and Why Should You Know Them?

Literary devices are techniques that writers use to create a special and pointed effect in their writing, to convey information, or to help readers understand their writing on a deeper level.

Often, literary devices are used in writing for emphasis or clarity. Authors will also use literary devices to get readers to connect more strongly with either a story as a whole or specific characters or themes.

So why is it important to know different literary devices and terms? Aside from helping you get good grades on your literary analysis homework, there are several benefits to knowing the techniques authors commonly use.

Being able to identify when different literary techniques are being used helps you understand the motivation behind the author's choices. For example, being able to identify symbols in a story can help you figure out why the author might have chosen to insert these focal points and what these might suggest in regard to her attitude toward certain characters, plot points, and events.

In addition, being able to identify literary devices can make a written work's overall meaning or purpose clearer to you. For instance, let's say you're planning to read (or re-read) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. By knowing that this particular book is a religious allegory with references to Christ (represented by the character Aslan) and Judas (represented by Edmund), it will be clearer to you why Lewis uses certain language to describe certain characters and why certain events happen the way they do.

Finally, literary techniques are important to know because they make texts more interesting and more fun to read. If you were to read a novel without knowing any literary devices, chances are you wouldn't be able to detect many of the layers of meaning interwoven into the story via different techniques.

Now that we've gone over why you should spend some time learning literary devices, let's take a look at some of the most important literary elements to know.

List of Literary Devices: 31 Literary Terms You Should Know

Below is a list of literary devices, most of which you'll often come across in both prose and poetry. We explain what each literary term is and give you an example of how it's used. This literary elements list is arranged in alphabetical order.

An allegory is a story that is used to represent a more general message about real-life (historical) issues and/or events. It is typically an entire book, novel, play, etc.

Example: George Orwell's dystopian book Animal Farm is an allegory for the events preceding the Russian Revolution and the Stalinist era in early 20th century Russia. In the story, animals on a farm practice animalism, which is essentially communism. Many characters correspond to actual historical figures: Old Major represents both the founder of communism Karl Marx and the Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin; the farmer, Mr. Jones, is the Russian Czar; the boar Napoleon stands for Joseph Stalin; and the pig Snowball represents Leon Trotsky.

Alliteration

Alliteration is a series of words or phrases that all (or almost all) start with the same sound. These sounds are typically consonants to give more stress to that syllable. You'll often come across alliteration in poetry, titles of books and poems ( Jane Austen is a fan of this device, for example—just look at Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility ), and tongue twisters.

Example: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." In this tongue twister, the "p" sound is repeated at the beginning of all major words.

Allusion is when an author makes an indirect reference to a figure, place, event, or idea originating from outside the text. Many allusions make reference to previous works of literature or art.

Example: "Stop acting so smart—it's not like you're Einstein or something." This is an allusion to the famous real-life theoretical physicist Albert Einstein.

Anachronism

An anachronism occurs when there is an (intentional) error in the chronology or timeline of a text. This could be a character who appears in a different time period than when he actually lived, or a technology that appears before it was invented. Anachronisms are often used for comedic effect.

Example: A Renaissance king who says, "That's dope, dude!" would be an anachronism, since this type of language is very modern and not actually from the Renaissance period.

Anaphora is when a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of multiple sentences throughout a piece of writing. It's used to emphasize the repeated phrase and evoke strong feelings in the audience.

Example: A famous example of anaphora is Winston Churchill's "We Shall Fight on the Beaches" speech. Throughout this speech, he repeats the phrase "we shall fight" while listing numerous places where the British army will continue battling during WWII. He did this to rally both troops and the British people and to give them confidence that they would still win the war.

Anthropomorphism

An anthropomorphism occurs when something nonhuman, such as an animal, place, or inanimate object, behaves in a human-like way.

Example: Children's cartoons have many examples of anthropomorphism. For example, Mickey and Minnie Mouse can speak, wear clothes, sing, dance, drive cars, etc. Real mice can't do any of these things, but the two mouse characters behave much more like humans than mice.

Asyndeton is when the writer leaves out conjunctions (such as "and," "or," "but," and "for") in a group of words or phrases so that the meaning of the phrase or sentence is emphasized. It is often used for speeches since sentences containing asyndeton can have a powerful, memorable rhythm.

Example: Abraham Lincoln ends the Gettysburg Address with the phrase "...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the Earth." By leaving out certain conjunctions, he ends the speech on a more powerful, melodic note.

Colloquialism

Colloquialism is the use of informal language and slang. It's often used by authors to lend a sense of realism to their characters and dialogue. Forms of colloquialism include words, phrases, and contractions that aren't real words (such as "gonna" and "ain't").

Example: "Hey, what's up, man?" This piece of dialogue is an example of a colloquialism, since it uses common everyday words and phrases, namely "what's up" and "man."

An epigraph is when an author inserts a famous quotation, poem, song, or other short passage or text at the beginning of a larger text (e.g., a book, chapter, etc.). An epigraph is typically written by a different writer (with credit given) and used as a way to introduce overarching themes or messages in the work. Some pieces of literature, such as Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick , incorporate multiple epigraphs throughout.

Example: At the beginning of Ernest Hemingway's book The Sun Also Rises is an epigraph that consists of a quotation from poet Gertrude Stein, which reads, "You are all a lost generation," and a passage from the Bible.

Epistrophe is similar to anaphora, but in this case, the repeated word or phrase appears at the end of successive statements. Like anaphora, it is used to evoke an emotional response from the audience.

Example: In Lyndon B. Johnson's speech, "The American Promise," he repeats the word "problem" in a use of epistrophe: "There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem."

A euphemism is when a more mild or indirect word or expression is used in place of another word or phrase that is considered harsh, blunt, vulgar, or unpleasant.

Example: "I'm so sorry, but he didn't make it." The phrase "didn't make it" is a more polite and less blunt way of saying that someone has died.

A flashback is an interruption in a narrative that depicts events that have already occurred, either before the present time or before the time at which the narration takes place. This device is often used to give the reader more background information and details about specific characters, events, plot points, and so on.

Example: Most of the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is a flashback from the point of view of the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, as she engages in a conversation with a visitor named Lockwood. In this story, Nelly narrates Catherine Earnshaw's and Heathcliff's childhoods, the pair's budding romance, and their tragic demise.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is when an author indirectly hints at—through things such as dialogue, description, or characters' actions—what's to come later on in the story. This device is often used to introduce tension to a narrative.

Example: Say you're reading a fictionalized account of Amelia Earhart. Before she embarks on her (what we know to be unfortunate) plane ride, a friend says to her, "Be safe. Wouldn't want you getting lost—or worse." This line would be an example of foreshadowing because it implies that something bad ("or worse") will happen to Earhart.

Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement that's not meant to be taken literally by the reader. It is often used for comedic effect and/or emphasis.

Example: "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse." The speaker will not literally eat an entire horse (and most likely couldn't ), but this hyperbole emphasizes how starved the speaker feels.

Imagery is when an author describes a scene, thing, or idea so that it appeals to our senses (taste, smell, sight, touch, or hearing). This device is often used to help the reader clearly visualize parts of the story by creating a strong mental picture.

Example: Here's an example of imagery taken from William Wordsworth's famous poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud":

When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden Daffodils; Beside the Lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Irony is when a statement is used to express an opposite meaning than the one literally expressed by it. There are three types of irony in literature:

• Verbal irony: When someone says something but means the opposite (similar to sarcasm).
• Situational irony: When something happens that's the opposite of what was expected or intended to happen.
• Dramatic irony: When the audience is aware of the true intentions or outcomes, while the characters are not . As a result, certain actions and/or events take on different meanings for the audience than they do for the characters involved.
• Verbal irony: One example of this type of irony can be found in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado." In this short story, a man named Montresor plans to get revenge on another man named Fortunato. As they toast, Montresor says, "And I, Fortunato—I drink to your long life." This statement is ironic because we the readers already know by this point that Montresor plans to kill Fortunato.
• Situational irony: A girl wakes up late for school and quickly rushes to get there. As soon as she arrives, though, she realizes that it's Saturday and there is no school.
• Dramatic irony: In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , Romeo commits suicide in order to be with Juliet; however, the audience (unlike poor Romeo) knows that Juliet is not actually dead—just asleep.

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is the comparing and contrasting of two or more different (usually opposite) ideas, characters, objects, etc. This literary device is often used to help create a clearer picture of the characteristics of one object or idea by comparing it with those of another.

Example: One of the most famous literary examples of juxtaposition is the opening passage from Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities :

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair …"

Malapropism

Malapropism happens when an incorrect word is used in place of a word that has a similar sound. This misuse of the word typically results in a statement that is both nonsensical and humorous; as a result, this device is commonly used in comedic writing.

Example: "I just can't wait to dance the flamingo!" Here, a character has accidentally called the flamenco (a type of dance) the flamingo (an animal).

Metaphor/Simile

Metaphors are when ideas, actions, or objects are described in non-literal terms. In short, it's when an author compares one thing to another. The two things being described usually share something in common but are unalike in all other respects.

A simile is a type of metaphor in which an object, idea, character, action, etc., is compared to another thing using the words "as" or "like."

Both metaphors and similes are often used in writing for clarity or emphasis.

"What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." In this line from Romeo and Juliet , Romeo compares Juliet to the sun. However, because Romeo doesn't use the words "as" or "like," it is not a simile—just a metaphor.

"She is as vicious as a lion." Since this statement uses the word "as" to make a comparison between "she" and "a lion," it is a simile.

A metonym is when a related word or phrase is substituted for the actual thing to which it's referring. This device is usually used for poetic or rhetorical effect .

Example: "The pen is mightier than the sword." This statement, which was coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839, contains two examples of metonymy: "the pen" refers to "the written word," and "the sword" refers to "military force/violence."

Mood is the general feeling the writer wants the audience to have. The writer can achieve this through description, setting, dialogue, and word choice .

Example: Here's a passage from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit: "It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats -- the hobbit was fond of visitors." In this passage, Tolkien uses detailed description to set create a cozy, comforting mood. From the writing, you can see that the hobbit's home is well-cared for and designed to provide comfort.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a word (or group of words) that represents a sound and actually resembles or imitates the sound it stands for. It is often used for dramatic, realistic, or poetic effect.

Examples: Buzz, boom, chirp, creak, sizzle, zoom, etc.

An oxymoron is a combination of two words that, together, express a contradictory meaning. This device is often used for emphasis, for humor, to create tension, or to illustrate a paradox (see next entry for more information on paradoxes).

Examples: Deafening silence, organized chaos, cruelly kind, insanely logical, etc.

A paradox is a statement that appears illogical or self-contradictory but, upon investigation, might actually be true or plausible.

Note that a paradox is different from an oxymoron: a paradox is an entire phrase or sentence, whereas an oxymoron is a combination of just two words.

Example: Here's a famous paradoxical sentence: "This statement is false." If the statement is true, then it isn't actually false (as it suggests). But if it's false, then the statement is true! Thus, this statement is a paradox because it is both true and false at the same time.

Personification

Personification is when a nonhuman figure or other abstract concept or element is described as having human-like qualities or characteristics. (Unlike anthropomorphism where non-human figures become human-like characters, with personification, the object/figure is simply described as being human-like.) Personification is used to help the reader create a clearer mental picture of the scene or object being described.

Example: "The wind moaned, beckoning me to come outside." In this example, the wind—a nonhuman element—is being described as if it is human (it "moans" and "beckons").

Repetition is when a word or phrase is written multiple times, usually for the purpose of emphasis. It is often used in poetry (for purposes of rhythm as well).

Example: When Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the score for the hit musical Hamilton, gave his speech at the 2016 Tony's, he recited a poem he'd written that included the following line:

And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.

Satire is genre of writing that criticizes something , such as a person, behavior, belief, government, or society. Satire often employs irony, humor, and hyperbole to make its point.

Example: The Onion is a satirical newspaper and digital media company. It uses satire to parody common news features such as opinion columns, editorial cartoons, and click bait headlines.

A type of monologue that's often used in dramas, a soliloquy is when a character speaks aloud to himself (and to the audience), thereby revealing his inner thoughts and feelings.

Example: In Romeo and Juliet , Juliet's speech on the balcony that begins with, "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?" is a soliloquy, as she is speaking aloud to herself (remember that she doesn't realize Romeo's there listening!).

Symbolism refers to the use of an object, figure, event, situation, or other idea in a written work to represent something else— typically a broader message or deeper meaning that differs from its literal meaning.

The things used for symbolism are called "symbols," and they'll often appear multiple times throughout a text, sometimes changing in meaning as the plot progresses.

Example: In F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby , the green light that sits across from Gatsby's mansion symbolizes Gatsby's hopes and dreams .

A synecdoche is a literary device in which part of something is used to represent the whole, or vice versa. It's similar to a metonym (see above); however, a metonym doesn't have to represent the whole—just something associated with the word used.

Example: "Help me out, I need some hands!" In this case, "hands" is being used to refer to people (the whole human, essentially).

While mood is what the audience is supposed to feel, tone is the writer or narrator's attitude towards a subject . A good writer will always want the audience to feel the mood they're trying to evoke, but the audience may not always agree with the narrator's tone, especially if the narrator is an unsympathetic character or has viewpoints that differ from those of the reader.

Example: In an essay disdaining Americans and some of the sites they visit as tourists, Rudyard Kipling begins with the line, "Today I am in the Yellowstone Park, and I wish I were dead." If you enjoy Yellowstone and/or national parks, you may not agree with the author's tone in this piece.

How to Identify and Analyze Literary Devices: 4 Tips

In order to fully interpret pieces of literature, you have to understand a lot about literary devices in the texts you read. Here are our top tips for identifying and analyzing different literary techniques:

Tip 1: Read Closely and Carefully

First off, you'll need to make sure that you're reading very carefully. Resist the temptation to skim or skip any sections of the text. If you do this, you might miss some literary devices being used and, as a result, will be unable to accurately interpret the text.

If there are any passages in the work that make you feel especially emotional, curious, intrigued, or just plain interested, check that area again for any literary devices at play.

It's also a good idea to reread any parts you thought were confusing or that you didn't totally understand on a first read-through. Doing this ensures that you have a solid grasp of the passage (and text as a whole) and will be able to analyze it appropriately.

Tip 2: Memorize Common Literary Terms

You won't be able to identify literary elements in texts if you don't know what they are or how they're used, so spend some time memorizing the literary elements list above. Knowing these (and how they look in writing) will allow you to more easily pinpoint these techniques in various types of written works.

Tip 3: Know the Author's Intended Audience

Knowing what kind of audience an author intended her work to have can help you figure out what types of literary devices might be at play.

For example, if you were trying to analyze a children's book, you'd want to be on the lookout for child-appropriate devices, such as repetition and alliteration.

Tip 4: Take Notes and Bookmark Key Passages and Pages

This is one of the most important tips to know, especially if you're reading and analyzing works for English class. As you read, take notes on the work in a notebook or on a computer. Write down any passages, paragraphs, conversations, descriptions, etc., that jump out at you or that contain a literary device you were able to identify.

You can also take notes directly in the book, if possible (but don't do this if you're borrowing a book from the library!). I recommend circling keywords and important phrases, as well as starring interesting or particularly effective passages and paragraphs.

Lastly, use sticky notes or post-its to bookmark pages that are interesting to you or that have some kind of notable literary device. This will help you go back to them later should you need to revisit some of what you've found for a paper you plan to write.

What's Next?

Looking for more in-depth explorations and examples of literary devices? Join us as we delve into imagery , personification , rhetorical devices , tone words and mood , and different points of view in literature, as well as some more poetry-specific terms like assonance and iambic pentameter .

Reading The Great Gatsby for class or even just for fun? Then you'll definitely want to check out our expert guides on the biggest themes in this classic book, from love and relationships to money and materialism .

Got questions about Arthur Miller's The Crucible ? Read our in-depth articles to learn about the most important themes in this play and get a complete rundown of all the characters .

For more information on your favorite works of literature, take a look at our collection of high-quality book guides and our guide to the 9 literary elements that appear in every story !

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Hannah received her MA in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California. From 2013 to 2015, she taught English in Japan via the JET Program. She is passionate about education, writing, and travel.

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How to Use Parentheses in Writing

The punctuation mark sets off thoughts from a sentence

• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

The parenthesis is a  punctuation  mark, which is written or typed as an upright curved line. Two parentheses, ( ), are generally paired and used to mark off explanatory or qualifying remarks in writing. Parentheses indicate an  interrupting phrase , a word group (a statement,  question , or  exclamation ) that interrupts the flow of a sentence  and can also be set off with  commas  or  dashes .

The parenthesis is a type of  bracket , which when paired with another bracket—[ ] — is used to interject text within other text. Parentheses are prevalent in mathematics, too, where they are used to set off arithmetic symbols as well as numbers, operations, and equations. 

Origins of the Parenthesis

The symbols themselves first showed up in the late 14th century, with scribes using  virgulae convexae  (also called  half moons ) for a variety of purposes. By the end of the 16th century, the  parenthesis  (from the Latin for "insert beside") had begun to assume its modern role, as Richard Mulcaster explained in "Elementarie," which was published in 1582:

"Parenthesis is expressed by two half circles, which in writing enclose some perfit branch, as not mere impertinent, so not fullie concident to the sentence, which it breaketh, and in reading warneth us, that the words inclosed by them ar to be pronounced with a lower & quikker voice, then the words either before them or after them."

In her book "Quoting Speech in Early English," Colette Moore notes that parentheses, like other marks of punctuation, originally had both " elocutionary  and  grammatical " functions:

"[W]e see that whether through vocal or  syntactic  means, the parentheses are taken as a means to downplay the significance of the material enclosed within."

Spanning more than 400 years (Moore's book was published in 2011), both authors say essentially the same thing: Parentheses separate text that, while important in that it adds meaning, is less significant than the text that falls outside of these punctuation marks.

Parentheses allow for the insertion of some verbal unit that interrupts the normal syntactic flow of the sentence. These are called  parenthetical  elements, which may also be set off by dashes . An example of parentheses in use would be:

"The students (it must be acknowledged) are a foul-mouthed bunch."

The important information in this sentence is that the students are foul-mouthed. The aside adds texture to the sentence, but the statement would work fine and make sense without the parenthetical information. The Chicago Manual of Style Online explains that parentheses, which are stronger than commas or dashes, set off material from the surrounding text, adding that; "Like dashes but unlike commas, parentheses can set off text that has no grammatical relationship to the rest of the sentence." The style guide gives these examples:

• Intelligence tests (e.g., the Stanford-Binet) are no longer widely used.
• Our final sample (collected under difficult conditions) contained an impurity.
• Wexford’s analysis (see chapter 3) is more to the point.
• The disagreement between Johns and Evans (its origins have been discussed elsewhere) ultimately destroyed the organization.

The style manual also notes that you can use parentheses as delimiters for letters or numbers in a list or outline, as well as in academic uses including parenthetical references to a list of works cited.

Using Parentheses Correctly

Parentheses (as with other punctuation marks) can be tricky to use until you understand a few simple rules:

Adding additional information:  June Casagrande, author of "The Best Punctuation Book, Period.", notes that you can use parentheses to convey additional information, such as:

• The new sedan is fast (it goes from zero to 60 in just six seconds).
• The boss (who had walked in just in time to see the accident) was furious.
• She strolled the third  arrondissement  (district).

In the first sentence, the statement,  The new sedan is fast, does not end with a period. Instead, you place the period after the parenthetical sentence (as well as the final parenthesis),  it goes from zero to 60 in just six seconds . You also start the parenthetical sentence with a lowercase letter ( i ) because it is still considered part of the overall sentence and not a separate statement.

In the second sentence, you might argue that the parenthetical information (the fact that the boss saw an accident) is key to understanding the sentence. In the third sentence, the parenthetical word district is an English translation of the French word  arrondissement . Though the word  district  is parenthetical, it might be important in helping a non-French-speaking reader understand the sentence.

Delimiters for letters or numbers in a list:  The Chicago Manual of Style says you should put parentheses around each number or letter in a list, as in these examples:

• Compose three sentences to illustrate analogous uses of (1) commas, (2) em dashes, and (3) parentheses.
• For the duration of the experiment, the dieters were instructed to avoid (a) meat, (b) bottled drinks, (c) packaged foods, and (d) nicotine.

In-text citations/reference information : The Chicago Manual calls them parenthetical citations, while the American Psychological Association (which sets  APA style ) calls them in-text citations. These are citations placed within the text in an academic paper, journal article, or book that points the reader to a more complete citation in the bibliography or references section. Examples, as noted by  Purdue OWL , are:

• According to Jones (2018), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199). 
• Jones (2018) found "students often had difficulty using APA style" (p. 199); what implications does this have for teachers?
• The study participants showed no improvement in cholesterol levels (McLellan and Frost, 2012).

For these types of parenthetical citations, you generally include the year of the publication, the author(s)' names, and, if needed, the page number(s). Note also that in the previous sentence, you can use parentheses around a single letter, indicating that the word "number" may be singular referring to a single page number, or it may be plural, referring to two or more page numbers or that there may be only a single author or several authors.

Mathematical problems:  In  math , parentheses are used to group numbers or variables, or both. When you see a math problem containing parentheses, you need to use the  order of operations  to solve it. Take as an example the problem:  9 - 5 ÷ (8 - 3) x 2 + 6 . In this problem, you would calculate the operation within the parentheses first, even if it is an operation that would normally come after the other operations in the problem.

Parenthetical Observations

Neil Gaiman really likes parentheses. Biographer Hank Wagner quoted the British author in "Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman" explaining why he is a fan of these curved punctuation marks:

"I admired [C.S. Lewis's] use of parenthetical statements to the reader, where he would just go talk to you. Suddenly the author would address a private aside to you, the reader. It was just you and him. I'd think, 'Oh, my gosh, that is so cool! I want to do that! When I become an author, I want to be able to do things in parentheses.' "

Gaimen may feel blessed when the author offers him a "personal" aside, but other writers say that parentheses may be a clue that the sentence is becoming contorted. As author Sarah Vowell notes in her book, "Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World," with a touch of sarcasm:

"I have a similar affection for the parenthesis (but I always take most of my parentheses out, so as not to call undue attention to the glaring fact that I cannot think in complete sentences, that I think only in short  fragments  or long,  run-on  thought relays that the literati call  stream of consciousness  but I still like to think of as disdain for the finality of the period)."

So take the advice of "The Associated Press Stylebook." Be kind to your readers and use parentheses sparingly. Rewrite your sentence if you find you are including long asides or more than one set of parentheses. Use these punctuation marks only when you have a short, pithy, and interesting bit to convey to readers to heighten their interest—not confuse them.

• How to Use a Dash
• What Is an Aside in Speech and Writing?
• What Is a Citation?
• APA In-Text Citations
• Understanding Parenthetical Elements
• Definition and Examples of Periods: Full Stop
• Examples of Signal Phrases in Grammar and Composition
• What Is a Bibliography?
• Guidelines for Using Semicolons, Colons, and Dashes
• 140 Key Copyediting Terms and What They Mean
• Definition and Examples of Interrupting Phrases
• Documentation in Reports and Research Papers
• What Is a Senior Thesis?
• Definition and Examples of Paragraph Breaks in Prose
• MLA Style Parenthetical Citations
• An Introduction to Punctuation

Table of Contents

Collaboration, information literacy, writing process, parentheses.

• CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Julia L. McMillan

Parentheses (also called  brackets  in British English) are a punctuation mark used to contain text that is not part of the main sentence, but that is too important to either leave out entirely or to put in a footnote or an endnote. Since there are many reasons to use parentheses, be sure that the function of parentheses is always made clear to your readers.

Reasons to Use Parentheses

1. To include extra information The first function of parentheses is to offer extra information. Parentheses communicate to readers that the material inside the parentheses is not necessary to understand the main sentence, nor is it part of the grammar of the main sentence, but is pertinent enough to be included. In the example sentences below, the parenthetical text is not necessary for either the grammatical or the logical completeness of the sentence, but offers some extra, closely related information that the writer felt the reader should have.

This information may be a scientific fact: “The liquid was brought to 212° F (the boiling point of water) and then poured into molds.”

A birth date, death date, or range of dates: “The anarcho-feminist Emma Goldman (b. 1869) was largely forgotten after her death, but experienced a huge resurgence of notoriety in the 1970s.”

A political party affiliation or title: “Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced his candidacy for president in Burlington, Vermont, on Tuesday, May 26, 2015.”

Or simply non-essential information: “My sister (according to Emily, who considers herself almost another parent) has always been the smartest person in the family.”

Simple non-essential information can also be formatted using long dashes, known as em-dashes . Please note that there are no spaces before or after em-dashes: “My sister—according to Emily, who considers herself almost another parent—has always been the smartest person in the family.”

Parenthetical text can, in addition to being set off with em-dashes or parentheses, be denoted using commas. However, if there are other commas in the sentence, this method of punctuation can become ambiguous, as in the following example: “My sister, according to Emily, who considers herself almost another parent, has always been the smartest person in the family.”

Here, the use of commas as the sole punctuation mark makes it unclear who “considers herself almost another parent”: “my sister” or Emily.

2. To cite authors There are many different formats for citing authors and sources within a scholarly text. Many of these formats request that information such as authors’ names and year of publication be given in a parenthetical citation.

When providing citations, be sure that it is clear to your readers what exactly the citation pertains to. For example:

“The proportional carbon content of this component, 20%, is very similar to that found in pine trees (Winston et al. 2010),” implies that the present study has replicated Winston et al.’s prior finding regarding the carbon content of pine trees.

In contrast: “The proportional carbon content of this component, 20%, is very similar to that found in pine trees (See Winston et al. 2010 for a detailed description of the analyses)” clarifies that Winston et al. established the method by which this analysis was carried out, but may not have necessarily had the same findings.

3. To introduce abbreviations The first time that an abbreviation appears in the main text, it should appear within parentheses next to its full form:

“Interest rates at First Regional Bank (FRB) have risen steadily over the past 20 years, despite FRB’s official corporate policy of offering affordable rates to the community.”

If you offer an abbreviation of a translated term, please specify its original-language form in a parenthetical citation, in italics. This prevents confusion around abbreviations that don’t seem to be logically related to the words they stand for. For example:

“The unexpected closure of the National Development Bank (BND; Banco Nacional de Desarrollo ) wreaked havoc on the economy.”

4. To translate words or short phrases Use parentheses to translate a word or a short phrase into English. For example:

“The Japanese title of Sensei (teacher) conveys the honor and respect accorded to older and wiser members of society.”

Note that Sensei is italicized to clearly denote the non-English word or words being defined.

“Germans wish each other a ‘Guten Rutsch’ (good slide) into the new year.”

Note that, in this second example, the words being defined are a direct, spoken quotation, indicated by quotation marks. Since the quotation marks clearly denote what text is being translated, italics are not needed.

5. To give examples Use parentheses to offer examples. When using parentheses for this purpose, always preface your list with “e.g.” or other clarifying text.

“While my doctor was glad to hear that I regularly engage in plenty of strength-building physical activities (e.g., yoga, Pilates, and rock climbing), she was concerned that I don’t do anything very aerobic.”

6. To define or restate a word Use parentheses when you think that readers may benefit from a brief definition or restatement of a word. Such parenthetical text can be a good idea when a word has many possible different definitions, or when you are using a discipline-specific word with an audience who may not be familiar with it. The following example illustrates not only a word that has many alternative meanings, but one that is being used in a way that is likely not familiar to most readers:

“Sports gamblers can spend hours debating the spread (i.e., the number of points between the winner and the loser) of a big upcoming game.”

7. To introduce terms Use parentheses to introduce terms; i.e., words or phrases that have a clearly defined meaning or scope. Terms presented parenthetically are italicized. For example, in the sentence, “Patients were asked to give examples of bad experiences ( trauma ) they had experienced as children,” trauma is situationally defined as referring to “bad experiences.” In a paper discussing trauma, a precise and consistent definition of this term ensures that readers do not apply one of the many other logical definitions of the word “trauma.”

Note that “i.e.” can also be used instead of parentheses to denote explanations of terms:

“Patients were asked to give examples of bad experiences, i.e., trauma , they had experienced as children.”

8. To interrupt The final reason to use parenthetical text is to convey an interruption or an aside. This is common in literature, when reproducing spoken words: “Now, just as the princess was beginning to think that all was lost—yes, Hattie, the princess’s name was Jenny, just like your dolly—she heard a thunderous knock at the front door.”

Interruptions may also be appropriate in very informal scholarly writing: “English is a difficult language to learn (although, according to a number of prominent linguists, it is not even among the top ten hardest, globally), especially for those who have neither a Romance nor a Germanic native tongue.”

However, too many interruptions make it hard for readers to follow your paper’s logic or grammar, and may indicate organizational problems. If you really think that it would be helpful to readers to insert such an unrelated piece of information, a footnote or endnote may be less distracting.

Tips on Parentheses Usage

Whatever the function of your parenthetical text, be sure to place it as close as possible to the word or words that it is supplementing, citing, abbreviating, translating, exemplifying, defining, or restating.

Parenthetical text must stand completely outside of the grammar of the main sentence. To test this, simply remove or insert the parenthetical text. If the sentence’s grammar becomes incorrect or its meaning changes, your parenthetical text is not truly parenthetical.

Sometimes the grammatical and logical separateness of parenthetical text can be deceptive. For example, the sentence “High heels are (particularly) dangerous in wintery weather” really makes two separate statements:

• High heels are dangerous in wintery weather.
• High heels are always dangerous, but particularly so in wintery weather.

While these two meanings are similar, they are different: the first argues for the dangers of high heels in a specific weather condition, while the second implies that high heels are always dangerous. The writer of this sentence needs to review the point that they are arguing: Is the argument that high heels are dangerous in the winter, or that high heels are always dangerous? Failing to correct fuzzy distinctions like these can contribute to muddy logic and hard-to-follow papers.

Using parentheses to compress multiple ideas into a single sentence is also discouraged. For example, a writer might want to compress “We were interested in the advantages of a long-format interview, as well as the disadvantages of a short-format interview” into the more succinct “We were interested in the advantages (disadvantages) of a long (short)-format interview.” Although such a shorthand version may be clear to insiders or appropriate for informal contexts, its logical ambiguity and nonstandard grammar preclude it from use in formal scholarly writing.

Finally, when writing a paper or other scholarly text, parentheses should not be used to indicate sarcasm, or to snidely editorialize. Take the following sentence: “While the Stop and Frisk policy has been (barely) effective in reducing crime, it does so at a great social cost.” Here, the author indirectly grumbles about this policy, but adopts an unprofessional tone and does not fully explain their reasoning, reducing the impact of the argument. A more effective tactic is to say exactly what you mean: “The Stop and Frisk policy has been estimated to reduce crime, at most, by less than one percent, and at the social cost of thousands of humiliating and unnecessary public searches.”

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Figurative Language

Figurative language definition.

Figurative language uses figures of speech to be more effective, persuasive, and impactful.

Figures of speech such as metaphors , similes, and allusions go beyond the literal meanings of the words to give readers new insights. On the other hand, alliterations, imageries, or onomatopoeias are figurative devices that appeal to the senses of the readers.

Figurative language can appear in multiple forms with the use of different literary and rhetorical devices . According to Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia, the definition of figurative language has five different forms:

• Understatement or Emphasis
• Relationship or Resemblance
• Figures of Sound
• Verbal Games

Types of Figurative Language

The term figurative language covers a wide range of literary devices and techniques, a few of which include:

Personification

• Onomatopoeia

Alliteration

• Understatement

Short Examples of Figurative Language

• His friend is as black as coal.
• He has learned gymnastics, and is as agile as a monkey.
• When attacked in his home, he will fight like a caged tiger.
• Can you dance like a monkey?
• Even when he was told everything, he was acting like a donkey.
• My Friend is a Shakespeare when in English class.
• He was a roaring lion in anger, though now he is silent.
• They seem like jackals when running in fear.
• Kisses are roses in the spring .
• This world is a sea of anonymous faces.
• The house stood half-demolished and abandoned.
• He left with his haunted and spell-bound face.
• He did not like the odorless and colorless shape of water.
• His friend was looking at spooky glissando twangs.
• Zigzag fissures in the land made him look for snakes .
• The light on the site did not let him see the sight.
• He heard the sound of the fire, like wire striking the air.
• This artificial stream is going to flow to the downtown of the town.
• Please set the kite right.
• Might of the fright seems greater than the actual fear.
• He lets the pink ball fall with a tall man.
• They have not learned how to catch the cat.
• Get a seat with a treat in our local hall.
• Calling the cow an ox is like putting the cart before the horse.
• He saw the pink kite floating past the tall trees .
• He is dying with his untrustworthy belief.
• Sharply blunt razor cannot do anything to you.
• Kindly cruel treatment made him flabbergasted.
• Please, watch with closed eyes and you will see the heaven.
• Creatively dull person cannot do anything in his life.
• The Pentagon is located in Washington in the United States.
• The Hollywood is a home of English movies.
• 10 Downing Street is located in London .
• Buckingham Palace is world’s oldest symbol of democracy.
• The White House.
• He does not know how to behave with the special people.
• He is looking at his own grey hair and his agility.
• They saw a fleet of fifty.
• At this time, he owns nine head of cattle.
• The new generation is addicted to the use of plastic money.

Examples of Figurative Language from Literature

Example #1: the base stealer (by robert francis).

Poised between going on and back, pulled Both ways taut like a tight-rope walker, Now bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ball, Or a kid skipping rope, come on, come on! … Taunts them, hovers like an ecstatic bird, He’s only flirting, crowd him, crowd him,

The similes and word choice of this poem makes it a masterpiece. The poet use similes between the lines to depict his scattered thoughts before taking action, and makes comparison as, “ like a tight-rope ,” “ like a dropped ball ,” and “ hovers like an ecstatic bird .”

Example #2: I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings (By Maya Angelou)

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage Can seldom see through his bars of rage His wings are clipped and his feet are tied The caged bird sings with a fearful trill … And his tune is heard on the distant hill for The caged bird sings of freedom.

The entire poem is rich with metaphor as a bird in a cage represents a group of people who are oppressed and cannot get freedom. The cage represents physical barriers, fear, addiction, or society; while the song of the bird represents true self yearning for something greater in life.

Example #3: She Sweeps with Many-Colored Brooms (By Emily Dickinson)

She sweeps with many-colored Brooms And leaves the Shreds behind Oh Housewife in the Evening West Come back, and dust the Pond!

Dickinson uses personification of a housewife to describe the sunset in the very first line of this poem. She is using a sweeping housewife who does her daily work, likewise the rays of the setting sun sweep away beneath the horizon.

Example #4: The Raven (By Edgar Allen Poe)

O nce upon a midnight dreary w hile I pondered w eak and w eary ; r are and r adiant maiden; And the s ilken s ad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain … D eep into that d arkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, D oubting, d reaming d reams no mortal ever d ared to d ream before.

Poe uses alliteration by repeating the /w/ sound to emphasize the weariness of the narrator , and then /r/ and /s/ sounds in the second and third lines respectively. In the last two lines, the /d/ sound highlights the narrator’s hopelessness.

Example #5: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (By Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks Had I from old and young ! Instead of the cross , the Albatross About my neck was hung.

In these lines, the albatross symbolizes a big mistake, or a burden of sin, just like the cross on which Christ was crucified. Therefore, all people on the ship agreed to slay that bird.

Example #6: The Bluest Eyes (By Toni Morrison)

Personification, consonance, and simile.

She ran down the street, the green knee socks making her legs look like wild dandelion of stems that had somehow lost their heads. The weight of her remark stunned us.

This excerpt uses different devices that make language figurative. There is a good use of simile , “legs look like wild dandelion;” and personification, “lost their heads;” and use of consonance in “stunned us,” where the /s/ is a consonant sound.

Example #7: The Week of Diana (By Maya Angelou)

Metaphor, consonance, personification.

“The dark lantern of world sadness has cast its shadow upon the land. We stumble into our misery on leaden feet.”

in just these two lines, Maya Angelou has used a metaphor of the dark lantern, consonance of the /s/ sounds, and personification of misery.

Example #8: The Negro Speaks of River (By Langston Hughes)

Consonance, simile.

“I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”

This prince of the Harlem Renaissance has beautifully used a different type of consonance with the /l/ sound and a simile of “my soul.”

Example #9: Musée des Beaux Arts (By W. H. Auden)

Personification, consonance.

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot Where the dogs go on with their doggy W. H. Auden life and the torturer’s horse Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

W. H. Auden has used a personification of the “dreadful martyrdom,” and consonances of “some untidy spot,” with the /s/ sound, and “dogs go on with their doggy life,” with the /d/ and /g/ sounds.

Function of Figurative Language

The primary function of figurative language is to force readers to imagine what a writer wants to express. Figurative language is not meant to convey literal meanings, and often it compares one concept with another in order to make the first concept easier to understand. However, it links the two ideas or concepts with the goal of influencing the audience to understand the link, even if it does not exist.

Poets and prose writers use this technique to bring out emotions and help their readers form images in their minds. Thus, figurative language is a useful way of conveying an idea that readers cannot understand otherwise, due to its complex and abstract nature. In addition, it helps in analyzing a literary text.

Related posts:

•   Examples Of Figurative Language In Poetry
• Examples of Figurative Language in Rap Songs
• Examples Of Figurative Language In Popular Songs
• Examples Of Figurative Language In Children’s Poetry and Rhymes
• Sensory Language

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