Quotations Inside Parentheses
How to punctuate and mark a quotation that sits within a parenthetical aside.
A short quotation placed inside parentheses keeps its own quotation marks, and the parentheses take the punctuation of the surrounding sentence. The rule to hold on to: parentheses are transparent — removing them should leave a correctly punctuated sentence.
If the parenthetical material is a full sentence standing alone, the closing punctuation goes inside the parentheses. If the parenthesis sits inside a sentence, the terminal punctuation goes outside: The claim is old (Bacon called it "a kind of natural magic").
Nested marks follow the standard alternation. American practice puts double quotes around the quotation even inside parentheses; a quotation within that quotation switches to single marks.
Common mistake: dropping the quotation marks because the parentheses feel like enough separation. Parentheses mark an aside; quotation marks mark someone else's words. They do different jobs and neither substitutes for the other.
“The advice is not new (Quintilian already warned against "the vice of excessive ornament").”
Keep reading the glossary
Brackets mark what someone else added to a quotation; parentheses mark what the original author wrote.
A quotation inside another quotation, distinguished by alternating single and double marks.
The rule — differing on either side of the Atlantic — for where the comma and period sit relative to a closing quotation mark.
An in-text source reference given in parentheses, keyed to a fuller entry in the bibliography.