Parentheses ( ) are used to enclose additional information that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence.

Hyphen - used to emphasize a particular word or phrase in a sentence. The hyphen is sometimes called "em hyphen" to distinguish it from her two other punctuation marks. Short hyphen - (called "en hyphen") or hyphen to - used for numeric ranges

Dashes and Parentheses: The Comma’s Cousins

Use dashes and parentheses to offset parenthetical phrases. Parenthetical phrases can’t stand alone as complete sentences.

Example:

He thought, as soon as he woke up, that he’d like to go back to sleep.

He thought—as soon as he woke up—that he’d like to go back to sleep.

He thought (as soon as he woke up) that he’d like to go back to sleep.

In all these examples, the phrase “as soon as he woke up” is dependent—it would not be a complete sentence alone. Therefore it is separated by commas, dashes, or parentheses.

The Dash

Use dashes to:

• indicate an abrupt change in thought

• signal the inclusion of an explanation or an afterthought.

In these situations, hyphens and parentheses are paired and can be used interchangeably.

Use hyphens instead of parentheses to emphasize certain words or phrases.

example:

Dr. Vaikala, a renowned scientist and educator, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony.

That night, the howl of a coyote was heard across the valley.

Use a single hyphen to balance disjointed ideas that are stapled to the end of a sentence. example:

A beautiful rainbow illuminated the sky after a terrible storm. This is a sign that you were hoping for better things to happen.