Brackets etcetera, full stop.

 Oj! If it's not one thing it's another, and the last 24 hours have been the turn of the dreaded 'throwing up while simultaneously making fire from the rear end' bug, so beloved of nursery schools everywhere. You might be forgiven for thinking this is a blog about my illnesses and syndromes, but I assure you I'm only in it for the words. ;) So, here's another wordy thing for your delectation. Sorry if the picture seems a little uninspired, my head is still pounding from dehydration and - uuff, there I go again...

Common Usage                     

                       

1a) We usually eat lots of vegetables (carrots, peas, cabbage etc.).
2a) Several problems associated with Type I diseases (hair loss, dandruff etc.), are now fully treatable.

3a) …with later amendments.).

Better Usage

1b) We usually eat lots of vegetables (carrots, peas, cabbage etc). 

2b) Several problems associated with Type I diseases (hair loss, dandruff etc), are now fully treatable.        

3b) …with later amendments).

         

What’s The Problem?

The rules for abbreviating words vary slightly, depending on who you ask. The general principle is, of course, to put a full stop after an abbreviated word to indicate such, i.e. Prof. for Professor. Unlike magazines or newspapers, translating agencies don't usually have their own style guides, and when they do, they don’t usually go into such detail as to dictate things like consistent punctuation usage etc.

And so we have etc, which the OED in all its incarnations lists as being permanently glued to an abbreviating full stop – etc. But in everyday use, the full stop on the end isn’t always there, Probably because etc is such a common term that it no longer needs special treatment. As such, a particularly odd sight is the comedic ‘face’ that appears in a sentence when etc is used with a full stop, just before a closing bracket at the end of a sentence (1a, 3a). 

                                        

Similarly strange (although not as funny) is (2). Again, you can argue that this is text-book usage, but time and the natural laws of entropy have brought us to the point where it’s not completely the norm anymore either.

In order to create visual and mental consistency within a text, common usage now is to eliminate the full stop completely (1-3b). (I’m pretty sure I had more on this topic, but according to my notes this is everything). So, handy rule: think of a closing bracket as having more power and strength than any commas or stops that come before it; therefore, they’re not needed.

In short, no more boobs or faces in our documents!