Q. I’m editing a writing sample and am trying to explain (in writing) one of the rules for using periods within parentheses: “Add a period after sword and make your parenthetical element a stand-alone sentence enclosed in parentheses, like this: ‘(Romans 13 clearly delegates that job to government.).’ ” Do you see the issue? The two periods are driving me crazy, but because the one within parentheses is necessary to illustrate the grammar rule, I can’t drop it. Nixing the period following the closing parenthesis also feels wrong. Please help me!
A. The problem is that this material isn’t suited to a run-in sentence or paragraph. The example needs its own line:
Add a period after sword and make your parenthetical element a stand-alone sentence enclosed in parentheses, like this:
(Romans 13 clearly delegates that job to government.)
If the material must be formatted the way you have shown, you’re doomed to tolerate those two periods.