Dreyer's English - Benjamin Dreyer 2022

Parentheses
56 assorted things to do (and not to do) with punctuation
The stuff in the front

30.

A midsentence parenthetical aside (like this one) begins with a lowercase letter and ends (unless it’s a question or even an exclamation!) without terminal punctuation.

When a fragmentary parenthetical aside comes at the very end of a sentence, make sure that the period stays outside the aside (as here).

(Only a freestanding parenthetical aside, like this one, begins with a capital letter and concludes with an appropriate bit of terminal punctuation inside the final parenthesis.)

31.

This is correct:

Remind me again why I care what this social nobody (and her boring boyfriend) think about anything.

This is not correct:

Remind me again why I care what this social nobody (and her boring boyfriend) thinks about anything.

An “and” is an “and,” and the use of parentheses (or commas or dashes) to break up a plural subject for whatever reason does not negate the pluralness of the subject. Now, if instead of writing “and,” I’d written “to say nothing of,” “as well as,” or “not to mention,” then I’d have made me a singular subject:

Remind me again why I care what this social nobody (to say nothing of her boring boyfriend) thinks about anything.