Entire sentence in parentheses

Question

I am formatting a new book for my company and ran into a problem.

There is a sentence that reads:

Before beginning, watch Part I in the DVD series, God & the History of Art. (If available as part of your program.)

That the author wants me to change to:

(Before beginning, watch Part I in the DVD series, God & the History of Art. If available as part of your program.)

This sentence is one line, not part of a paragraph.

Is it right to surround an entire standalone sentence with parentheses?

Also see question #13528 and question #37153 and question #61579 and question #72449 and question #2119 as in Linked-Questions list — James Waldby - jwpat7, Aug 13 '12 at 17:15
The "sentence" in parentheses isn't actually a sentence, so if you want to keep those words a better rendering is "Before...Art (if available...program)." — Monica Cellio, Aug 13 '12 at 19:10

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 13 '12 at 17:04

8

Yes, provided it's all parenthetical material.

This appears to qualify. However, I'd make it all one sentence and add in the deleted it for clarity:

(Before beginning, watch Part I of the DVD series God & the History of Art, if it is available as part of your program.)

answered Aug 13 '12 at 17:04

John Lawler

3

'for clarity' ... AND for syntactic well-formedness. 'If ...program.' is not a sentence. – StoneyB on hiatus Aug 13 '12 at 18:15

1 Answers1