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Brackets are the best way of marking text that is not essential to understand the meaning of a sentence. Do not use a dash (—) or a hyphen (-) for this purpose. Brackets are preferable because they are directional and thus inform the reader where to look for the start and end of the inessential text.

A very useful application of brackets is to contain lists of examples preceded by “e. g.” (exempli gratia or example given) or explanations preceded by “i. e.” (id est or that is). This strategy avoids using the abbreviations as part of a sentence. Look at the following sentence.

“Anti-viral agents are available to combat several viruses e. g. HIV, influenza virus and herpes virus.”

The presence of “e. g.” as part of the sentence is considered poor style. The style can be rapidly improved by inserting the list between a pair of brackets.

“Anti-viral agents are available to combat several viruses (e. g. HIV, influenza virus and herpes virus).”