I’d try to follow the rule that a sentence should always work without the parenthesis (counting the preceding space as part of the parenthesis). So I would do “an”.
A similar problem comes up with capitalization in sentences beginning with a parenthesis. For example, in this:
(Luckily) Some are already there.
Capitalizing “Some” looks weird, even granted it’s a clumsy construction. But I think it’s probably best to do it that way.
Thanks. I also thought so myself, though it would look and maybe sound awkward with the parentheses, the original phrase should have precedence.
PS. I just read my comment noticed I may have come off as a Grammar Nazi or something like that. It was an honest interest on the rules of composing sentences with parentheses (which I don't know myself).
I don’t think there’s necessarily a hard-and-fast rule about this, and I find sentences sometimes read easier when a/an is set by the immediately following word inside parens, and sometimes when the choice is set by the word after the parens.
Comments
I’d try to follow the rule that a sentence should always work without the parenthesis (counting the preceding space as part of the parenthesis). So I would do “an”.
A similar problem comes up with capitalization in sentences beginning with a parenthesis. For example, in this:
(Luckily) Some are already there.
Capitalizing “Some” looks weird, even granted it’s a clumsy construction. But I think it’s probably best to do it that way.
Thanks. I also thought so myself, though it would look and maybe sound awkward with the parentheses, the original phrase should have precedence.
PS. I just read my comment noticed I may have come off as a Grammar Nazi or something like that. It was an honest interest on the rules of composing sentences with parentheses (which I don't know myself).
I don’t think there’s necessarily a hard-and-fast rule about this, and I find sentences sometimes read easier when a/an is set by the immediately following word inside parens, and sometimes when the choice is set by the word after the parens.