punctuation - If an insertion in parentheses ends with a smiley, how do I distinguish between the two?


I know smileys are not part of written language (yet), and any questions about them are irrelevant to linguistics and are kind of not serious. So take my question with a smiley then.


It bugs me every time I'm facing this situation: if an insertion in parentheses ends with a smiley, what should I do?




  • A lot of insertions in parentheses (well, if it's not Lisp :) ) can be annoying.

  • A lot of insertions in parentheses (well, if it's not Lisp :)) can be annoying.

  • A lot of insertions in parentheses (well, if it's not Lisp :) can be annoying.



I don't like any of the above. Any (clever) suggestions?



Answer



I couldn't resist but post this!


The IAU ban came after the 'redefinition of 'planet' to include the IAU president's mom' incident.


But seriously, I generally avoid ending a bracketed expression with an emoticon. One solution could however be to use square brackets:



A lot of insertions in parentheses [well, if it's not Lisp :)] can be annoying.



Though it's rather non-standard, it at least looks better. I'm sure almost any reader would understand it too.


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