In recognition of National Grammar Day, I'd like to call attention to the alarming rise of free floating parenthetical statements. This shocking and illegal activity is a national epidemic (you can catch it from doorknobs!) and needs to stop now. We all know that a parenthetical statement can be thrown into a sentence as an aside and is used to note a tangent that may be related to the subject of the sentence but is not the primary thought. By definition, a parenthetical statements is part of a sentence. I've noticed recently that editors are letting parenthetical statements appear outside the bounds of a sentence as if (perish the thought) it was a sentence that could stand on its own. Take, for example, the free floating parenthetical statement appearing in this report from The New York Times:
The journal Pediatrics has published its annual report on birth and pregnancy in the United States, and it found that the number of babies born in 2007 — 4,317,119 — was the highest ever recorded. The birthrate rose in all age groups, including teenagers, whose birthrate had been declining since 1996. (A Guttmacher Institute report last month came to a similar conclusion.) Rates for women in their 30s were the highest since 1964, the last year of the postwar baby boom.The parenthetical statement noting the Guttmacher Institute report should be included in the sentence that comes before it. Why is this happening? Have editorial standards become lax or has some arbiter of taste and syntax decided that parenthetical statements have grown up and can stand on their own? Let's just all agree that parenthetical statements should go back to being safely ensconced in their sentences. No parenthetical statements outside of sentences! So say we all. Ok, I've done my part. Long live Conjunction Junction!
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