Knowing when and how to use brackets and parentheses can be challenging. We will try and sort out the problem here.

Round brackets

Round brackets are used

• to add extra information in text

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) is considered one of the greatest artists ever.
Cary Grant (born as Archibald Leach) starred in over seventy films.

• to add personal comment

Hum in Croatia is the smallest town in the world (and very beautifully situated on top of a hill).

• to define an abbreviation or acronym

UNITAR (The United Nations Institute for Training and Research) has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

• to refer to another part of the same text

Exports increased by 6 % (Table 3).
Production time can be reduced by using a new application (see Chapter 6). 

• in referencing

Such methods are based on direct observation (Jones et al., 2012).

Square brackets

Square brackets are used

• to show that text has been added to a quotation

Several new products were introduced [on the company’s website].

• to show that part of a quotation has been omitted (by using an ellipsis)

Relatives, friends and neighbours as well as his landlord, his employer, his former professor […] had all come to congratulate him.

(The Chicago Manual of Style recommends using the three dots without brackets. The Modern Language Association, on the other hand, recommends brackets to distinguish this kind of ellipsis from an ellipsis in the original text.)

• when you capitalize the first letter of a quotation that is not capitalized in the original (or use lowercase where the original is capitalized)

Original: 

The professor said, ”Perhaps the best example of Renaissance architecture is St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City”.

Paraphrased:

The professor told his students that ”[p]erhaps the best example of Renaissance architecture is St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City”.

• around the Latin abbreviation sic (read more here).

To sum up:

Use parentheses to add information to something you have written.

Use brackets to change or add comments to somebody else’s words that you are quoting.

Braces (Curly brackets)

Curly brackets are mainly used in computer programming, mathematics, and science. They often identify the elements of a set.

Angle brackets (Chevrons)

Angle brackets are seldom used in English. They may indicate a website or something said in a foreign language.  In some languages, double angle brackets are used instead of quotation marks.

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The semicolon looks like a combination of a full stop and a comma, and that is an indication of how it is used. Like the comma and the full stop, the semicolon separates clauses. The semicolon links two independent clauses that are closely related. In other words, we use a semicolon between two complete sentences to indicate that what they say is of equal importance. The semicolon can replace words such as and and but.

Finally, Tom found his bike behind the garage; it was rusty and the tires were flat.
This method is based on many years of research; particularly important are the findings from four studies in the heavy vehicles industry.
The potential variables are numerous; they include everything that might influence the evaluation criteria.

You cannot have a semicolon after a dependent clause beginning with words such as since, although, when, because, etc.

Since she had visited the city several times, she knew all the tourist spots.
She had visited the city several times; she knew all the tourist spots.

To avoid confusion, use a semicolon to separate groups in an enumeration.

Among the cities in the study were Hamburg, Germany; Milan, Italy; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Helsinki, Finland.

Don’t use the semicolon where you must have a colon!

He had three main interests: vintage cars, whisky and antique furniture.

You cannot write *He had three main interests; vintage cars, whisky and antique furniture (For the use of the asterisk read at the end of this text). After a semicolon there must be a complete, independent clause with a subject and a verb. So you could write: He had three main interests; they were vintage cars, whisky and antique furniture.

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