These symbols: () are called parentheses.

In academic writing they are used for citing references but you should not use them inside sentences.

Instead of:

Windows 7 (the newest operating system from

Microsoft) has a feature called ReadyBoost that

improves performance by caching data from the

system RAM into a USB flash drive.

Write:

Windows 7, the newest operating system from

Microsoft, has a feature called ReadyBoost that

improves performance by caching data from the

system RAM into a USB flash drive.

Sometimes students use parentheses to mean that some of the words in a sentence are less important.

Don’t do that.

Instead of:

Linux (the author’s favorite OS) was created largely

by efforts of Linus Torvalds who wrote the first

kernel for the OS in 1991 (when he was still a

college student).

Write:

Linux was created largely by efforts of Linus

Torvalds who wrote the first kernel for the OS in

1991, when he was still a college student.

Hans Anderson 2007-Present: Lecturer at FPT Greenwich

Programmes, FPT University. 2007: M.S., Computational Mathematics,

University of Minnesota 2001: B.A., Computer Science, Gustavus

Adolphus College, Saint Peter, MN