Which of these propositions is academically correct ?

the result represents a value for an (internal or external) customer.

the result represents a value for a (internal or external) customer.

Personally I would drop the parentheses.
They add little information.

Me too. The parenthesis is irrelevant: we have the indefinite article followed by a vowel.

Evolving wrote:Me too. The parenthesis is irrelevant: we have the indefinite article followed by a vowel.

Is it ? From my understanding, what is between the parentheses is considered less important than the rest. Also, you don't say "Paul (and his wife) are going on holidays", but "is"; for example.

aban57 wrote:

Evolving wrote:Me too. The parenthesis is irrelevant: we have the indefinite article followed by a vowel.

Is it ? From my understanding, what is between the parentheses is considered less important than the rest. Also, you don't say "Paul (and his wife) are going on holidays", but "is"; for example.

Here's your problem ... You think Paul's wife is less important.

How about rephrasing?
the result represents a value for customers (internal or external).

aban57 wrote:you don't say "Paul (and his wife) are going on holidays"

Yes I do.

aban57 wrote: but "is"

No I don't.

Evolving wrote:

aban57 wrote:you don't say "Paul (and his wife) are going on holidays"

Yes I do.

aban57 wrote: but "is"

No I don't.

Aban57 is wrong when he says "says", but he could well be right when he writes.
http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/parentheses.html

aban57 wrote:Which of these propositions is academically correct ?

the result represents a value for an (internal or external) customer.
the result represents a value for a (internal or external) customer.

I would definitely use the first, seems way more natural to me. Also, afaik the whole a vs an thing is about how things sound and about making things easier to pronounce. If you're going to read the bit between parentheses aloud you would use 'an' because it is followed by a word that starts with a vowel sound.

After some minimal research I am forced to go with ... the result represents a value for a (internal or external) customer.
At least in a formal or academic sense.

Rule 3. Parentheses, despite appearances, are not part of the subject.

Example: Joe (and his trusty mutt) was always welcome.

If this seems awkward, try rewriting the sentence:

Example: Joe (accompanied by his trusty mutt) was always welcome.

But if the contents of the bracket are less (not) important why on Earth but it before the noun?

romansh wrote:

Evolving wrote:

aban57 wrote:you don't say "Paul (and his wife) are going on holidays"

Yes I do.

aban57 wrote: but "is"

No I don't.

Aban57 is wrong when he says "says", but he could well be right when he writes.
http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/parentheses.html

Yep, that's where I found this rule, but I was at work and didn't want to spend too much time on the forum there. The link makes sense orally, but I couldn't find a single site speaking (writing) about a rule on this matter.

I would phrase it like this:

the result represents a value for a customer (either internal or external).

aban57 wrote:
Yep, that's where I found this rule, but I was at work and didn't want to spend too much time on the forum there. The link makes sense orally, but I couldn't find a single site speaking (writing) about a rule on this matter.

Assuming the site is accurate ... I can only take the 'spirit' of the rule (ie to ignore the content in the parentheses).

Of course we can't do this orally as we don't have the parentheses.
Have fun.

Pulsar wrote:I would phrase it like this:

the result represents a value for a customer (either internal or external).

I found the first sentence in a book I'm currently reading. I thought it was wrong and should have been the second proposal, hence the OP. Changing the sentence removes the problem, but doesn't answer the question : is there a rule that says what behavior should be used ?

I don't know if there is a rule but if I were writing, I would use the second, as the parentheses kind of 'remove' the words between them from the sentence. If I were speaking, I would use the first, as one cannot employ parentheses in speech, and the vowel would come next to the indefinite article.

The_Piper wrote:BTW, what does do you accord mean?

I asked Google translate:)

In French, the word "accorder" means, among other things, fitting the end of a verb to its subject, or an adjective to its name (plural or gender).
When I typed it into Google, "accord" was the only plausible translation.

Ah: we say "agree".

The verb "agrees" with its subject, in terms of number and anything else the particular language in point may require.