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Parentheses are a pair of punctuation marks that set off extra information given within a sentence, such as an aside, explanation, or amplification. This type of expression is often called parenthetical. Parentheses function much as the dash and comma do—but unlike the dash, they downplay the material they contain, and unlike the comma, they may contain text with no particular grammatical relationship to the rest of the sentence.

Parentheses can add a qualification, a date in time, or a brief explanation.

She preferred the company of doves (as opposed to that of sparrows).

You may use parentheses around letters or numbers enumerating items in a series, especially when that series is run into the main text (rather than displayed in a vertical list).

The Audubon Society’s website described habitats for (1) doves, (2) sparrows, (3) mockingbirds, and (4) blue jays, much to her delight.