Multiple nested clauses

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

 Mike Ingram wondered what to do with a sentence of the form
 <<Text text text text (Text text text. Text text text. Text
 text text.) text text text.>>

 Mike, this simply isn't a problem you can (or should try
 to) solve via punctuation. By the time any normal reader
 gets to the end of the parenthetical statements, they'll
 have long since forgotten the start of the sentence. You
 really have two options (both rewording), depending on the
 nature of the bracketed material:

 1. Put the explanatory material as an introduction: "You
 need to know three things before you do this step: 1, 2, 3.
 Now let's do the step."

 2. Put the explanatory material after the instruction as a
 wrap up: "Do this. You'll know you succeeded if the
 following 3 conditions are true: 1, 2, 3."

 The reason you couldn't find guidance on how to punctuate
 the structure you mentioned is because most style guides
 simply assume that nobody would willingly create such a
 sentence structure... so why create guidelines for how to
 fix it? (Not a flame... well, maybe a gentle one.)

 --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
 Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

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