[General] The use of brackets and commas

[B45]

Right now, I'm deciding if I should join Jack(who's also a fellow I met on lonelyplanet)in Thailand and Malaysia sometime in early May.

VS

Right now, I'm deciding if I should join Jack, who's also a fellow I met on lonelyplanet, in Thailand and Malaysia sometime in early May.

I want to use the commas, but it would make it sound like I met him on a lonelyplanet in Thailand, when lonelyplanet is a website for travelers. That's why I changed the commas into brackets.

Are both sentences okay?

 

[probus]

"Right now, I'm deciding if I should join Jack, who's also a fellow I met on lonelyplanet, in Thailand and Malaysia sometime in early May."

Perfect standard punctuation. I doubt that there is a style manual in the world that would disagree. Why mess with that?

 

[B45]

Wow, thank you so much Probus. I just want to say that although I've only been on this forum for a week, my English has already improved leaps and bounds, and it's because of moderators like you who have helped me achieved this. Thanks again!

 

[Barb_D]

Why the use of "also"? Have you recently been talking about another guy you met there?

Should "lonelyplanet" be capitalized?

 

[Raymott]

Right now, I'm deciding if I should join Jack(who's also a fellow I met on lonelyplanet)in Thailand and Malaysia sometime in early May.

If you decide to use brackets, you need a space before and after them - "... Jack (who's also a fellow I met on lonelyplanet) in Thailand ..."

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

I think there is less room for error by using brackets.

A misplaced comma changes the meaning; brackets are harder to misplace.

 

[Tdol]

Instead of who's also a fellow,you could use another fellow. By the way, fellow in this sense is a bit old-fashioned in British English.

 

[probus]

In AmE we prefer guy to fellow. Has this usage taken hold in BrE? Or what would you say instead of fellow?

 

[Tdol]

Guy is common in BrE too.