{"id":1626,"date":"2014-08-26T13:04:20","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T19:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=1626"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:54:11","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T16:54:11","slug":"essential-and-nonessential-elements-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/effective-writing\/essential-and-nonessential-elements-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Essential and Nonessential Elements, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the rule again, in case you missed it: Essential<\/em> elements in a sentence should not be enclosed in commas. Nonessential<\/em> elements in a sentence should be enclosed by commas.<\/p>\n

Last time, we applied the rule to clauses. Today we\u2019ll look at essential and nonessential phrases (a phrase<\/em> is two or more related words with no subject and verb).<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with this sentence: The guy seated next to me wouldn\u2019t stop talking<\/em>. There are no commas because seated next to me<\/em> is an essential phrase. It identifies which \u201cguy\u201d we mean. Without it we\u2019d have only The guy wouldn\u2019t stop talking<\/em>, which doesn\u2019t tell us much.<\/p>\n

But consider this: Ezra Blung, the guy seated next to me, wouldn\u2019t stop talking<\/em>. Because we now know the man\u2019s name, the guy seated next to me<\/em> becomes nonessential. As the commas signify, the phrase contains supplementary information, and the sentence would have the same meaning without it.<\/p>\n

Commas are easy for some to overlook, but an omitted or out-of-place comma can change a sentence\u2019s meaning. Here is an example: Complete the job, as directed<\/em>. The comma after job<\/em> tells us that the phrase as directed<\/em> is nonessential. The sentence says that you have been directed to do a job, and implies that how you do it is up to you. But what if we took out the comma: Complete the job as directed<\/em>. Now as directed<\/em> is essential, and the sentence is saying something more severe: Do the work, and make sure you do it the way you were told to do it.<\/p>\n

Remember that essential<\/em> and nonessential<\/em> are technical terms. Some authorities prefer restrictive<\/em> and nonrestrictive<\/em>, perhaps to avoid the sort of confusion that may result from analyzing a sentence like this: A comma, which never ends a sentence, signals a pause<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In that example, which never ends a sentence<\/em> is nonessential, and the crux of the sentence is, A comma signals a pause<\/em>. That is true, but a period also signals a pause. Perhaps the key difference between commas and periods is that a comma never ends a sentence.<\/p>\n

So how could such an essential fact be termed \u201cnonessential\u201d in a sentence that describes a comma? It\u2019s because we are using grammatical terminology: nonessential <\/em>refers to sentence structure only.<\/p>\n

Information essential to human understanding is often found in phrases and clauses that are technically nonessential<\/em>, as seen in the comma sentence above. But that sentence would be improved by making its less important fact nonessential: A comma, which signals a pause, never ends a sentence<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Memo to fledgling writers: If you find that you\u2019ve disclosed an essential fact in a technically nonessential phrase or clause, you may want to write a new sentence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n

Identify and punctuate (if needed) the italicized groups of words below. Are they clauses or phrases? Are they essential or nonessential? Answers are below.<\/p>\n

1. People demanding special treatment<\/em> make me angry.
\n2. His brother who is a health nut<\/em> runs five miles a day.
\n3. A friend of mine who lives in Boston<\/em> loves the seafood there.
\n4. Alan Lomax always fascinated by roots music<\/em> first recorded the bluesman Lead Belly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. People demanding special treatment<\/em> make me angry. (essential phrase, no punctuation)
\n2. His brother,<\/strong> who is a health nut<\/em>,<\/strong> runs five miles a day. (nonessential clause, commas added)
\n3. A friend of mine who lives in Boston<\/em> loves the seafood there. (essential clause, no punctuation)
\n4. Alan Lomax,<\/strong> always fascinated by roots music<\/em>,<\/strong> first recorded the bluesman Lead Belly. (nonessential phrase, commas added)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is the rule again, in case you missed it: Essential elements in a sentence should not be enclosed in commas. Nonessential elements in a sentence should be enclosed by commas. Last time, we applied the rule to clauses. Today we\u2019ll look at essential and nonessential phrases (a phrase is two or more related words […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commas","category-effective-writing","category-periods"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}