Extra info comes in pairs

Lesson 9 · follow-up to Lesson 6 · about 8 minutes · for misses on Lesson 6 quiz questions 4, 6 and 7 (commas before a name, closing a dash, commas around a description)

Extra information gets a matching pair of marks, one on each side: comma…comma or dash…dash. A label stuck to the front of a name isn't extra at all, so it gets nothing.

On the Lesson 6 quiz, your student got the subject–verb and semicolon questions right but missed all three "extra information" questions. They're really one idea with three checks. Purdue OWL's rule: "Use commas before and after nonessential words, phrases, and clauses, that is, elements embedded in the sentence that interrupt it without changing the essential meaning" (Commas with Nonessential Elements). Note the words before and after: a pair.

Why Lesson 6's test tripped him up

Lesson 6 taught "could I delete it?". Try it on marine biologist Priya Nair: delete "marine biologist" and "Priya Nair tagged forty sea turtles" still works. So the test seems to say "removable, add commas", which is wrong. A label touching the front of a name works like a title. Nobody writes "Captain, Hook". Purdue OWL lists exactly this as essential, with no commas: "The sixth-century philosopher Boethius was arrested…" and "Your friend Bill is in trouble." (Appositives). So check for a title first, and use the delete test only after that.

The three checks, in order

  1. Title check. Is a label (chef, coach, astronaut, the painter…) sitting right in front of a name? Then it's a title. No commas between the label and the name, or after the name.
  2. Delete check, for anything after a name or noun. Cover the phrase. Does the sentence still work and mean the same? Then it's extra, so put a mark before AND after it. (If the extra bit runs to the end of the sentence, the period is the closing mark.)
  3. Match check. Put a finger on the opening mark and find its partner. A dash closes with a dash, and a comma closes with a comma. Never mix them.
Check 1 · title

✗ Yesterday, soccer coach, Ana Silva, picked the team.

✓ Yesterday, soccer coach Ana Silva picked the team.

"Soccer coach" is glued to the name like "Coach Silva", so there are no commas inside it. The comma after "Yesterday" has nothing to do with the name.

Check 2 · delete, then wrap both sides

✗ Ana Silva, the soccer coach picked the team.

✓ Ana Silva, the soccer coach, picked the team.

Now the name comes first and the description follows. Cover it: "Ana Silva picked the team" still works, so it's extra and needs a comma on both sides. The ✗ version is the half-pair trap: it opens the extra bit and never closes it, so it reads as if "the soccer coach picked the team". Purdue OWL's pair of examples shows both positions: "The popular US president John Kennedy was known for…" versus "John Kennedy, the popular US president, was known for…" (Appositives).

Check 3 · match the pair

✗ The old lighthouse—painted red and white in 1902, still guides ships.

✓ The old lighthouse—painted red and white in 1902—still guides ships.

It opened with a dash, so it closes with a dash. Purdue OWL: "Dashes are used to set off or emphasize the content enclosed within dashes or the content that follows a dash" (Punctuation). "Content that follows a dash" is the one exception: when the extra bit runs to the end of the sentence, a single dash is fine. Example: "We needed one thing—a goal."

What to watch for with your student. Make him point before he picks. One finger on the opening comma or dash, one on its partner. If the second finger has nowhere to go, that's the half-pair trap. If his finger lands between a label and a name ("coach, Ana"), stop: titles take no marks. One advanced case he may meet later: a description that starts with a/an and opens the sentence takes one comma, as in Purdue OWL's "A bold innovator, Wassily Kandinsky is known for his colorful abstract paintings." It's still a pair; the sentence start is the other side.

Your turn

Which choice makes the sentence grammatically acceptable? The underlined part is what can change, and the first choice repeats it as written (the ACT would print "NO CHANGE"). Name the check (title, delete or match) before answering. Two questions review Lesson 6's other rules.