A Word, Please:

Last week in this column, I talked about one of the common comma misperceptions that, on a recent copy-editing job, created a lot of frustrating busywork for me. (Those of you who read it can bill me for your therapy services.)

There’s a reason I discussed only one comma misperception: That’s all I could fit in the column. But the truth is there were several other comma errors that cropped up over and over again in the list of professionally written author biographies. And, because one week later I’m still seeing commas dance before me every time I close my eyes, I figured I’d tell you about another of the common comma errors.

Hopefully, you will benefit from hearing about it. I know I’ll benefit from talking about it.

Look at these two sentences. Jane Carson will discuss her newest book, “The Littlest Peach.” Tom Adams will discuss his book “Schnoz.”

Notice that the first one has a comma and the second does not. It seems, based on my editing experience, that most writers believe that you’re supposed to put a comma either in both of these sentences or in neither. But not many understand how these two sentences’ comma needs differ or why both the sample sentences — the one with the comma and the one without — are correct.

As we saw last week, commas set off parenthetical information, which is often called nonrestrictive information because it in no way narrows down the meaning of a noun before it. “The woman wearing black is always fashionable.” “The woman, wearing black, is always fashionable.”

But to understand how this concept applies to our authors, we should discuss another term: “appositive.” As “Garner’s Modern American Usage” explains it, “an appositive points out the same person or thing by a different name.”

In a sentence like “The CEO, a smart man, will attend,” the two noun phrases refer to the same thing. “A smart man” is really just a repeat reference to “the CEO.” Clearly, because it’s stated differently, it offers new information. So the writer has a good reason to include it. But we’re talking about the same guy. This second set of words naming the guy is called an appositive, and it’s one of many ways to insert nonrestrictive information.