It seems that we are talking about restrictive and non-restrictive, but
you can avoid it in this case by telling them that, if the writer has
written only one story (or poem or whatever), you would set it off with
commas. If the writer has written more than one, then one does not use
commas. It gets a little more complicated when you start adding
modifiers: "In her greatest short story, 'The Yellow Wallpaper,"
Charlotte. . . " -- because she has written only one "greatest" short
story. Or "In her story about kitchen remodels, 'The Yellow
Wallpaper,". . . (sorry, Ive taught the story but just now totally
forget what it was about!).
-----Original Message-----
From: Jo Rubba [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 4:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: punctuation query
Help! This is driving me nuts.
My students don't know when to put a comma before the title of a book,
story, poem, etc. I am having trouble figuring out the rule. I'm hoping
it's not the standard restrictive - non-restrictive principle, because
half of them don't get that. It seems to have to do with prior mention,
but I can't formulate it. Here are some typical contexts:
Charlotte Perkins' short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" portrays a woman
going mad.
In his poem "In Hardwood Groves", Robert Frost exploits the metaphor
PEOPLE ARE PLANTS ...
I know that commas around the story/poem title would be wrong; in the
second context, the comma after the title is required to set off the
initial adverbial phrase.
Most commonly, my students use the comma(s) when they should not. Is
there a straighforward explanation for this? Please don't tell me I have
to explain noun complementation or restrictive/non-restrictive
appositives ... please ...
***************************************************
Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics English Department, Cal
Poly State University San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 Tel. 805-756-2184 ~
Dept. phone 805-756-2596 Dept. fax: 805-756-6374 ~ E-mail:
[log in to unmask]
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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