Commas needed or restrictive appositive?

Question

Should I put a comma after "cover story" in this sentence? Or should I withhold the comma to mean this cover story was one of many?

The magazine made their opinions public in February when they published their cover story, Fall from the Skies.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

It refers to one cover story. I would keep the comma, but check your favorite style guide.

BillJ · Answer

The magazine made their opinions public in February when they published their cover story 'Fall from the Sky'.

The occurrence of a comma is dependent on whether the appositive noun phrase Fall From The Sky is integrated (restrictive) or supplementary (non-restrictive).

Without a comma, the appositive Fall from the Sky is a modifier of story, semantically identifying which story is being referred to. By contrast, the inclusion of a comma renders it a supplement to the anchor noun phrase their cover story, which is assumed to be identifiable independently of the information in the appositive phrase.

Both analyses are possible depending on context, but since the magazine presumably publishes many stories, it’s reasonable to assume that there can be many entities satisfying the description “cover story”, and this points to the appositive being of the integrated kind where no comma is required.

Commas needed or restrictive appositive?

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions