THE WRITING CENTER

1. MUSC MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA THE WRITING CENTER Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Elements • Groups of words that modify nouns or pronouns may be essential to the meaning of a sentence, • thus restrictive; on the other hand, they may add information that, while interesting, is not necessary • to our understanding, therefore nonrestrictive. Consider these examples: • All students who failed the exam must be retested tomorrow. • All freshman students, who are quite young, must attend orientation tomorrow. • In the first example, the adjective clause is essential to the meaning of the sentence. Clearly, students • who passed the exam need not retake it! In the second example, the word freshmansufficiently qualifies • the meaning. While the adjective clause enhances our understanding of these students, it does not add • essential meaning. • Restrictive and nonrestrictive elements come in three forms: adjective clauses (shown above), adjective • phrases, and appositives. Adjective phrases might be prepositional phrases or participles. • Joanne, with her red hair piled on top of her head, is tall and thin. • The woman with red hair is named Joanne. • Joanne, sporting a red baseball cap, stood out in the crowd. • The woman wearing the red and blue baseball cap is Joanne. • Note: An adjective modifying a proper noun is usually nonrestrictive. In the first and third examples, we • would be able to identify the woman because we have named her. • Appositives are nouns or pronouns that closely follow--and rename--another noun or pronoun. • Mr. Jonas, my teacher, is a fine person. • My teacher Mr. Jonas is a fine person. • The appositive is not essential in the first example. We have named the teacher. But in the second, we • must know his name. Otherwise the fine person might be anyone on the school faculty! • All of these examples illustrate the comma rule for restrictive and nonrestrictive elements. If the group of • words is restrictive (essential), no commas are needed. However, nonrestrictive (nonessential) elements are • set off by commas. • A final comment: Sometimes, commas determine meaning! Take, for example, the following two sentences: • That cake made with chocolate and coconut is my favorite. • That cake, made with chocolate and coconut, is my favorite. • In the first example, the writer might be at a family gathering with many dessert choices. The chocolate and • coconut identify the exact cake, so we have a restrictive modifier. But in the second, the writer has only one • cake from which to choose, so the flavor, while interesting, is not essential to the meaning. Produced by MUSC's Writing Center - Under the direction of Professor Tom Waldrep