Dear Master’s student,
Happy New
Year and welcome back to classes! I hope
no one has fallen off the New Year’s resolutions bandwagon just yet. Actually it’s not too late to add one more
resolution to your list: improving your writing.
We’ll
start this first blog entry of the year on a topic that I don’t consider
crucial to strong writing, but one about which I still get plenty of questions:
that, which, and commas.
First,
let’s talk about “restrictive” vs. “non-restrictive” clauses. A restrictive clause is one that provides
information that is necessary to identify someone or something. A non-restrictive clause provides “extra”
information, i.e. info that a reader would not need to identify someone or
something. Commas are placed before and
after a non-restrictive clause. You’re
likely a little confused now, so let’s use examine an example for clarity.
Restrictive: My
sister who normally avoids spicy food wants Thai food for dinner.
Non-restrictive:
My sister, who normally avoids spicy
food, wants Thai food for dinner.
Do these
two examples have different meanings?
Yes, slightly. In the restrictive
example, we know the clause “who normally avoids spicy food” is necessary to
identify which sister wants Thai food.
This indicates the speaker must have at least one other sister, because
without this spicy info, we wouldn’t know whom the speaker meant.
Conversely,
the non-restrictive example, which you can identify by the commas around the
spicy clause, is not necessary to figure out who wants Thai food. From this, you can infer that the speaker has
only one sister (because “sister” is sufficient by itself to identify who wants Thai
food).
Note the
use of commas in the first sentence of this paragraph: “the non-restrictive
example, which you can identify by the commas around the spicy clause,
is not…” Because
there is only one non-restrictive example, “which you can identify…” is extra
information—not necessary—so there are commas around that clause.
Lastly,
“that” should be used with restrictive clauses.
“Which” should be used to introduce non-restrictive examples.
For
example:
The country that produces the
most olive oil is located in Europe.
Spain, which produces more
olive oil than any other country, is located in Europe.
In the
first sentence “the country” isn’t enough information to identify the specific
nation in question. So “that produces
the most olive oil” is necessary (or “restrictive”); thus “that” is used and no
commas go around the clause.
In the
second sentence, “Spain” is sufficient to identify the country being
discussed. That means the additional
information is unnecessary (or “non-restrictive”), and “which” with commas
should be used.
Happy
Writing!
James
James
