Comma or no comma? That is the question.
Which is correct, or are both?
Oahu's largest television channel, Real Hawaii TV is aired in over 26,000 hotel rooms and features compelling, fast-paced stories..
Oahu's largest television channel, Real Hawaii TV, is aired in over 26,000 hotel rooms and features compelling, fast-paced stories.
thanks & aloha, Peter
Peter Gellatly
New member
5 answers 
Hi Peter! This is quite the discussion going on, and I had to get in on it.
Regarding your first two sentences, the only differences between the two are:
- The comma is missing after the additional information
- There are two periods ending the sentence
Other than what I just mentioned, the sentences are exactly the same.
The reason "Real Hawaii TV" is additional information (as all the previous contributors stated) is because it can be removed from the sentence. The sentence will be grammatically correct without it.
"Oahu's largest television channel is aired in over 26,000 hotel rooms and features compelling, fast-paced stories."
No loss of meaning. It is not grammatically necessary to have "Real Hawaii TV" in the sentence. If you want "Real Hawaii TV" to be essential to the sentence it needs to be worded differently.
"Real Hawaii TV is Oahu's largest television channel..." for example.
The same applies to your second post. "...the Empire State Building..." is additional information and requires commas around it. The sentence can function, grammatically, without it.
"NYCs tallest building is on 34th Street."
Both sentences are about "the largest television channel" and "the tallest building." Removing those statements would result in a loss of meaning.
I hope I've helped : )
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edited Apr 28 '12 at 01:12
Jody M.
Expert
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The second is correct, Peter.
'Real Hawaii TV' is additional information, and, therefore, should be enclosed with commas.
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answered Nov 24 '11 at 13:30
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It has to do with it being no defining, yes. The second is correct as the name of the entity could be omitted from the sentence without loss of meaning. http://www.desktopenglish.net/blog/which-or-that
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answered Nov 24 '11 at 19:23
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If someone considers an answer to be bad and downvote it, they should at least have the courtesy to explain their reason for doing so. Thank you.
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answered Nov 25 '11 at 18:36
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I agree. I gave the same answer as you did below. Someone downvoted it & I was a bit sleep deprived when I noticed it. So I just deleted my answer until I could get back to it & review to see what I might have stated wrong. But it was not wrong & I see that you were downvoted as well. I upvoted it to put it back to zero. When an answer has a downvote, it appears to be incorrect - thus steering the questioner away from it. That's all well & good if the answer is incorrect, but in this case the questioner would be left without knowing the correct answer. Frustrating.
Thank you, Patty. I don't get paid for answering questions, and I assume no-one else does either. If someone thinks an answer is wrong, they should, at the very least, tell the writer why they think so, and give the writer a chance to explain. In this case my answer is exactly the same as Danni Hopkins', except I chose to say 'additional information', which is more readily understood by the general public than if I were to say 'non-defining', which may or may not be understood by the questioner.
add commentAloha,
Sorry about my ostensible rudeness, entirely unintentional. I'm new here.
Thanks so much for your help. I posted "nay" to the replies because, in sentence #1, "Real Hawaii TV" certainly is not additional information. It is the subject of the sentence, described by the words preceding and following it. To toss it would be to change the sentence completely. #2 works, of course, but if #1 doesn't, it must be for another reason.
Here's another one like #1: "NYC's tallest building, the Empire State Building is on 34th Street." That makes eminent sense to me. yes/no?
Again, sorry.
mahalo & aloha, Peter
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answered Nov 26 '11 at 05:14
Peter Gellatly
New member
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The way it is written, the subject of the sentence here is "NYC's tallest building." If you want "the Empire State Building" to be the subject, you need to change the sentence around. Currently NYC's tallest building, the Empire State Building is on 34th Street. (Note that you now don't need the double commas because the additional information is at the beginning of the sentence.) The Empire State Building, NYC's tallest building, is on 34th Street. (Note that you do need double commas because the additional information is in the middle of the sentence.)
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