Killgallon, prepositional phrases, and commas- I need help!

[sassenach]

I'm looking over pg 20 in Sentence Composing for Elementary School, and Killgallon seems to be teaching that prepositional phrases are always set off by commas.  All of the models use commas, whether the prep phrase is at the beginning, middle or end of the sentence.  

 

I'm confused.  MCT definitely does not teach this.  I am a MAJOR comma over user, so I've tried to be very conscious of that when teaching the kids.  I have no instincts on comma use, because I was taught to use them everywhere.  

 

But I'm also looking at all of these models, from real-life venerated writers, and I'm wondering if I should be teaching the commas.

 

Help!

[ssavings]

I believe that I was taught that nonessential prepositional phrases are set apart by commas, while essential prepositional phrases are not set apart by commas? 

Of course, that was 10 years ago and I could be remembering incorrectly. 

[nansk]

I am a comma over-user, too. I found this article by Ben Yagoda helpful. Here's what he says about when to use commas:

 

There are a limited number of cases where a comma is used, and it’s worth running through the most prominent ones:

• To separate complete clauses that have different subjects and are separated by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, yet, so, etc.). “President Obama’s inaugural address started at 1:30, and his supporters started tweeting at 1:31.”

 

• To set off introductory elements. “As a result of the heavy snowfall, school was cancelled.”

 

• To set off nonessential elements, sometimes known as appositives, nondefining clauses or parenthetical phrases. “My accountant, Ann Jackson, who was born in Toronto, likes to play hockey.” (Sometimes people mistakenly leave out the second commas in such situations, perhaps because they wouldn’t pause there for long when speaking the sentence.)

 

• To separate items in a list. “My favorite desserts are banana cream pie, oatmeal cookies, and carrot cake.” (Authorities differ on whether to put a comma after the second-to-last item in the series, in this case “cookies.”)

 

• In quotations, addresses, and dates. “He said, ‘I was born in New Rochelle, New York, on February 22, 1954.’”

That’s pretty much it.

[readinmom]

Curious also...

 

The high school book is heavy on appositives.