The short story 'Rogue Enchantments' by Isabel Ibañez appears in Reclaim the _____ anthology of fantasy and science fiction written...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• The short story 'Rogue Enchantments'
• by Isabel Ibañez
• appears in Reclaim the Stars [?] an anthology
• of fantasy and science fiction
• written by authors
• of Latin American descent.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

The short story 'Rogue Enchantments' by Isabel Ibañez appears in Reclaim the Stars...

So we're learning about where a particular short story appears - it's in something called "Reclaim the Stars."

This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices:

• A: Stars. An (period, starting new sentence)
• B: Stars, while an (comma plus "while")
• C: Stars an (no punctuation)
• D: Stars, an (comma only)

To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

The sentence continues: "an anthology of fantasy and science fiction written by authors of Latin American descent."

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• "An anthology of fantasy and science fiction..."
  • is telling us WHAT "Reclaim the Stars" is
  • it's describing or identifying the title we just read about
• So we have:
  • First mention: "Reclaim the Stars" (the title)
  • Second mention: "an anthology..." (telling us what that title is)
  • These refer to the same thing - just described differently

What do we notice about the structure here?

• "Reclaim the Stars" = a noun (the title)
• "an anthology of fantasy and science fiction..." = another noun phrase
• The second phrase is describing/renaming the first one
  • They're talking about the same publication
  • The anthology phrase gives us additional information about what "Reclaim the Stars" is
• Can "an anthology of fantasy and science fiction written by authors of Latin American descent" stand alone as its own sentence?
  • No - it's just a noun phrase
  • It doesn't have a main verb performing an action
  • It's descriptive information that needs to attach to the main sentence

When we have a noun followed by another noun phrase that describes or renames it, we need a comma to connect them.

So the correct answer is D: Stars, an

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Commas with Descriptive Noun Phrases

When you want to add descriptive information about something you just mentioned, you can use a noun followed by another noun phrase (called an appositive in grammar terms) set off by a comma. The descriptive phrase renames or provides additional identifying information about the first noun.

The Pattern:

• Noun + , + descriptive noun phrase

Examples:

Example 1:

• My sister lives in Portland, a city in Oregon.
• "Portland" = noun (city name)
• "a city in Oregon" = descriptive noun phrase telling us what Portland is
• The comma connects them

Example 2:

• The scientist discovered a new species, a type of beetle found only in rainforests.
• "A new species" = noun
• "A type of beetle found only in rainforests" = descriptive noun phrase giving more detail
• The comma signals the additional information

In this question:

• Reclaim the Stars, an anthology of fantasy and science fiction...
• "Reclaim the Stars" = noun (title)
• "an anthology of fantasy and science fiction..." = descriptive noun phrase telling us what this title is
• The comma properly introduces the descriptive information