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I'm preparing for academic IELTS by writing some essays and then correcting those using a grammar correction app.

In the following sentence,

In its turn, each gore consists of horizontal segments, or panels.

The app suggests deleting a comma after 'segments', but it feels like it might change the meaning. I meant that 'panels' is another name for 'segments', but without the comma, it's probably possible to conclude that each gore can be made either of segments or from panels.

What is the correct comma usage here?

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    I agree with you. Always be wary of grammar apps.
    – Peter
    Jun 17, 2021 at 8:44
  • I would suggest that to disambiguate it further you might write horizontal segments or horizaontal panels
    – mdewey
    Jun 17, 2021 at 16:00

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In its turn, each gore consists of horizontal segments, or panels.

As panels is another name for segments, your example is fine. Without that comma, readers may interpret segments and panels as different things.

To get rid of that erroneous comment from the app, you could try

In its turn, each gore consists of horizontal segments, also known as panels.

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You are correct, there is no definitive rule involving the comma there. However, some academic writing uses different stylizations like this. I wouldn't recommend using it, as without the comma is 100% correct always, regardless of stylization.

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  • What do you mean, "without the comma is 100% correct always"? Are commas never correct anywhere? The OP is not asking about comma usage in general, but about how removing the comma in this context might change the meaning of the sentence to something other than what they intended.
    – gotube ♦
    Jul 2, 2021 at 8:41

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