Comma Question

[vcolts]

Ex1:

Her boyfriend Nick met Jennifer at the hospital.

Her boyfriend, Nick, met Jennifer at the hospital.

Ex 2:

David and his father, James, managed to save their company from going bankrupt.

David and his father James managed to save their company from going bankrupt.


I am assuming both styles are punctuation wise correct.
I am wondering which is more suitable for formal/academic writing.

Thanks in advance.

[TheParser]

[QUOTE=vcolts;834280]Ex1:

Her boyfriend Nick met Jennifer at the hospital.



David and his father James managed to save their company from going bankrupt.





NOT A TEACHER


(1) I am shocked! Without the commas, the sentence means that she has more

than one boyfriend!

(2) And without the commas, it appears that David has more than one father!

******

Compare:

My friend Tony speaks French, not my friend Mona. (I have at least two friends, Tony and Mona.)

My friend, Tony, speaks French. (I have only one friend. )

[5jj]

I am not quite as shocked as TheParser, and have to say that the comma-free usage appears to be used by some these days, at least in informal writing.

However, I feel that it is much better to use commas except when we are using the name as a definer.I always advised my students to follow this practice, still widely accepted as the only aceptable one.

[Barb_D]

My friend, Tony, speaks French. (I have only one friend. )

I disagree with this interpretation.

I have a friend. This friend, whose name happens to be Tony, speaks French.

I would not infer that you have only one friend by saying "My friend" instead of "One of my friends."