[General] Placement of commas before a person's name and occupation

[Zarious]

Hello, I am currently writing an essay and I have these two sentences written:

In the book The Ocean at the End of the Lane, it can be argued that the author, Neil Gaiman, intends...

and

The house-keeper, Ursula, becomes tangible proof for a child who....

I'm unsure if the commas I have placed are necessary or what the rules corresponding to names and occupations are.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[emsr2d2]

Your commas are correct. Note that in your opening sentence, you should have said "... and I have written these two sentences".

 

[Barb_D]

Welcome to Using English :hi:

Use the commas to set off the name. It's additional information (grammatically) that "re-names" the noun that came before it, so you set it off with commas.

You might want to look up the grammatical term "appositive."

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Welcome to Using English :hi:

Use the commas to set off the name. It's additional information (grammatically) that "re-names" the noun that came before it, so you set it off with commas.

You might want to look up the grammatical term "appositive."

Yes. You'll notice that if you removed the names and the commas, the sentences would still be true. That's because the names are dependent clauses. They add information without changing the facts. For example, without the commas, you would be telling us either which housekeeper or which Ursula!