Aren't these commas wrong?

Question

Examples:
We should all thank Visiting Assistant Professor, John Smith, for his efforts.
Visiting Assistant Professor, John Smith gave a talk on civic duty.

I feel certain the comma before Professor does not belong in either sentence. But I can't find a definitive grammatical reference to prove it, nor is my grammar vocabulary sufficient to describe why it's wrong.
Help me out!

Answer 1

The comma rule you are looking at is commas used with appositives.

An appositive is a word or phrase immediately following a noun or pronoun which renames the noun or pronoun. In your examples, John Smith is an appositive which renames "Visiting Assistant Professor."

Here's the tricky part about appositives--sometimes they require commas, and sometimes they don't. An essential appositive phrase is one that is required for the sentence to be clearly understood. An essential appositive phrase is NEVER set off by commas (unless, of course, the commas are there for other reasons, such as to join a compound sentence).

A nonessential appositive phrase is one that can be removed and the sentence is still easy to understand. a nonessential appositive phrase is ALWAYS set off by commas (one before and one after).

In both your examples, the appositive phrase is essential. You need it because otherwise you just have the person's title. You need his name for the sentences to be clear. Do not use commas in either example.

Answer 2

Lose all the commas. Visiting Assistant Professor John Smith can be used as label without any more qualifying

Answer 3

We should all thank Visiting Assistant Professor John Smith for his efforts.
Visiting Assistant Professor John Smith gave a talk on civic duty.

This should work out.

Answer 4

In the first sentence John Smith is being set off as an apositive but improperly. If the sentence said THE visiting assistant professer, John Smith. It would be ok. The same thing goes for the second sentence. Without "THE" visiting assistant professer is just a title, not a noun which requires explanation.

Answer 5

Your missing a comma. Your referring to the rule when you add info between 2 commas So this is what you have:

We should all thank Visiting Assistant Professor, John Smith, for his efforts.
Visiting Assistant Professor, John Smith gave a talk on civic duty.


:change it to:

We should all thank Visiting Assistant Professor, John Smith, for his efforts.
Visiting Assistant Professor, John Smith, gave a talk on civic duty. ^^^^^


OK. heres some examples:

Its Very Windy in my City Today.

that's fine. But if the person didn't know ware you lived, and wanted to put that in it would be:

Its Very Windy in my City, John Town, Today.

So.. as you see (like in your sentience) You use commas to add extra info, that the sentience would be good WITHOUT the extra info, but (like in mine, the person do-sent know ware i live.) You need you add. OK? Hope this helps!

Answer 6

I believe the commas are in the correct spots. If you read it out loud, without pausing after the "professor" part, it sounds kind of funny, but you are introducing John Smith, so the comma is an appropriate way to do so.

Hope this helps.

Answer 7

Neither of the commas belong because Professor is John Smith's title.

Answer 8

Get rid of them! "Visiting Assistant Professor" is John Smith's title, same as Professor John Smith or Mister John Smith. Don't separate the title from the person.

Answer 9

"Visiting Assistant Professor" is a title, like Dr. or Mrs. Therefore, it is part of the name and needn't be separated by a comma.

IF you were to say "We should all thank THE Visiting Assistant Professor", you would need to use a comma after Professor because "John Smith" adds information to the sentence BUT DOES NOT CHANGE THE MEANING.

See the link below for information.

Answer 10

This part is correct, as is: We should all thank Visiting Assistant Professor, John Smith, for his efforts.

For example, from using commas:
Tom, the captain of the team, was injured in the game.
It is up to you, Jane, to finish.



This one needs an additional comma after John Smith:
Visiting Assistant Professor, John Smith, gave a talk on civic duty.

Answer 11

This is a tricky one. Generally, when a title precedes a person's name, it is not set off by commas unless the title is preceded by the article "the" or "an" (i.e. "The famous professor, Harold Doe, will be receiving an award," as opposed to "Professor Harold Doe will be receiving an award,"). So, according to that rule, the comma is incorrect. However, the main goal of the comma is clarity. Without the comma inserted after "Professor," a reader might not be sure if the writer is referring to a visiting assistant by the name of Professor John Smith, or if he is referring to a Visiting Assistant Professor whose name is John Smith. It is a judgment call. If I was making the call, I believe the capitalization of the first letters in the title would suggest to the reader that they should be read as one, and I would therefore delete the commas.