Commas--Part Two

1. To set off an appositive. Appositives are words or phrases that add additional information to nearby words.

This is Linda, my neighbor.
My neighbor, Linda, likes planting vegetables in her garden.

2. To separate a string of three or more adjectives.

The tall, dark, handsome man uses Old Spice® Body Wash.
They purchased a large, white, two-story house.

3. To separate a nonrestrictive (nonessential) phrase from the rest of the sentence. This is what I call the "handle rule." Nonessential phrases can be removed from a sentence without changing the meaning, so we set them off with two commas.

Restrictive
The tree that is diseased will be removed on Tuesday. The phrase "that is diseased" is essential to the meaning of the sentence.

Nonrestrictive
The tree that is diseased, which is a 50-year-old oak, will be removed on Tuesday. The phrase "which is a 50-year-old oak" is not essential to the meaning of the sentence, so we use commas to enclose it. The commas act like handles, meaning you can use the "handles" to remove the phrase from the sentence without changing the meaning.

Happy punctuating. Please post additional questions here.