Is the phrase "combined with" or "coupled with" a nonessential phrase?

Question

Is the phrase "combined with" or "coupled with" a nonessential phrase? For example": Her neat work combined with her pleasant nature makes her a pleasure to teach. Should it be "Her neat work [comma] combined with her pleasant nature [comma] makes her a pleasure to teach"?

Answer 1

I vote for non-essential. What's wrong with

"Her neat work and pleasant nature make her a pleasure to teach"?

There's nothing inherently wrong or incorrect about adding "combined with" or "coupled with"; they just aren't needed.

Now, if the emphasis of your sentence were to change, such that you wanted to emphasize the happy marriage of, or symbiosis between, her two characteristics, then fine, include the words.

"We were looking for a candidate to apply for the full scholarship to Brainiac School for the Gifted. Our ideal candidate would be organized in her approach to her studies and have a pleasant disposition. Then we found her: Mary Bright. Her neat work coupled with her pleasant nature made her the ideal candidate who would, we felt, be a pleasure to teach."

Answer 2

No, it is essential.

A + B = C

She is a pleasure based on two things combined - neat work and pleasant demeanor.

As my wife says

I can put up with rude. I can put up with stupid. I can't abide rude combined with stupid.

As such, I would not set off the phrase with commas.

(It might be different if the phrase were as well as.)

Answer 3

It can be used where it adds nothing but verbiage.

It can though be used to express that the coupling or combination is itself important. In your example we would imagine that the "neat work" and the "pleasant nature" would each make someone a pleasure to teach, and that while the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts, they won't be much greater.

However, consider "her outspoken politics combined with her novel forms of composition caused a sensation", then we can imagine that neither the political nor aesthetic considerations are what people were reacting to, but the very combination of them.