Appositives are nouns or noun phrases placed next to another noun to provide additional information or clarification. They can be either essential, meaning they are necessary for understanding the sentence, or non-essential, which means they add extra detail but can be removed without changing the sentence's meaning. For example, in the sentence "My brother, a skilled guitarist, plays in a band," "a skilled guitarist" is a non-essential appositive that gives more context about "my brother." Appositives are typically set off by commas when non-essential.