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The Appositive. An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that tells you something about a nearby noun or pronoun. Ex. My friend Ethan works at a bookstore after school. (The appositive Ethan identifies the noun friend .). Appositive phrase.
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An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that tells you something about a nearby noun or pronoun • Ex. My friend Ethan works at a bookstore after school. (The appositive Ethan identifies the noun friend.)
Appositive phrase • is made up of the appositive plus any words that modify the appositive. • Ex. He is saving money to travel to Bogota, the capital of Colombia. • The appositive phrase the capital of Columbia identifies Bogota.
My sister Jodi works at the hospital. • The appositive Jodi identifies the noun sister.
She works with Dr. Martin, an award-winning pediatrician. • The appositive phrase an award-winning pediatrician identifies Dr. Martin.
Use commas to set off any appositive or appositive phrase that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence • EX. Jodi’s coworker Emma has five children. • The appositive Emma is essential because Jodi has more than one coworker.
Emma’s husband, Phil, is a carpenter. • The appositive Phil is not essential because Emma has only one husband!
Punctuation of appositives • 1. Use one or two commas. • Ex. The principal of Sarasota High School in 1997 was Daniel Kennedy, a wiry fifty-nine-year-old who has a stern buzz cut. • Ex. Kennedy, a wiry fifty-nine-year-old who has a stern buzz cut, was in 1997 the principal of Sarasota High School.
Punctuation • 2. Use one or two dashes. • EX. In 1981, two professors began following the lives of eighty-one high-school valedictorians—forty-six women and thirty-five men from Illinois. • EX. Japanese people have to make many of the big decisions of their lives—whom to marry, what company to join—without detailed information.
Punctuation • 3. You can use a colon. • EX. We were given plenty of instruction about the specifics of writing: word choice, description, style.
Punctuation tips • Dashes emphasize the appositive more than commas do. • If the appositive contains its own internal commas, then using the dash or the colon can make it easier to read the complete sentence.
An appositive can clarify a term by providing a proper noun or a synonym for the term EX. Its hero is Scout’s father, the saintly Atticus Finch. EX. . . .an automaton, a machine, can be made to keep a school so.
by defining or explaining the term,. • . . .what we have since learned to recognize as a “survivor” memoir – a first-person narrative of victimization and recovery. • . . .teenagers might enjoy the transformative science-fiction aspects of The Metamorphosis, a story about a young man so alienated from his “dysfunctional” family that he turns. . .into a giant beetle.
An appositive can smooth choppy writing. • BEFORE--Its hero is Scout’s father. His name is Atticus Finch. He is saintly. • AFTER--Its hero is Scout’s father, the saintly Atticus Finch.
So, what should YOU do? • Use appositives!