HANDOUT WRITING: APPOSITIVES

I. DEFINITION
An appositive is a noun or noun substitute that renames another noun and fills the
same grammatical slot in a sentence as that noun.
EG:
My roommate, an athlete, exercises daily.
Charles Darwin sailed to the Galapagos, a string of islands off South America.
In our examples, “roommate, the base noun, is the subject of the sentence and
“athlete” shares the same slot; the base noun “Galapagos” is the object of a
preposition and “string” shares the same slot. Diagrams make this quite clear:
II. POSITION OF APPOSITIVES
The normal position for appositives is following the base noun, as in the two examples
above, but they can come before the base noun. This happens only at the beginning of
a sentence:
A passionate golfer, my neighbor plays almost every day.
Or appositive is sometimes the final structure of in the sentence:
Sleeping under the Christmas tree was the children's present: a tiny golden
retriever puppy.
III. PUNCTUATING APPOSITIVES
Appositives are usually set off by commas:
Arundhati Roy's first book, The God of Small Things, was published in 1997.
A Guatemalan Indian with little formal education, Rigoberta Menchu wrote a
book that brought her to the attention of the world.
Sometimes appositives are set off by dashes. This is often the case when they occur in
a series:
Many childhood diseases that used to kill or afflict millions of children –
whooping cough, measles, diphtheria, polio – can remain a thing of the past if we
keep up inoculation programs.
When an appositive is the final structure in a sentence, it may be set off by a colon.
Sleeping under the Christmas tree was the children's present: a tiny golden
retriever puppy.
No punctuation is used when an appositive is restrictive--that is, when it is necessary
to the meaning of its base noun.
The poet Wallace Stevens was an executive of the Hartford Insurance
Company.
EXERCISES
Exercise 1: Underline the appositive phrase in each of the following sentences and
circle the word it modifies.
Example: Our house, a brick bungalow, is on Oak Street.
1. Queen Victoria, one of England's greatest monarchs, ruled for sixty-three years.
2. Jane made the salad, a tossed one with French dressing.
3. Harvey Jensen, the pro at the country club, is giving me golf lessons.
4. James Hilton's book, Lost Horizon, has been filmed twice.
5. Chemistry, Sue's favorite subject, is easy for her.
6. Jerry is visiting in Peoria, his old home town.
7. Mr. and Mrs. Miller, our neighbors for the past eight years, are moving to Dallas.
8. Have you ever read The Red Pony, a novel by John Steinbeck?
9. Groucho Marx, the star of many film comedies, also had his own television show.
10. The boys repaired our television set, an eighteen-year-old portable.
11. The poem, one of Robert Frost's best, is called "The Death of the Hired Man."
12. I can't find my notebook, the one I use for history class.
13. Dick's new suit, a gray flannel one, makes him look much older.
14. We enjoy walking, an exercise which requires no great skill.
15. The theater, an old and drafty one, is nevertheless always crowded.
16. My math teacher, Miss Holmes, has taught for twenty years.
17. The garage, a two-car one, is attached to the house.
18. My sister, a graduate of the University of Iowa, is now studying law.
19. Our dog, a cocker spaniel, is ten years old.
20. Mrs. Norbert, the president of the company, will speak at the dinner..
Exercise 2: Add commas to the following sentences where needed. If a sentence
does not need any commas, then mark it “correct” by writing C beside the
number.
1. Zachary Taylor the 12th president never voted in his life.
2. Francisco Coronado a Spanish explorer brought horses to America in 1540.
3. The novelist Rudyard Kipling wrote Kim.
4. Alvin Parker once flew a glider a plane without a motor 644 miles.
5. Mr. Hrncir the coolest teacher alive would never make his students do boring
worksheets.
Exercise 3: Combine each group of sentences into one sentence that uses at least
one appositive. The starred sentence should remain the base sentence. In most
cases, the appositive will rename a subject near the beginning of the sentence.
Appositives may be compounded or in a series . Some may be placed either before
or after the subject; try them both ways.
Example
* Marcel gets many dinner invitations.
Marcel is a witty storyteller
Marcel, a witty storyteller, gets many dinner invitations.
1. *Art Tatum was completely blind.
Art Tatum was one of the greatest jazz pianists of the century.

2. *In 1996, Gary Kasparov accepted the challenge of playing against IBM's Deep
Blue.
Gary Kasparov was world chess champion.
Deep Blue is a powerful chess-playing computer program.

3. *Arthur wanted a house with a cool, dry cellar.

Arthur was a collector of rare wine.

4. *Michael Jordan was a master of every kind of shot.

They included three-pointers, slam-dunks, free throws.
5. *A walk around the block with little Chloe is a joy.
The joy is a voyage of discovery led by a tireless explorer.

6. *The Maya left pyramids and monuments that are among the wonders of the world.
The Maya were an Amerindian people who flourished between 300 and 800 C.E.

7. *The major sites are in northern Guatemala and southern Mexico.

The major sites are Uxmal, Uxactum, Copán, Piedras, and Tixal.

8. *One archaeologist believes the Maya may have brought ecological disaster
upon themselves.
The archeologist is Dr. Richard D. Hansen.
Dr. Richard D. Hansen is a professor at UCLA.

9. *Lime stucco is made by melting limestone.

Lime stucco is the material used in much Maya architecture.

10. *The melting of limestone led to the leveling of forests for firewood.
The melting of limestone is a process that requires intense heat.
Exercise 4: Write sentences including appositives or appositive phrases:
1) Two sentences with an appositive beginning the sentences.
2) Two sentences with an appositive interrupting the sentences.
3) Two sentences with an appositive ending the sentences.
REMEMBER:
* Highlight the word (noun) that is renamed by the appositive or appositive phrase.
* Underline the entire appositive phrase or appositive.
* Be sure to include necessary and proper punctuation

Exercise 5: Choose one of the following topics and write a paragraph:

- Holiday
- Art and entertainment
- Sport and health
*** Your paragraph should be included at least: a simple sentence, a complex
sentence, a compound sentence and appositives