Monday, October 8, 2012

RULE 5: APPOSITIVES

Rule 5: Appositives


Set off appositives with commas.  An appositive  renames a noun.  It can switch places with the noun.  Do not put commas around appositives that are only one word long.
Example:     Mr. Nelson, my phy ed teacher, is on a medical leave of absence.
                   My phy ed teacher, Mr. Nelson, is on a medical leave of absence.

                   My brother bought a new car, a Ford Focus.
                   My brother bought a Ford Focus, a new car.

                   My brother Tom bought a new car.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------                    

PART ONE:  Write 7 good sentences that contain appositives. Set the appositives off with commas.

   1.
   2.
   3.
   4.
   5.
   6.
   7.

PART TWO:  Underline or make bold the appositives in these passages. 
       
        We had lots of interesting family members at our recent reunion in Denver, my home town.  I saw Uncle George, a retired army officer.  My cousin Joe, an assistant coach for the Minnesota Gophers, was there, too.  Then, there was my grandmother, a first generation immigrant from Germany.   My brother, Thomas a. Nutt of Kansas City,  was there to do the barbecuing.

        My sister, Corrine Crabapple from Denver, flew all the way up here just to taste that delicious potato salad that my aunt,  a teacher in Apple Valley, makes.  The state park, a beautiful place in the mountains, made a perfect spot for our reunion.  We all had a great time playing putter ball, a new game I learned at camp.  The only bad part of the day happened whn my nephew, a fourteen year old troublemaker, threw a water balloon at Aunt Gertrude, a blind old spinster.