APPOSITIVE PHRASES
An appositive phrase is a noun or pronoun with modifiers that is
placed next to a noun or pronoun to add information and details.
EX: The desk, the roll-top oak one, is where I write.
EX: Beverly Cleary, writer of many awards for children’s
fiction, writes insightfully about the lives of young
people.
EX: E. Annie Prouix won a prestigious award, the Pulitzer
Prize for Fiction.
EX: I gave Dean, my younger brother, my old desk.
EX: We stained it walnut, a dark shade of brown.
EX: Her new book is a mystery- a real page turner!
EX: That stack of books- all mysteries- looked interesting.
EX: Elizabeth Bowen, an Irish novelist and short-story
writer, was a perceptive observer of middle-class
life.
NOTE: Often, two sentences can be combined into one by
condensing the information from one sentence into an
appositive.
TWO SENTENCES: The professor is a world-renowned expert
on medieval history. She lectured on the construction of castles
during this period.
ONE SENTENCE WITH AN APPOSITIVE: The professor, a
world-renowned expert on medieval history, lectured on the
construction of castles during this period.
Page 439 exercise 3
Directions: Underline or write the appositive in each sentence.
1. Lillian Hellman, an American dramatist, was born in new
Orleans.
2. In New York, Hellman attended two schools- New York and
Columbia universities.
3. Her character development, a notable quality of her work, is
world renowned.
4. Her subject matter-a condemnation of personal and social
evils-is timeless.
5. She adapted two of her plays-The Lark and Candide-from
French works.
6. She received the New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award, a
prestigious accolade, twice.
7. Most of her plays-thought-provoking dramas-have been
made into movies.
8. Hellman, a playwright first, also wrote nonfiction.
9. Her autobiography, An Unfinished Woman, won her the
National Book Award.
10.The second part of her autobiography, Pentimento, is a
collection of prose portraits of herself and those whose lives
influenced hers.
Page 440 exercise 4
Directions: Turn each pair of sentences into a single sentence
with an appositive or appositive phrase.
1. Margaret Meade is widely known for her studies of primitive
societies. She was an American anthropologist.
2. Meade was born in Philadelphia and went to Barnard
College. It is a school in New York City.
3. At Barnard, Meade was introduced to a new science devoted
to the study of human culture. The science was
anthropology.
4. She conducted studies in New Guinea, Samoa, and Bali.
This was notable research.
5. The result of her field work was a tremendously successful
book. It was Coming of Age in Samoa.
6. Her other interests were topics of several publications. They
included child care and American character and culture.
7. In her analysis of American society, she focused on a
particular issue. It was the problems of young people.
8. Most anthropologists spend their lives studying one primitive
society, but Margaret Meade studied half a dozen. She was
a brilliant anthropologist.
9. I addition to her books, Meade is known for her
contributions to various government committees. Her books
include New Lives for Old, Male and Female, and others.
10.
Her clear style of writing and public speaking brought
advanced ideas to the general public. The ideas were
insights into our culture.