Making an Appositive Experience! Fifth Grade

What do you notice? Catherine the Great, my Russian grandma, is already awake. -- Cari Best, Three Cheers for Catherine the Great! (2003)

Why use appositives? Sometimes when we write, we want to add new information without creating a new sentence. For example…

Clementine is funny. She is in third grade. She lives in New York. Clementine, a funny third grader, lives in New York.

Let’s ask ourselves, what is being renamed?? Avon, a rather small snail, read a book every day.

So what is an appositive?? noun or pronoun -- often with modifiers -- set beside another noun or pronoun to explain or identify it Keith, the boy in rumpled shorts and shirt, did not know he was being watched as he entered room 215 of the Mountain View Inn.

Placement of appositives An appositive phrase usually follows the word it explains or identifies, but it may also precede it.

So let’s practice using appositives Earth is sometimes called the third rock from the sun. Earth is the only planet in our galaxy known to support life. Earth, the only planet in our galaxy known to support life, is sometimes called the third rock from the sun.

When do we use punctuation? Remember non-essential clauses/phrases? –Commas

When there is an essential information contained in the appositive, then you don’t need commas.