Writing Exercise Seven

(Appositives & Noun Clusters)

An appositive is a noun (N) or noun phrase (NP) that explains another N or NP.

EX: The teacher (N), a man everyone feared (NP), looked ridiculous when he smiled.

EX: Everyone here (NP) — students (N), teachers (N), staff (N) — belongs to the college community.

Noun clusters are strings of nouns that develop a scene simply through naming; sometimes these clusters act like appositives, just like in the second example above.

EX: Students, professors, secretaries, deans, janitors, security officers, all are members of the ACC family.

The word "appositive" means "positioned next to." You can put the appositive before or after the noun; just keep it next to it.

EX: Ms. Smith, my favorite teacher, is also a scholar, a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books.

Note: "my favorite teacher" is an appositive to "Ms. Smith," and "a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books" is an appositive to "scholar." SOMETIMES you have no choice but to separate the noun from the appositive; in such a case, use repetition.

EX: Mapplethorpe is an artist of some renown — an artist that everyone except the prudish will call a master.

WRITE your story now using as many appositives as it makes sense to use, developing the explanation of key nouns in as much detail as possible. Again: your story must have at least five paragraphs. It must have a real introduction and a real conclusion.

Meta-narrative: Write your paragraphs explaining why you made one of your changes, and use an appositive in your explanation.

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