The appositive

The Appositive. An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that renames another noun right beside it. The appositive can be a short or long combination of words. Look at these examples:
The insect, a cockroach, is crawling across the kitchen table.
The insect, a large cockroach, is crawling across the kitchen table.
The insect, a large cockroach with hairy legs, is crawling across the kitchentable.
The insect, a large, hairy-legged cockroach that has spied my bowl of oatmeal, is crawling across the kitchen table.
Here are more examples:
During the dinner conversation, Clifford, the messiest eater at the table, spewed mashed potatoes like an erupting volcano.
My 286 computer, a modern-day dinosaur, chews floppy disks as noisily as my brother does peanut brittle.
Genette's bedroomdesk, the biggest disaster area in the house, is a collection of overdue library books, dirty plates, computer components, old mail, cat hair, and empty potato chip bags.
Reliable, Diane's eleven-year-old beagle, chews holes in the living room carpeting as if he were still a puppy.
Punctuate the appositive correctly. The important point to remember is that a nonessential appositiveis always separated from the rest of the sentence with comma(s).
When the appositive begins the sentence, it looks like this:
A hot-tempered tennis player, Robbie charged the umpire and tried to crack the poor man's skull with a racket.
When the appositive interrupts the sentence, it looks like this:
Robbie, a hot-tempered tennis player, charged the umpire and tried to crack the poor man's skull with a racket.And when the appositive ends the sentence, it looks like this:
Upset by the bad call, the crowd cheered Robbie, a hot-tempered tennis player who charged the umpire and tried to crack the poor man's skull with a racket.

What's an Appositive?
These little guys are nouns that rename another noun or pronoun.
We use them to add more information into our sentences and give more information aboutsomeone or something that we have already named.______________________________________________________
Quick Refresher: Remember that nouns are words that name people, places, things, or ideas, and pronouns are words that take the place of nouns.
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Examples:
Mr. Kimball, the principal, kicked me out of school!
My mother, a lovely woman,baked cupcakes for my birthday.
Henry, my little puppy, chewed my shoes apart while I was gone.

Renaming?
I said that these are nouns that rename another noun or pronoun.
What do I mean by that?
Well, let's look at that first example again.
Mr. Kimball, the principal, kicked me out of school!
Mr. Kimball is the subject of the sentence. It is also a noun.
The word principal isrenaming Mr. Kimball.
It is a noun that gives us more information about Mr. Kimball, and we could even substitute principal for Mr. Kimball because they are both referring to the same person.
Hence, principal is a noun that renames another noun, Mr.Kimball.

Phrases
The appositive is the single word that is doing the renaming.
In this example
Mr. Kimball, the principal, kicked me out of school!
itwould be principal.
The phrase is that single word plus all of the words that are modifying it.
In that same example
Mr. Kimball, the principal, kicked me out of school!
the phrase is the principal.
Here are the two other examples from above.
My mother, a lovely woman, baked cupcakes for my birthday.
Henry, my little puppy, chewed my shoes apart while I was gone.

Basic Diagramming
Diagramthe sentence as usual and add the appositive in parenthesis after the noun that it renames.
Add any words that modify it on slanted lines just like other modifiers.

For example, here is the sentence diagram for the sentence:

Esther, my little sister, threw her shoes in the pond.

Instructions
Some of the sentences below contain adjective clauses; others contain appositives. Identify...