English – How to Improve Your Technical Documents by Using Appositives

© 2010 Ugur Akinci
An appositive is a group of nouns that explain something about another noun that was not very clear. An appositive clarifies the meaning of a noun.
An appositive is usually written in between two COMMAS, as if taking a breath during a speech.
Examples:

“EYE-8, the most sensitive camera in the whole network, requires 4 AA batteries.”

“Anacostia, a Washington D.C. neighborhood, is undergoing a phase of renovation and reinvestment.”

“The local print queue, a standard component of the Printers and Scanners panel, is for printers attached to the X-M67 network.”

Appositives have a RESTRICTIVE version as well. That’s when you start the noun phrase with WHO, WHICH or THAT and drop the commas:
Examples:

“To set up the sound card which comes with the A4 kit run the /usr/sbin/config command.”

“The customer service agent who is located in Bangalore, India can answer your questions between 9 a.m. and 5 p.n. EST.”

“The A1 unit that blew up must be replaced with a B1 unit.”