Choosing Nominals Essay

Outline: Kolln Chapter 10 – Choosing NominalsChapter Preview/Goal
Identify and discuss the use of nominal by other writers;
Use nominal to make your writing more succinct;
Place nominal so that readers will focus on important info;
Punctuate nominals appropriately.
Nominal: structure that functions as a noun.
Appositives
a structure, usually a noun phrase, that describes or further identifies a nominal structure, usually a noun phrase.
Subject and appositive are related: if you put a form of the linking verb be between them, you can make a “something is something” sentence.
Different from adjectivalsin addition to adding info about the subject or object, the appositive renames it in a way can be a single name
Ex: our friend Blaine works as an EMT in the mountains.
Sometimes the name is set off by commas:
Ex: The judge’s husband, Morrie, stays at home with the kids.
Commas are added if the appositive is nonrestrictive, meaning if the appositive is info we already know, we surround it by commas.
Not all appositives are NPs.
Colons and Dashes with Appositives
Colons
are used to signal an appositive:
Ex: I’ll never forget the birthday present my dad bought me when I was ten: a new mountain bike.
Strong signal, puts a lot of emphasis on the appositive.
Also signals lists. (could be a list of appositives)
Ex. Three committees were set up to plan the convention: program, finance, and local arrangements.
Sometimes, the separate structures in the list have internal commas of their own. Inserting semicolons makes the separation more clear.
Dashes
Can be thought of as an informal colon.
Also used to signal that an appositive is to follow.
If an appositive series is in the middle of a sentence, use a pair of dashes to set it off:
Ex: Three committees – program, finance, and local arrangements – were set up to plan the convention.
The two different marks of punctuation are necessary to differentiate the two levels of boundaries we are making.
RULE: Use dashes to set off an appositive that includes internal punctuation, such as a list of commas.
Avoiding Punctuation Errors
RULE: The colon that introduces an appositive is preceded by a complete independent clause.
Ex: using a previous example from the “colons” section, we can see this structure:
“Three committees were set up to plan the convention:…”Not all lists require colons. The following example shows misuse of a colon.
Ex.: The committees that were set up to plan the convention are: program, finance, and local arrangements.
The Sentence Appositive
A noun phrase that renames or encapsulates the idea in the sentence as a whole.
Usually punctuated with a dash: Ex: The musical opened to rave reviews and standing-room- only crowds – a smashing success.
Creates a tight sentence with vigor and emphasis.
Offers a conclusion about the sentence as a whole in the form of a NP.
Similar to a summative modifier. (chapter 9)
Nominal Verb Phrases
Gerund: an –ing verb functioning as a nominal
Ex: Carrying all their supplies took both effort and patience.
a. Names actions or behaviors (as a noun would name persons, places, etc.)
Can be replaced by a pronoun (like NPs)
a. Ex: It took both effort and patience.
Can fill all the sentence positions usually occupied by NPs.
Can help you avoid overusing “it”.
They do change the focus of a sentence:
a. It is difficult for most writers to draft a ten-page paper in a single evening.
VS.
Drafting a ten-page paper in a single night is difficult for most writers.
The Dangling Gerund
When the subject of the clause is different than the subject of the opening phrase.
In the following sentence, “Jason” should be the subject, not “the idea”:
a. Having finished his college degree, the idea of traveling abroad appealed to Jason.
A gerund is supposed to modify its own subject.
RULE: When a phrase with a verb form opens the sentence (whether an infinitive, a participle, or a gerund in a

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