Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers

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Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers

• A. Jameison Spring 2008

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modifier smodifier

• A modifier is a word or word group that functions
  as an adjective or an adverb.
• A modifier should be placed as close as possible
  to the word or words it modifies ideally,
  directly before or directly after.

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Present participle modifier (PPM)

• Present participle form of the verb (the ing
  form) along with the words it introduces.
• Modifiers provide information about a noun or
  pronoun that appears right before or right after
  it in the sentence.

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example

• Archimedes could not wait to tell people what he
  had discovered.
• Running through the streets, Archimedes could not
  wait to tell people what he had discovered.

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another example

• Steve Jobs invented the personal computer.
• Steve Jobs, using his garage as a workshop,
  invented the personal computer.

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Past participle modifier

• A past participle modifier consists of the past
  participle form of the verb (usually ending in d
  or ed) along with the words it introduces.
• Modifiers provide information about a noun or
  pronoun that appears right before or right after
  it in the sentence.

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Punctuating PPM

• Use commas to set off a present participle
  modifier from the rest of the sentence.
• Ex. Remembering his working-class roots, Paul
  McCartney returned to Liverpool to give a
  concert.
• Paul McCartney, remembering his working-class
  roots, returned to Liverpool to give a concert.

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example

• Ophelia goes mad and drowns herself.
• Rejected by Hamlet, Ophelia goes mad and drowns
  herself.

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yet another example

• Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, is a
  tragedy.
• Hamlet is a tragedy.

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Punctuating past participle modifiers

• Use commas to set off a past participle modifier
  from the rest of the sentence.
• Ex. Terrorized by bandits, the villagers decided
  to fight back.
• The villagers, terrorized by bandits, decided to
  fight back.

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Dangling Modifiers

• A modifier describes or limits other words in a
  sentence. A modifier dangles because it cannot
  logically describe any word or word group in the
  sentence. Often a dangling modifier comes at the
  beginning of a sentence and appears to modify the
  noun or pronoun that follows it.

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What does that mean?

• Using my computer, the report was finished in two
  days.
• Computer report- right? Wrong!
• How can the report use a computer?

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• The word to which the modifier should logically
  refer is not included in the sentence. To
  correct this sentence, you need to supply the
  missing word.
• What word is missing?
• Using my computer modifies what?

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corrected

• Using my computer, the report was finished in two
  days.
• Using my computer, I finished the report in two
  days.

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More examples

• Moving the microscopes mirror, the light can be
  directed onto the slide.
• Whats wrong?
• Did the light move the mirror?

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corrected

• Moving the microscopes mirror, the light can be
  directed onto the slide.
• Moving the microscopes mirror, you can direct
  the light onto the slide.

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• Paid in advance, the furniture was delivered.
• Whats wrong?
• Was the furniture paid in advance?

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corrected

• Paid in advance, the furniture was delivered.
• Paid in advance, the movers delivered the
  furniture.

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smodifier

• What is a modifier?
• Where is it placed?
• How do you correct it?