Rules for writers, Tenth edition - Diana Hacker, Nancy Sommers 2021

Repair dangling modifiers
Repair misplaced and dangling modifiers
Clarity

A dangling modifier fails to refer logically to any word in the sentence. Dangling modifiers are easy to repair, but they can be hard to recognize, especially in your own writing.

Recognizing dangling modifiers

Dangling modifiers are usually word groups (such as verbal phrases) that suggest but do not name an actor. When a sentence opens with such a modifier, readers expect the subject of the next clause to name the actor. If it doesn’t, the modifier dangles. Although most readers will understand the writer’s intended meaning in such sentences, the unintended humor can be distracting.

The following sentences illustrate four common kinds of dangling modifiers.

These dangling modifiers falsely suggest that the recruiter decided to join the navy, that the skeleton entered the doctor’s office, that the piano intended to satisfy the mother, and that the doctor was not eligible for the clinical trial.

Check your writing for dangling modifiers using the chart below.

CHECKING FOR DANGLING MODIFIERS

Repairing dangling modifiers

To repair a dangling modifier, you can revise the sentence in one of two ways: by naming the actor in the subject of the sentence, or by naming the actor in the modifier. Depending on your sentence, one of these revision strategies may be more appropriate than the other.

NOTE: You cannot repair a dangling modifier just by moving it. Consider, for example, the sentence about the skeleton. If you put the modifier at the end of the sentence (A skeleton caught my attention upon entering the doctor’s office), you are still suggesting that the skeleton entered the office. The only way to avoid the problem is to put the word I in the sentence, as shown in the revision.

EXERCISE 12-2

Edit the following sentences to correct dangling modifiers. Most sentences can be revised in more than one way. Possible revisions appear in the back of the book.

a. To complete an online purchase with a credit card, the expiration date and the security code must be entered.

b. Though only sixteen, UCLA accepted Martha’s application.

c. Settled in the cockpit, the pounding of the engine was muffled only slightly by my helmet.

d. After studying polymer chemistry, computer games seemed less complex to Letitia.

e. When a young man, my mother enrolled me in ballet and tap dance classes.