100 ways to improve your writing - Gary Provost 2019
Fix dangling modifiers
Ten ways to avoid grammatical errors
A dangling modifier is a word or group of words that appears to modify an inappropriate word in the same sentence. The error occurs most often when passive rather than active verbs are used.
Dangling |
Revised |
In drawing the picture, his wife was used as the model. |
In drawing the picture, he used his wife as the model. (His wife did not draw the picture.) |
To find out who killed him, all the criminals had to be questioned. |
To find out who killed him, I had to question all the criminals. (The criminals did not find out.) |
Knowing this, and wanting a nice home, a new kitchen had to be installed. |
Knowing this, and wanting a nice home, the Smith family had to install a new kitchen. (The kitchen did not know, or want.) |