Professional Editor's Corner: Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers

Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers What is a modifier and why should I care if it dangles? Is it like a muffler? Likewise, how can I misplace one? Are modifiers small enough to drop or camouflage? Not quite. A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that provides detail about some other element in a sentence. Readers expect modifiers to sit immediately before OR after whatever they are describing. If they do not, we call them dangling or misplaced because they cause confusion. Let’s start with a good use of a modifier. Example: Running to hail a passing cab, I dropped my briefcase in a puddle. “Running to hail a passing cab” modifies or gives more information about “I.” Perfect.

We have to be careful not to write the same sentence this way: Running to hail a passing cab, my briefcase fell in a puddle. In this case, “running to hail a passing cab” would modify “my briefcase,” suggesting that the briefcase can run, which, of course, it can’t. This is an example of a dangling modifier. Now let’s look at a famous example of a misplaced modifier uttered by Groucho Marx (as Captain Spaulding in the film Animal Crackers, 1930): “One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.” Logically, we must conclude that Captain Spaulding was in his pajamas when he shot the elephant because elephants don’t wear pajamas at all, let alone sneak into people’s houses and steal and then put on those people’s pajamas. However, grammatically speaking, that is exactly what the sentence suggests because the phrase “in my pajamas” is sitting closest to “elephant,” not “I.”

Let’s look at some more examples. Participles are particularly susceptible to being dangled. Remember, participles are –ing or –ed words preceding nouns, often at the beginning of a sentence (see previous blog entry). Example: Married at sixteen, divorce seemed inevitable for my parents. The writer is suggesting that “divorce” was “married at sixteen,” which cannot be true. Revision: Married at sixteen, my parents saw divorce as inevitable. Example: Having laid a golden egg, the farmer proudly displayed his prize goose.

Here, the writer suggests that “the farmer” was the one who “laid a golden egg,” but that cannot be true. He’s not even female, let alone poultry. Revision: The farmer proudly presented his prize goose, which had laid a golden egg. Certain adverbs are more susceptible to being misplaced: almost, even, hardly, just, merely, often, only, and simply. ONLY Example: Lasers only slice through tumors. They don’t harm the surrounding brain tissue. Here the writer wants to make a distinction between what lasers destroy (tumors or healthy brain tissue) during surgery, but he or she is actually implying that ALL lasers can do is slice through tumors, which, of course, we know is untrue. Lasers have countless uses.

Revision: Lasers slice through only tumors. They don’t harm the surrounding brain tissue. We can even add a context, placing “during surgery” at the beginning of the sentence, but where we put “only” is most important. ALMOST Example: Sheila almost ran around the track twelve times. The writer here suggests that Sheila ran part way around the track twelve times … perhaps she made it halfway, stopped for lunch, tried again and made it three-quarters of the way, and so on … attempting to get around the track twelve times without ever actually making one full loop. However, what the writer probably meant was that Sheila made it all the way around the track eleven times and then part way on the twelfth go round.

Revision: Sheila ran around the track almost twelve times. Prepositional phrases are particularly susceptible to being misplaced. Example: The dog was following a girl in the spiked collar. Unless this girl is a punk rocker, she’s unlikely to be the one wearing the collar. What is more likely is that the dog is wearing the collar. Revision: The dog in the spiked collar was following a girl. There you have it. The nuts and bolts of dangling and misplaced modifiers. Write carefully.

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