Modifiers: Fixing Dangling & Misplaced Ones Mr. Eble CP1 Junior English

A modifier is… …a word, phrase, or clause that describes another word or a group of words. The man sitting at the table next to the café window picked his nose.

What’s wrong with this sentence? The store sold inflatable children’s toys. When you read the sentence initially… How would you fix it, then?

Misplaced Modifiers A modifier that is placed too far away from the word it describes. Modifiers should be placed as close as possible to the word or words they describe in order to avoid confusion and ensure clarity. What’s the modifier here? Is it misplaced? If so, how would you fix it? The man shot the elephant in his pajamas.

Misplaced Modifier (continued) The man shot the elephant in his pajamas.

Steps for Fixing Misplaced Modifiers Find the modifier Identify the word that the modifier was intended to modify Place the modifier as close as possible to the word, phrase, or clause it was supposed to describe.

Dangling Modifiers A modifier that lacks a word or a group of words to modify. Usually, a dangling modifier is found at the start of a sentence and starts with either a participle (verb + ing) or an infinitive (to + a verb) To survive the zombie apocalypse, great strength will be needed.

Steps for Fixing Dangling Modifiers Identify the modifier Decide which word the modifier was intended to modify Revise the sentence; to correct a dangling modifier, you can’t just rearrange the sentence—you have to add the word that the dangling modifier describes. Without knowing the answer, it was difficult to succeed on the test.

Works Consulted Utah Valley University Online Writing Lab: http://www.uvu.edu/owl/infor/pdf/grammar_usage/modifiers.pdf Grammar Girl on Misplaced Modifiers: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/misplaced-modifiers.aspx Eats, Shites, and Leaves by A. Parody