1. Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
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2. What is a misplaced modifier?
Modifiers are words or word groups that describe other words in a sentence. In the following sentence, the words in bold modify woman.
The woman who is sitting by the door is my sister.
A misplaced modifier, because it is not correctly placed, describes the wrong word or words:
INCORRECT: Marcy saw the neighbor’s dog drinking a cocktail.
CORRECT: Drinking a cocktail, Marcy saw the neighbor’s dog.
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3. Four types of modifiers are often misplaced:
Modifiers such as only, almost, hardly, nearly, and just.
Modifiers that start with –ing verbs, like playing, dancing, driving, singing.
Modifiers that are prepositional phrases (phrases that begin with prepositions like in, on, at, around).
Modifying word groups that start with who, whose, that, or which.
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4. What is a dangling modifier?
A dangling modifier “dangles” because the word or words it is supposed to describe are not in the sentence.
INCORRECT: Jogging in the park, a dog bit me.
[The dog wasn’t jogging in the park; the actual jogger is missing from the sentence.]
CORRECT: Jogging in the park, I got bitten by a dog.
or While I was jogging in the park, a dog bit me.
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5. Fix the following sentence:
The convict saw a large green cricket, limping from the prison.
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6. Answer:
Limping from the prison, the convict saw a large green cricket.
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7. Fix the following sentence: (continued 1)
The recipe only calls for one cup of sugar.
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8. Answer: (continued 1) The recipe calls for only one cup of sugar.
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9. Fix the following sentence: (continued 2)
In my kitchen, I saw your ex-husband on the TV watching the news.
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10. Answer: (continued 2)
While watching TV in my kitchen, I saw your ex- husband on the news.
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11. Fix the following sentence: (continued 3)
Swimming at the beach, the water became too rough and cold.
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12. Answer: (continued 3)
While we were swimming at the beach, the water became too rough and cold.
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13. Fix the following sentence: (continued 4)
I think I saw a comet in the sky jogging last night.
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14. Answer: (continued 4)
Jogging last night, I think I saw a comet in the sky.
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15. Editing for Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
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