1. Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers
A. Jameison ~ Spring 2008

2. modifier smodifier
A modifier is a word or word group that functions as an adjective or an adverb.
A modifier should be placed as close as possible to the word or words it modifies – ideally, directly before or directly after.

3. Present participle modifier (PPM)
Present participle form of the verb (the –ing form) along with the words it introduces.
Modifiers provide information about a noun or pronoun that appears right before or right after it in the sentence.

4. example
Archimedes could not wait to tell people what he had discovered.
Running through the streets, Archimedes could not wait to tell people what he had discovered.

5. another example Steve Jobs invented the personal computer.
Steve Jobs, using his garage as a workshop, invented the personal computer.

6. Past participle modifier
A past participle modifier consists of the past participle form of the verb (usually ending in –d or –ed) along with the words it introduces.
Modifiers provide information about a noun or pronoun that appears right before or right after it in the sentence.

7. Punctuating PPM
Use commas to set off a present participle modifier from the rest of the sentence.
Ex. Remembering his working-class roots, Paul McCartney returned to Liverpool to give a concert.
Paul McCartney, remembering his working-class roots, returned to Liverpool to give a concert.

8. example Ophelia goes mad and drowns herself.
Rejected by Hamlet, Ophelia goes mad and drowns herself.

9. yet another example
Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, is a tragedy.
Hamlet is a tragedy.

10. Punctuating past participle modifiers
Use commas to set off a past participle modifier from the rest of the sentence.
Ex. Terrorized by bandits, the villagers decided to fight back.
The villagers, terrorized by bandits, decided to fight back.

11. Dangling Modifiers
A modifier describes or limits other words in a sentence. A modifier “dangles” because it cannot logically describe any word or word group in the sentence. Often a dangling modifier comes at the beginning of a sentence and appears to modify the noun or pronoun that follows it.

12. What does that mean?
Using my computer, the report was finished in two days.
Computer – report- right? Wrong!
How can the report use a computer?

13. The word to which the modifier should logically refer is not included in the sentence. To correct this sentence, you need to supply the missing word.
What word is missing?
“Using my computer” modifies what?

14. corrected Using my computer, the report was finished in two days.
Using my computer, I finished the report in two days.

15. More examples
Moving the microscope’s mirror, the light can be directed onto the slide.
What’s wrong?
Did the light move the mirror?

16. corrected
Moving the microscope’s mirror, the light can be directed onto the slide.
Moving the microscope’s mirror, you can direct the light onto the slide.

17. Paid in advance, the furniture was delivered.
What’s wrong?
Was the furniture paid in advance?

18. corrected Paid in advance, the furniture was delivered.
Paid in advance, the movers delivered the furniture.

19. smodifier What is a modifier? Where is it placed?
How do you correct it?