Predictable Problems in Sentence Structue 05: Dangling Modifiers

My method for demonstrating these predictable sentence problems is to use simplified sentences that illustrate the problem and solution clearly and to conclude with some long sentences in which the problem is almost hidden. Additional practice and explanation can be found on the Internet which lists hundreds of thousands of Web sites dealing with the topic.

Question: How can I identify dangling modifiers and what do I do about them?

Answer: Dangling modifier simplified sentence: “Carrying a hot dog and a coke, the Phillies hit into a double play.” Some dangling modifiers are downright funny.

Solution: Who is carrying the hot dog and coke? Not the Phillies. They’re busy hitting into a double play. Make clear who is doing the action in the dangling modifier: “While I was carrying a hot dog and a coke, the Phillies hit into a double play.”

Easy, huh? Solving dangling modifiers becomes difficult in longer sentences. Following is an example of a dangling modifier that I took from a column written by a local columnist, who should have known better:

Dangling modifier: “Seven years ago, stuck in a mid-life crisis, a therapist suggested I try envisioning my life five or ten years down the road.”

Solution: Was the therapist stuck in a mid-life crisis? The way the sentence is structured, the reader would think so. Of course not. The writer was the one stuck in the mid-life crisis. “Seven years ago, when I was stuck in a mid-life crisis, a therapist suggested I try envisioning my life five or ten years down the road.”

Be sure to make clear who is doing the action in the dangling modifier.

Below are two long dangling modifiers from Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition, 1986. As you will note, the dangling modifiers are not so easy to recognize or to correct in longer sentences. Brendan Gill in Here at the New Yorker tells how he and his editor spent the better part of a day arguing about the supposed existence of a dangling modifier in one of his articles as he was preparing to go to print.

Dangling modifier: “Representing the conservative point of view, the liberals rebutted her arguments.” p. 305. Okay, the reader can figure out what is meant. But the reader has to take the time to figure it out and in the time that it takes to do so becomes distracted from following the writer’s ideas.

Solution: Who is representing the conservative point of view? Certainly not the liberals. “Because she represented the conservative point of view, the liberals rebutted her arguments.”

Be sure to make clear who is doing the action in the dangling modifier.

Dangling Modifier: “While playing in the high chair, I was afraid the baby would fall out.” p. 307.

Solution: Who is playing in the high chair? Certainly I am not. The baby is. “When the baby was playing in the high chair, I was afraid she would fall out.”

Need more practice with dangling modifiers? Type “dangling modifier” into the Google search engine and you will find 210,000 Web sites, many of them with more explanation and plenty of exercises.

Note: several people have pointed out to me that doing exercises helps them understand the concept, but they have difficulty finding these problems in their own writing. When I have completed this series on predictable problems in sentence structure, I will suggest a method to help you learn to recognize these problems in your own writing.

All the best. RayS.