Clarifying Modifiers: Dangling and Misplaced

1. The Rule of Proximity: What Are Modifiers?

A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that describes or provides more information about another part of the sentence. Your background in linguistics gives you a head start here, as you're already familiar with adjectives, adverbs, and descriptive phrases.

The single most important rule for using modifiers is the rule of proximity:

A modifier should be placed as close as possible to the word or phrase it is modifying.

When this rule is broken, the meaning of a sentence can change dramatically, or become nonsensical. The word "only" is a classic example of a modifier that frequently gets misplaced.

Let's watch a short video that introduces modifiers and demonstrates how easily they can be misplaced.

As the video shows, the difference between "I call only my mother" and "I only call my mother" is significant. One describes who you call, while the other describes when you call. This is the kind of precision that separates good writing from great writing.

2. Misplaced Modifiers: Unintended Meanings

A misplaced modifier is a modifier that is grammatically connected to the sentence, but is in the wrong place. This separation from its intended target creates an awkward or illogical meaning. Sometimes, the results are just confusing; other times, they can be quite funny.

A classic example from journalism is: "The suspect was described as a tall man with a black mustache weighing 200 pounds."
This sentence unintentionally suggests the mustache weighs 200 pounds. The fix is to move the modifier "weighing 200 pounds" closer to its real subject, "man": "The suspect was described as a tall man, weighing 200 pounds, with a black mustache."

The video we just watched has some wonderful, memorable examples of this.

The joke "I shot an elephant in my pajamas" works because of the ambiguity created by the misplaced modifier "in my pajamas." The listener's first assumption is that the speaker was in his pajamas, but the punchline reveals the other, more absurd possibility. In journalism, you can't afford that kind of ambiguity.

Squinting Modifiers

A specific type of misplaced modifier is the squinting modifier. It's placed between two parts of a sentence, making it unclear which part it's supposed to be modifying.

As the article shows, in the sentence "Adults who napped rarely were tired," it's unclear if you mean "adults who rarely napped" or "adults who were rarely tired." The fix is to rephrase the sentence to state your meaning unambiguously:

• If they rarely napped: "Adults who napped only rarely were tired."
• If they were rarely tired: "Adults who napped were rarely tired."

3. Dangling Modifiers: The Missing Subject

While a misplaced modifier is in the wrong place, a dangling modifier has nothing to modify at all. The word or phrase it's supposed to describe has been left out of the sentence entirely.

These often appear as introductory phrases, like in this sentence:

Having finished the article, the television was turned on.

Who finished the article? The sentence doesn't say. The modifier "Having finished the article" is left "dangling" because its subject is missing.

To fix a dangling modifier, you must rewrite the sentence to include the missing subject.

• Correct: Having finished the article, I turned on the television.
• Correct: After I finished the article, the television was turned on.

This next video gives a clear explanation of dangling modifiers and how they differ from misplaced ones.

The infographic below provides a helpful summary of how to identify and correct dangling modifiers.

4. Practice: Spotting and Fixing Modifier Errors

Now it's time to apply these concepts. The best way to get a feel for these errors is to practice correcting them.

Let's use some exercises from the online textbook Writing for Success.

Part A: Misplaced Modifiers

Rewrite the following sentences to fix the misplaced modifiers.

1. The young lady was walking the dog on the telephone.
2. The teacher served cookies to the children wrapped in aluminum foil.
3. We returned the wine to the waiter that was sour.
4. Charlie spotted a stray puppy driving home from work.

Part B: Dangling Modifiers

Rewrite the following sentences to fix the dangling modifiers. Remember, you'll likely need to add a subject.

1. Bent over backward, the posture was very challenging.
2. Walking in the dark, the picture fell off the wall.
3. Packing for a trip, a cockroach scurried down the hallway.
4. Piled up next to the bookshelf, I chose a romance novel.

5. Final Challenge

Now, let's tackle a full paragraph. The following text is filled with misplaced and dangling modifiers. Rewrite it to make it clear and logical.

Once you have your own version, you can compare it to this corrected version:

Conclusion

Clear writing is precise writing. Today you've learned to identify and correct two common errors that create ambiguity and confusion: misplaced and dangling modifiers. By ensuring your descriptive phrases point clearly to their subjects, you make your writing more professional and your message more effective.

Key Takeaways:

• The Rule of Proximity: Always place modifiers as close as possible to the words they are meant to describe.
• Misplaced Modifiers: These are phrases in the wrong spot, often creating illogical or humorous meanings. Fix them by moving the modifier next to its intended subject.
• Dangling Modifiers: These are phrases whose subject is missing from the sentence entirely. Fix them by rewriting the sentence to add the missing subject.
• Read Your Work Aloud: This is one of the best ways to catch awkward phrasing. If a sentence sounds strange when you hear it, there's a good chance it has a modifier error.

In our next lesson, we will address another source of confusion: ambiguous pronoun references. You'll learn how to ensure that words like "it," "he," "she," and "they" clearly refer to a single, identifiable noun, preventing your reader from having to guess who or what you're talking about.