Don’t dangle your modifiers in public
Warning: Grammar content ahead!
I used to think the English language was clean and family-oriented. But it turns out she has a dirty side. You probably figured this out from the title. Lurking beneath the clean, polished exterior of English is a sub-culture of dangling modifiers, dipthongs (not really a grammar problem, it just sounds funny), and even those stinky colons!
It’s rare that I forge into the world of grammar on this blog. Why? Because the internet is loaded with information about grammar and book stores/libraries are stacked to the ceiling with books about how to improve your grammar.
From time to time, however, I’ll notice a problem either in my own writing or other people’s writing and decide it’s worth mentioning here on Brad’s Reader. Dangling modifiers is one of those mistakes that is easy to make. The good news is that this pesky problem is also very easy to catch and fix – if you know what to look for.
What is a dangling modifier?
A dangling modifier is simply a word or phrase that is supposed to modify a word/element of the sentence, but because of the modifier’s positioning, it modifies another element or no element (source). Not too complicated, right? Good, now let’s look at an example of a dangling modifier:
After reading the horrible book, a refund was demanded at the bookstore.
Not the best example in the world, but it shows how a dangling modifier can confuse a sentence. The problem is that we don’t know who demanded a refund. Based on the sentence alone, it looks like the book demanded a refund. Here’s a simple fix for this sentence:
After reading the horrible book, the professor demanded a refund at the bookstore.
See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?
Why should I care about dangling modifiers?
If you want your written communication (novel, short story, memo, email, etc) to be clear, then you should care about dangling modifiers. One thing I have noticed is a huge problem with a lot of "casual writing" (mostly emails, etc), is the use of ambiguous language – such as what is shown above. Dangling modifiers raise your risk of having the reader mis-understand your writing. And if you’re writing directions/instructions, this can be a huge problem.
Dangers aside, it’s just good writing to eliminate dangling modifiers from your writing. Why leave a bad taste in the mouth of your readers?
What’s up with the corny post title?
I just though it would be a funny title, that’s all. However, if you’re writing in a journal/diary or anything else that won’t be seen by another pair of eyes, then feel free to dangle your modifiers to your heart’s content! What you do behind closed doors with your writing is your business. But if you’re writing for any type of audience, these offensive displays should be avoided.
There’s a lot more about this topic than what I presented here. Writing posts on grammar isn’t my area of expertise (mainly because I hate writing examples). For more information about this topic and other grammar-related issues, check out these websites:
Dangling modifiers (A page from Purdue’s writing website)
Writing Forward: Grammar (a great writing blog I read regularly!)
Related Posts
Read More: Writing Tips
