How to Place Modifiers While Avoiding Dangling Modifiers
- 1). Place the modifier next to the word it is modifying. For example, write "He wanted a plate of hot food" instead of "He wanted a hot plate of food." In this case, you want "hot" to modify "food," not "plate."
- 2). Write in active voice. Many dangling modifiers can be avoided by writing in active voice. The sentence "Having finished dinner, the television was turned on," uses a passive voice. You can fix this sentence by saying "Having finished dinner, we turned on the television." The sentence is now in active voice, and the phrase "having finished dinner" modifies "we," and the modifier is placed next to the word it modifies.
- 3). Read your sentences and ask yourself what is being modified. Many dangling modifiers happen when you begin with an introductory phrase. For example, the sentence "Covered in hot, melted cheese, we ate the pizza." The phrasing of this sentence implies that "we" are covered in hot, melted cheese. Revise the sentence by moving the beginning phrase to the end, "We ate the pizza covered in hot, melted cheese," or write a new sentence like "Covered in hot, melted cheese, the pizza tasted delicious."
- 4). Change the modifier if you have a dangling modifier. Instead of "Without knowing the answer, it was difficult to respond," write "Because John did not know the answer, it was difficult to respond." The second sentence begins with a full clause, so it does not modify any other part of the sentence.
- 5). Change the main clause if you want to leave the modifier at the beginning of the sentence. For example, you could rewrite "Without knowing the answer, it was difficult to respond" as "Without knowing the answer, John had difficulty responding." In this second sentence, the introductory phrase modifies "John."
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