A modifier is any word—usually an adjective or adverb— or group of words that  limits or qualifiers another word or word group. A dangling modifier hovers by itself with no word or word group to hang its proverbial hat on. Outcast and alone, it serves only to confuse. In my experience, the worst offenders are phrases beginning with –ing that are precede the main sentence. For example, Dangling in the sentence, I found the directions hard to understand. How did the authorial “I” manage to dangle in a sentence?  And, if she did so, why is she surprised that said dangling would make the directions difficult to understand—all that swinging to and fro!

Timing is often at issue. While leaving the office, she turned into the café on the corner.  The word while suggests two things happening simultaneously. Last time I tried it, I could not leave a building and enter another at the same time.

We are led into dangling by our search for sentence variety. The subject-verb-object declarative sentence gets old. We want a little spice in our prose, and changing sentence order is an easy way to get it. Or, so it would seem. I suggest that you do a computer search for -ing words. This will lead you to all the present participles (-ing words) used in your piece, and all need your scrutiny. The verb form always has a helping verb: is running, has been selling). These forms slow the pace of a piece. Substituting the simple present (runs) or past (sold) enlivens the action and speeds the pace. When you come upon a present participle used in a modifying phrase at the beginning of the sentence, see if you can turn the sentence around: I found the directions hard to understand dangling in the sentence or I turned into the café while leaving the office.  When we put the sentence in logical order, the confusion becomes glaringly clear.

Present participles, of course, are not the only culprits. To find others, look for beginning phrases set off by commas. You might find sentences like these:

·        Crowded in the van, the trip was claustrophobic. The trip becomes a sentient being with a psychological disorder.

·        To get a handicap parking permit, a doctor must provide proof of disability. Perhaps the doctor is disabled—but the use of “a doctor” instead of “the doctor” suggests this is not the case.

·        After unlocking the door, the cat refused to go out. Where lives this cat with an opposable thumb or two or four? I once had a cat that could open closed doors if the knobs were old and fairly dysfunctional, but unlocking remained beyond her.

·        And here’s one for the road. Sagging and needing a foundation, Jennifer called the home maintenance man. I’ll let you do your own interpretation on that one.

Peggy Tabor Millin  Copyright 2008