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Grammatically Correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation ...

Grammatically Correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation ...

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GRAMMAR<br />

Dangling modifiers occur when a sentence consists of a phrase<br />

that says something about a following clause-but the subject of<br />

that clause is not what it is supposed <strong>to</strong> be. (See "Basic Sentence<br />

Structure" on page 55 for definitions of these terms.) For example:<br />

Just two years after finishing graduate school, Gladys's career <strong>to</strong>ok off.<br />

Presumably it was Gladys who finished grad school, but she makes<br />

no direct appearance in the sentence. <strong>Grammatically</strong>, what is being<br />

said here is that Gladys's career finished grad school and then <strong>to</strong>ok<br />

off (what did it do-leave her for another woman?). <strong>The</strong> problem<br />

can be remedied by rephrasing either the phrase or the clause.<br />

Just two years after Gladys finished graduate school, her career <strong>to</strong>ok off.<br />

Just two years after finishing graduate school, Gladys saw her career<br />

take off.<br />

MISPLACED MODIFIERS<br />

Like a dangling modifier, a misplaced modifier acts on something<br />

other than what the writer intended. In this case the problem is not<br />

that the wrong entity is functioning as the subject of the sentence,<br />

but that the modifier is in the wrong position relative <strong>to</strong> what it<br />

should be affecting. (Whenever possible, the two elements should<br />

lie right next <strong>to</strong> each other.) For example:<br />

We put out an appeal for more volunteers <strong>to</strong> help with the fall program<br />

at last week's meeting.<br />

Presumably what <strong>to</strong>ok place at last week's meeting was an appeal<br />

for help with the fall program, but the positioning of the modifier<br />

makes it sound as if the fall program itself was held at the meeting.<br />

<strong>The</strong> problem can be remedied by moving the modifying phrase.<br />

At last week's meeting, we put out an appeal for more volunteers <strong>to</strong><br />

help with the fall program.<br />

SQUINTING MODIFIERS<br />

In some cases the placement of a modifier is not so much wrong as<br />

ambiguous, in that it could apply <strong>to</strong> either the element that precedes<br />

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