Dangling Modifiers
Dangling Modifier is one of the most important grammar concepts in the SAT and the ACT. What is wrong with this sentence? Walking along the river, some fish were seen by him. The phrase “ Walking along the river” is a modifier (i.e., participle phrase). Yet, it is placed right beside the subject " fish ," and it sounds like the fish is walking . However, "fish " cannot walk. This error is called Dangling Modifier. To fix this error, we have to change the subject of the sentence and place the modifier as close as possible to the word it modifies. Walking along the river, he saw some fish. Let's take a look at more examples. Example 1 One of the greatest plays of all time, Shakespeare wrote Othello. Shakespeare cannot be one of the greatest plays of all time. *To correct this, we need to change the subject. One of the greatest plays of all time, Othello was written by Shakespeare. Example 2 Jack found his scienc...