Have you ever read an article or email and thought… What?! I’m totally lost.Obviously, there could be many reasons for the lack of clarity, but one common mistake that leads to such utter confusion is the “dangling modifier.”
What’s a dangling modifier, you say? Well, first, let’s define a modifier. This is a word, phrase, or clause that describes or clarifies another word or phrase. Now, modifiers are actually very useful literary tools. They allow writers to add detail, vary their sentence structure, and play with language. But, when done incorrectly, they can become the dreaded dangling modifier. This happens when the word or phrase the modifier is describing isn’t clearly stated in the sentence. In other words, when you read the dangling modifier, it’s totally unclear what it’s referring to.
Here’s an example: “As a supervisor, the team’s goals have to be set by me.” Do you see the problem here? Modifiers are usually placed right next to the word or phrase they’re modifying. Since “the team’s goals” came right after the modifier, it seemed the sentence was suggesting the team’s goals are the supervisor. And, of course, that doesn’t make any sense! So, to rectify this error, you would say: “As a supervisor, I am responsible for setting my team’s goals.” Can you tell the difference?
Let’s look at another one: “Having completed the assignment, the next task was started.” What’s the issue this time? As you may have noticed, there’s not actually a “doer” in this sentence. Who completed the assignment? Who was starting the next task? A better way of phrasing the sentence would be, “Having completed the assignment, the contractor started his next task.” That way, the doer of the action is the subject of the main clause, and it’s clear that the modifier is describing the contractor.
How about this one? “Without knowing what the CEO looked like, it was impossible to pick him out from the crowd.” This is a bit trickier, but it’s incorrect because, again, it doesn’t indicate who is performing the action. To fix this, you can change the sentence to, “Since she didn’t know what the CEO looked like, it was impossible for her to pick him out from the crowd.” In this instance, the dangling modifier itself was altered to clarify the doer and become a complete introductory clause.
Okay, let’s look at one more: “To confirm the accuracy of the data, the research was reviewed.” This may not necessarily sound wrong, but the doer of the action is unclear yet again. Who’s confirming the accuracy of the data? To correct this, you can combine the phrase and main clause, like this: “The manager reviewed the research to confirm the accuracy of the data.” Now, you can see that the manager is the one performing the action.
As you can tell, dangling modifiers can be really obvious—or they can sneak right by you if you’re not careful. So, whenever you’re using them, remember to clarify the doer of the action and ensure the reader of your text can logically deduce what the modifier is describing. That should help you keep your writing clear, descriptive, and engaging—and keep your modifiers from dangling!
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