Page Comparison

Occasionally, you may inadvertently use a dangling or misplaced modifier in
speech in speech, and it might create a laugh. Examine the nonstandard sentence below.

Nonstandard

Covered with red and white tissue paper, Nura appreciated the

homemade valentine.

What’s humorous about this sentence is that the descriptive phrase (the modifier)
“covered  “covered with red and white tissue paper” is closer to the noun “Nura” rather than
the than the “homemade valentine,” and thus it appears that Nura was the one decorated
with decorated with colorful paper.

Standard

Nura appreciated the homemade valentine, which was covered with red

and white tissue paper.

To correct the misuse, the modifier was moved to the end of the sentence, and to
be to be especially clear, the words “which was” were added.

Here are some more examples.

Nonstandard

Being only three years old at the time, the car didn’t scare me too much.

What or who was “three years old at the time”? Probably not the car!
Guide to Editing Essentials 51

Standard Sentences

Because I was only three years old at the time, the car didn’t scare me

too much.

Three years old at the time, I wasn’t too scared of the car.

The first way to fix the dangling or misplaced modifier was adding a subject “I” to
the to the modifier in the sentence. The second way was to add a nearby noun for the
modifier the modifier to describe.

Nonstandard

Almost a hundred years after he died, Nicholas Rowe wrote one of the

first biographies of Shakespeare.

It appears that Nicholas Rowe was a ghost when he wrote Shakespeare’s
biographyShakespeare’s biography.

Standard

Almost a hundred years after Shakespeare died, Nicholas Rowe wrote one

of his first biographies.

This last one was changed by replacing the pronoun in the modifier.

Squinting modifiers are ambiguous. Unlike dangling and misplaced modifiers,
they  they are not obviously describing the wrong noun, but instead you as the reader see
multiple see multiple options that they could be describing.

Nonstandard: Ambiguous

The car that was backfiring loudly crashed into a muddy ditch.

In this one, you “squint” to tell if the car’s backfiring was loud or if the crash was
loudwas loud.

Standard: Clear

The car that was loudly backfiring crashed into a muddy ditch.

Standard: Clear

The car that was backfiring crashed loudly into a muddy ditch.