Don't Let Your Modifiers Dangle ;)

First of all - what is a dangling modifier? There is no better way to explain this particular writing faux pas than to demonstrate it:

• Burnt to a crisp, the chef had overcooked the Thanksgiving turkey.
• Having returned from his business trip, the dog greeted Dad at the door.
• Giving in to temptation, the chocolate was being eaten by Sherry.

Having read those sentences, you may have squinted, giggled, or even cringed. None of those reactions are something that we, as writers, want to elicit from our audience . . . at least, not when it comes to the structure of our content.

Dangling modifiers are fairly easy to spot, but what can be done to fix them? Well, first, we have to understand why they create the confusion that they do. The modifying phrases at the beginning of the sentences (i.e. the words that come directly before the first comma) are being attributed to the first noun in the sentence. So, for instance, when you read the first sentence, "Burnt to a crisp, the chef had overcooked the Thanksgiving turkey," chef is the noun that the modifier is being attributed to. In other words, the sentence reads as though the chef is burnt to a crisp.

To identify and fix the problems in sentences with dangling modifiers, first go through and find the first noun in the sentence. That is the noun that is being modified. Next, you'll want to identify the noun that you want to modify in the sentence. In other words, what is it that you're wanting to attribute the first part of the sentence to? In the burnt turkey example that I talked about above, the TURKEY was the noun that I intended to attribute the phrase about being "burnt to a crisp" to.

Once you've identified these two elements, it's time to rewrite your sentence so that it makes logical sense. You'll want to leave your modifying phrase where it is and place the noun that you intend for it to modify directly after the modifying phrase. The noun that USED to be the first noun will now follow the first noun in the sentence. Here are the corrected sample sentences, to give you an idea of what I mean:

• Burnt to a crisp, the Thanksgiving turkey had been overcooked by the chef.
• Having returned from his business trip, Dad was greeted at the door by the dog.
• Giving in to temptation, Sherry was eating the chocolate.

There is, of course, more than one way to skin a cat. You could also rewrite the sentences the following way:

• The Thanksgiving turkey was overcooked and burnt to a crisp because of the chef.
• Dad was greeted by the dog when he returned home from his business trip.
• Sherry had given into temptation and was eating the chocolate.

The beauty of the English language is that there are countless ways to say the same thing. What is important is that the meaning isn't lost on your audience because of a simple grammatical mistake. However you rewrite your sentences, just be sure that you're attributing modifiers to the nouns that you intend to be attributing them to.

TIP: Reading your work out loud, to yourself, will help you to catch dangling modifiers!