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About Writing: A Guide: Does Your Sentence Have a Dangling Modifier?

About Writing: A Guide
Does Your Sentence Have a Dangling Modifier?
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Notes

table of contents
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Table Of Contents
  5. Composing
    1. Types of Writing Styles
    2. Understanding the Assignment
    3. Assessing the Writing Situation
    4. Test Your Thesis
    5. Constructing an Outline
    6. Checklist: Planning a Document
    7. Transitions
    8. Visuals Help You Communicate
  6. Academic writing
    1. Active Reading
    2. Analyzing a Text
    3. Rhetorical Concepts
    4. Academic Writing: Point of View
    5. Academic Writing: Verb Tense
    6. How to: Write a Summary
    7. Countering Opposing Arguments
    8. Putting Inductive Reasoning to the Test
    9. Most Common Evidence Used by Authors
  7. Researching
    1. Keyword Searching: Do it Better!
    2. Is this source scholarly?
    3. Evaluating Sources
    4. Evaluating Web Sources
    5. What Do You Need for a Citation?
    6. Avoiding Plagiarism
  8. MLA/APA/CMS
    1. What is MLA, APA, and CMS?
    2. MLA Signal Phrases
    3. MLA Citation Examples
    4. APA Signal Phrases
    5. APA Citation Examples
    6. CMS Signal Phrases
  9. Basic Grammar
    1. Introducing... Subordinate Clauses!
  10. Grammatical Sentences
    1. Subject-Verb Agreement
    2. Should You Use –s (or –es) for a Present-Tense Verb?
    3. Is Your Sentence a Fragment?
    4. Is Your Sentence a Run-On?
    5. Does Your Sentence Have a Dangling Modifier?
  11. Multilingual Writers and ESL Challenges
    1. Verb Forms: The Basics
    2. Verb Tenses: Active Voice
    3. Verb Tenses: Passive Voice
    4. The Meaning of Modals
    5. Nouns
    6. Articles for Common Nouns
    7. Non-count Nouns
    8. Geography and ‘The’
    9. How to Order Cumulative Adjectives
    10. Three Magic Words: At, On, and In
    11. Combo Time! – Adjectives & Prepositions
    12. Combo Time! – Verbs & Prepositions
  12. Revising
    1. A strategy for analyzing and revising a first draft
    2. Checklist: Revision
    3. How to: Be a Constructive Peer Reviewer

Does Your Sentence Have a Dangling Modifier?

Does your opener suggest an action without naming the actor? If no, you're good. If yes, Does the subject of your sentence identify the actor? If yes, you're good. If no, Revise it quick! Your sentence has a dangling modifier.

Examples

Sentence with dangling modifierCorrect sentence
Having finished setting up the tables, the party started.Having finished setting up the tables, the seniors could finally start the party.
Without knowing the street address, it was impossible to find the party.Because the band didn’t know the street address, the party was impossible to find.
To improve his results, the placement test was taken again. Jake improved his results by taking the placement test again.

Annotate

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Multilingual Writers and ESL Challenges
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College Writing: Guides, Handbooks, and Advice
Copyright © 2015 by Robin Jeffrey. About Writing: A Guide by Robin Jeffrey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
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