Misplaced and dangling modifier rules and parallel structure requirements tested on SAT Writing and Language. Front: the rule or example sentence. Back: the rule explanation or corrected version.
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- What is a modifier?
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A word or phrase that describes or provides more information about another word in the sentence.- What is a dangling modifier?
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A modifier that appears to modify the wrong word or no word at all because the word it should modify is missing or unclear.- Correct this dangling modifier: 'Arriving at the concert late, the best seats were already taken.'
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Arriving at the concert late, we found that the best seats were already taken. The introductory phrase needs a clear subject to modify.- Correct this dangling modifier: 'Running down the street, the ball rolled into the gutter.'
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Running down the street, Tom watched the ball roll into the gutter. The modifier should describe the person doing the action, not the object.- What is a misplaced modifier?
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A modifier placed incorrectly in a sentence so it appears to modify the wrong word, creating confusion or illogical meaning.- Correct this misplaced modifier: 'The teacher handed out the quiz to the students with a smile.'
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With a smile, the teacher handed out the quiz to the students. The modifier should be near the word it modifies.- Correct this misplaced modifier: 'I saw the dog running through the park with my binoculars.'
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With my binoculars, I saw the dog running through the park. The phrase should modify the person seeing, not the dog.- What is parallel structure (parallelism)?
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The use of matching grammatical forms for related ideas so that similar items are expressed in a similar way.- Correct the parallelism error: 'She likes reading, writing, and to speak.'
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She likes reading, writing, and speaking. All items should be gerunds (the -ing forms).- Correct the parallelism error: 'The team is strong, organized, and they have speed.'
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The team is strong, organized, and fast. All items after the verb should be adjectives.- Correct the parallelism error: 'He prefers tea to drink rather than drinking coffee.'
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He prefers drinking tea to drinking coffee. Both sides of 'to' should use parallel gerunds.- What is a correlative conjunction?
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A pair of conjunctions used together to join equal grammatical units, such as either...or, neither...nor, both...and, and not only...but also.- Correct the parallelism error: 'She both enjoys hiking and to swim.'
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She both enjoys hiking and swimming. Items after 'both' should be parallel gerunds.- Correct the parallelism error: 'The painting was not only beautiful but also it was expensive.'
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The painting was not only beautiful but also expensive. Use the same structure after both parts of the correlative conjunction.- Correct the parallelism error: 'Either the team will win the championship or losing in the finals.'
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Either the team will win the championship or lose in the finals. Both verbs after the correlative conjunction must be parallel.
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