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?
- A word or phrase that describes or provides more information about another word in the sentence.
- What is a dangling modifier?
- 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.'
- 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.'
- 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?
- 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.'
- 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.'
- 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)?
- 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.'
- 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.'
- 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.'
- He prefers drinking tea to drinking coffee. Both sides of 'to' should use parallel gerunds.
- What is a correlative conjunction?
- 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.'
- 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.'
- 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.'
- Either the team will win the championship or lose in the finals. Both verbs after the correlative conjunction must be parallel.