Download World Lit PSAT Week 3

World Literature
Daily Grammar/PSAT Week #3: Misplaced and Dangling
Modifiers
A modifying phrase is a phrase that explains or describes a word. In standard written English, modifiers usually
appear right next to the word they explain or describe. When modifiers are placed far away from the word they
describe, the sentence becomes confusing because it’s often unclear which word the modifying phrase is referring
to, as in the following sentence: Eating six cheeseburgers, nausea overwhelmed Jane.
This sentence is problematic. We can logically infer that Jane was doing the eating, but because the modifying
phrase (Eating six cheeseburgers) is so far from the word it’s intended to modify (Jane), figuring out the meaning of the
sentence takes a lot of work. It could very well seem as if “nausea” rather than “Jane” is being described. Therefore,
the meaning of the sentence could be that “nausea” ate six cheeseburgers. The sentence as-is does not convey the
meaning the writer intended.
When you see a modifier followed by a comma, make sure that the word being described comes right after the
comma. Correct: After eating six cheeseburgers, Jane was overwhelmed with nausea.
The phrase eating six cheeseburgers describes what Jane is doing, so Jane’s name should come right after the phrase.
Another way to correct the sentence: Nausea overwhelmed Jane after she ate six cheeseburgers.
EXAMPLE: By attaching raw meat to canvases and leaving it out in the elements to rot and discolor, the attempt
that David Lynch has been making is to find aesthetic value in the grotesque.
A. the attempt that David Lynch has been making is to find
B. David Lynch has been attempting to find
C. the purpose of this effort by David Lynch is to find
D. David Lynch has had the purpose in his effort to find
E. the attempt that David Lynch has made is finding
-Who is attaching raw meat to canvases? Is it the attempt by David Lynch? Or is it David Lynch himself? Clearly it
has to be David Lynch that is doing the attaching so, “David Lynch” should come immediately after the clause and
the comma.
-With this in mind, which would you pick out of these answers? Remember to check the grammar by putting the
answer back into the sentence.
-Which did you eliminate because they are not the subjects?
The answer is B, the most concise answer choice.
**Watch out for descriptive phrases that come at the beginning of a sentence and are followed by a
comma. The noun that follows must be the subject that the phrase describes.
Another strategy in dealing with clauses and illogical structures is to ignore the clause. Generally, this means that
you can ignore the clause that lies between two commas.
Take this example:
John R. Peterson, a survivor of the attacks of 9/11, and later to work as a volunteer to help those who had lost
loved ones on that fateful day.
“A survivor of the attacks of 9/11” is a clause that gives you further information about John R. Peterson. It does
not have a verb in it. If you ignore this clause, whatever is said before and after the clause stands alone as a
perfectly grammatical sentence.
In this case, does “John R. Peterson and later to work as a volunteer to help those who had lost loved ones” sound
grammatical to you?
Try putting “John R. Peterson” in front of the following choices:
A. and later to work as a volunteer to help those who had lost loved
B. later worked as a volunteer helping those who had lost loved
C. he later worked as a volunteer helping those who had lost loved
D. he later helped those who had lost loved ones, working as a volunteer
E. later working as a volunteer and helping those who had lost loved
The only grammatical one is B: “John later worked as a volunteer…”
Practice:
1. Example: Running down the street, a brick hit my head.
a. What noun follows the comma?
b. Who/what was running down the street?
c. Rewrite the sentence to correct the error:
2. Rewrite this sentence to correct the misplaced modifier:
Having a bargain price, Marcel snatched up the designer jeans right away.
3. Returning home for a visit, the backyard seemed much smaller to Richard than he remembered.
A. Returning home for a visit, the backyard seemed much smaller to Richard
B. Returning home for a visit, it seemed a much smaller backyard to Richard
C. Returning to it for a visit, the backyard seemed much smaller to Richard
D. Richard returned home for a visit, and the backyard seemed to him much smaller
E. When Richard returned home, the backyard seemed much smaller
Identify parts of speech: noun, pronoun (type and case), verb (type and tense), adverb, adjective, preposition,
conjunction (type), gerund, participle, infinitive, article
deciding to join the navy the recruiter enthusiastically shook Joes hand
Identify sentence parts: subject, verb (transitive or intransitive), direct object, indirect object, predicate
nominative, predicate adjective, appositive or appositive phrase, prepositional phrase (adjective or adverb), gerund
phrase, infinitive phrase, participial phrase, object of preposition, object of infinitive, object of gerund, object of
participle, objective complement, subject of infinitive
deciding to join the navy the recruiter enthusiastically shook Joes hand
Identify clauses and sentence type: independent, adverb, dependent, adjective dependent, noun dependent;
simple, compound, complex, compound complex
deciding to join the navy the recruiter enthusiastically shook Joes hand
Add punctuation and capitalization: end punctuation, commas, semicolons, apostrophes, underlining, quotation
marks
deciding to join the navy the recruiter enthusiastically shook Joes hand
Make a practice sentence that mimics this week’s sentence. Be sure to use the same parts of speech and
parts of the sentence.