Proofreading Tips: What to Do with Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers

Dangling and misplaced modifiers are common grammar mistakes. In this post, we’ll talk you through how to spot and correct these errors as a proofreader.

What Is a Modifier?

In grammatical terms, a modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that “modifies” (i.e., describes, clarifies, or alters) another word or phrase within a sentence.

A modifier might be an adjective or adverb modifying a noun or verb:

The tropical fish swam quickly.

The masked man danced beautifully.

Or it might be a longer, more complex descriptive phrase or clause:

The vibrant tropical fish with long fins swam in delighted circles. 

Wearing a mysterious mask, the man danced.

Ideally, it should be clear which noun or verb a modifier is modifying. However, this isn’t always the case. And, as a proofreader, you need to look out for dangling and misplaced modifiers.

Dangling Modifiers

Sometimes the word or phrase a modifying clause or phrase describes is missing or not clearly identified. This is known as a dangling modifier. In the following example the subject has been omitted, which makes the sentence confusing:

Struggling to open the door, the room felt like it was getting smaller.

The issue here is that, since the struggler has been omitted, it could look like Struggling to open the door is modifying the room, which doesn’t make sense. To fix this sentence, we would need to rephrase and add the missing term to clarify what is being modified:

Struggling to open the door, Terry felt like the room was getting smaller.

You can also rephrase or rearrange the sentence so that the meaning is clearer:

Terry felt like the room was getting smaller as he struggled to open the door.

In some cases, you can make an informed guess about the missing term based on context. In the sentence above, for instance, perhaps Terry is mentioned in the preceding passage.

However, if you aren’t sure about the correction, or if your brief doesn’t permit the level of rephrasing required to make a correction, leave a comment instead. For example:

It isn’t clear here who is struggling to open the door (or for whom the room feels like it is getting smaller). You mention “Terry” before this, though, so should it say “Struggling to open the door, Terry felt like the room was getting smaller”?

Misplaced Modifiers

Misplaced modifiers occur when a modifier is too far away from the term it modifiers. The usual result is that the modifier seems to be referring to the wrong word:

Robert passed a biscuit to the dog while he was driving.

The modifying phrase while he was driving should apply to Robert, but its placement here makes it seem as if the dog is at the wheel! The easiest way to fix a misplaced modifier is by restructuring the sentence so that the modifer is closer to the term being modified. With the example above, we could move the modifying phrase to the start of the sentence:

While he was driving, Robert passed a biscuit to the dog.

Or we could place it parenthetically after Robert’s name:

Robert, while he was driving, passed a biscuit to the dog.

Misplaced modifiers are generally simpler to fix than dangling modifiers, as there is no missing information. However, if you are unsure what part of the sentence the modifier applies to, you should leave a comment asking your client to clarify their meaning.

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