Have You Misplaced Your Modifier?

What’s wrong here? “Born at the age of 42, the baby was a great joy to his mother.”

It’s simple. Unless this is a medical miracle, the mother, not the baby, was 42. In this sentence, the phrase “born at the age of 42” is a misplaced modifier, a term that describes single words, phrases or clauses that do not point clearly to the word or words they are supposed to modify.

Misplaced modifiers often lead to illogical, confusing and sometimes humorous sentences.

How can you avoid this mistake?

Keep related words together so that readers can see quickly what is being modified. “Modifiers are like teenagers: they fall in love with whatever they’re next to. Make sure they’re next to something that they ought to modify!”
(http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/modifiers.htm)

So “the baby, born when his mother was 42, was a great joy to her.”

Misplaced modifiers can show up in an astonishing number of ways. and correcting them can sometimes require rewriting part of the sentence. Consider these examples:

Misplaced modifier: “He hit the ball hard after a visit to Starbucks.”

Corrected sentence: “After a visit to Starbucks, he hit the ball hard.” (The ball didn’t have a latte; he did.)

Misplaced modifier: “Jogging through the neighborhood, his ankle became sprained.”

Corrected sentence: “Jogging through the neighborhood, he sprained his ankle.” (The ankle, by itself, did not jog. The person did.)

Misplaced modifier: “A writer who is more popular now than during her lifetime, hundreds of readers enjoy books by Louisa May Alcott every year.”

Corrected sentence: “Every year hundreds of readers enjoy books by Louisa May Alcott, a writer who is more popular now than during her lifetime.” (The readers are not more popular today; Louisa May Alcott is.)

You get the idea. If you’d like more examples, simply do an online search on “misplaced modifiers.” Many web sites provide good information about this writing challenge.

©2005, Communications Plus