There is something wrong with the sentence below. Can you figure out what it is?
One of the quickest ways to heat food, you can find a microwave oven in most homes.
What is referred to as "one of the quickest ways to heat food"? Why, the microwave, of course!
Then why is you the word beside "one of the quickest ways to heat food"? It makes the sentence sound as if you were one of the quickest ways to heat food. But that's just silly, isn't it?
Such is an example of a very common writing error: the dangling modifier.
A dangling modifier occurs when the noun being modified by the introductory phrase is not the subject or if it is not present in the sentence at all, like in this case:
Reading a tragic tale, the listeners were moved to tears.
Who was reading a tragic tale? We don't know. The sentence does not say. The way it is written, it almost sounds as if the listeners were reading a tragic tale—but something tells us that's not right.
There are three easy ways to to correct a dangling modifier:
- Move (or add) the modified word is right beside the phrase that modifies it (in effect, making it the subject of the sentence).
- One of the quickest ways to heat food, the microwave oven can be found in most homes.
- Reading a tragic tale, she moved her listeners to tears.
- Turn the dangling modifier into a dependent clause by inserting the noun into it and adding a conjunction.
- As the microwave oven is one of the quickest ways to heat food, you can find it in most homes.
- As she read the tragic tale, her listeners were moved to tears.
- Completely recast the sentence to remove the dangling modifier.
- You can find a microwave oven in most homes because it is one of the quickest ways to heat food.
- Her listeners were moved to tears when she read the tragic tale.
Other examples:
WRONG: Broken beyond repair, she threw the vacuum cleaner into the trash.
RIGHT: Broken beyond repair, the vacuum cleaner was thrown into the trash.
RIGHT: Because the vacuum cleaner was broken beyond repair, she threw it into the trash.
RIGHT: She threw the vacuum cleaner into the trash because it was broken beyond repair.
WRONG: Rushing to catch the train, time seemed to fly faster than usual.
RIGHT: As we rushed to catch the train, time seemed to fly faster than usual.
RIGHT: Rushing to catch the train, we felt as if time flew faster than usual.
RIGHT: Time seemed to fly faster than usual as we rushed to catch the train.