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Warning – Your participle phrases may be dangling!
What a fancy word! Where I went to high school, I doubt if even the instructors knew what "participle" meant. And now, after reading Grammar Girl, I still can’t give you a clear definition. But I do know this: If your participle phrases are dangling, you’re confusing – or misleading - your readers. Your writing is not clear and easily understood. So what the heck am I talking about? I generally call "dangling participle phrases" by a simpler term: "misplaced modifiers." They look something like this: “Crouching in fear, the wolf threatened the terrified campers.” And then there's “Meandering down the trail, the birds chirped loudly.” In business, they look like: “As a neighborhood expert, you can count on me to keep you up to date with changes in the marketplace.” Or perhaps “As a first time buyer, I’ll be at your side throughout the entire transaction.” Do you see what happened in those sentences? I just wrote that the wolf was crouching in fear; the birds were meandering down the trail; the prospect is a neighborhood expert; and the agent is a first time buyer. How did it happen? As Grammar Girl explains it, a participle phrase is a phrase that modifies the subject of a sentence. When ... more
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