Lesson 17: Modifiers

"One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas.  How he got in my pajamas, I'll never know."
                                                                                          -Groucho Marx

Groucho's statement is an example of a misplaced modifier.  A modifier is a word or phrase that describes or gives more detail about something else. It is usually placed as close as possible to the phrase it is meant to describe. 

Without modifiers, writing would be simplistic and boring, but they can cause lots of trouble when used incorrectly. If you have a sentence that just sounds wrong, a modifier is probably to blame.  The results can be confusing and occasionally hilarious

A misplaced modifier is sitting in the wrong part of the sentence and appears to modify the wrong phrase:

Throw the cow over the fence some hay. (Throw the cow over the fence?)
Sizzling on the grill, Sally loved the smell of hamburgers. (Was Sally sizzling on the grill?)
Hanging from the tree, Joe saw a big red apple. (Was Joe hanging on the tree?)

Place the modifier closer to the phrase it is meant to describe.

Throw some hay over the fence for the cow.
Sally loved the smell of hamburgers sizzling on the grill.
Joe saw a big red apple hanging from the tree.

A dangling modifier modifies a subject that does not appear in the sentence:

Walking to school, the birds were singing. (Were the birds walking to school?)
Strolling on the beach, the sunset was beautiful. (Was the sunset strolling on the beach?)
Doing my homework, the TV distracted me. (Was the TV doing my homework?)

Add the subject to the sentence.

When I walked to school, the birds were singing.
We strolled on the beach and enjoyed the beautiful sunset.
The TV distracted me when I did my homework.

A squinting modifier is placed between two phrases that it could modify:

She said tonight she'd come over.  (Did she say tonight that she would come over, or did she say she would come over tonight?)
People who took the poison quickly died.  (Did everyone who took the poison die quickly or did it kill only those who took it quickly?)
The teacher said Friday we would have a test.  (Did the teacher give you this information on Friday, or did she say that the test would be on Friday?)

Move the modifier, so it can only modify one phrase.

She said she'd come over tonight.
People who took the poison died quickly.
The teacher said that the test would be on Friday.

Modifier errors are easy to miss, because we know what we mean to say.  This one was hiding in one of my own stories: "He sat beside a waterfall munching peanuts."

Assignment
Just for fun, write a story using as many misplaced, dangling, and squinting modifiers as you can.