Watch Out for Verbals Posing as Verbs

Verbals are infinitives (to sleep, to dream) and -ing verb forms (sleeping, dreaming) that may look like verbs but are actually functioning as nouns or modifiers.

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If you correct a fragment by attaching it to the previous or next sentence, make sure you haven’t just turned it into a dangling modifier:

image Prancing back and forth onstage, the audience couldn’t take their eyes off Gordie.

image The audience couldn’t take their eyes off Gordie prancing back and forth onstage.