Editing for misplaced or dangling modifiers

Editing for misplaced or dangling modifiers

  1. Identify all the modifiers in each sentence, and draw an arrow from each modifier to the word it modifies.
  2. If a modifier is far from the word it modifies, try to move the two closer together.
  3. Does any modifier seem to refer to a word other than the one it is intended to modify? If so, move the modifier so that it refers clearly to only the intended word.
  4. If you cannot find the word to which a modifier refers, revise the sentence: supply such a word, or revise the modifier itself so that it clearly refers to a word already in the sentence.