By Leah Wohl-Pollack, Lead Editor This may come as a shock, considering I’ve been known to fall asleep cradling my Chicago Manual of Style, but I don’t believe proper grammar is the be-all and end-all when it comes to good creative writing. Like to split infinitives? No problem. Want to end a sentence in a preposition? Be my guest. But when you’re an indie author writing a novel, there are a few style and grammar rules you should always pay attention to. (See what I did there?) In this post, I’ll give you a rundown of two common grammar mistakes—misplaced modifiers and dangling participles—and some tools you can use to eliminate them from your writing.
1. Misplaced modifiers
Misplaced modifiers are among my favorite grammar mistakes, mostly for their unintended humor. Modifiers come in several forms: words, phrases, and clauses. Because they warrant their own discussion, we’ll cover modifying phrases/clauses in the next section on dangling participles. Right now, let’s look at the issue of misplaced adjectives and adverbs. As you may know, a modifier is a word or phrase that describes a noun within the same sentence. It usually describes the noun it is closest to, which is why misplacing one can cause undesired absurdity or confusion. Here’s an example of a sentence with a misplaced adjective:The flimsy man’s kite ripped when it got caught in a tree.
Spoken aloud, the meaning may or may not be clear, but written down, there’s an obvious problem. The adjective flimsy is meant to describe the noun kite, but in its current placement, it’s modifying the noun man. Placing the modifier correctly would look like this:The man’s flimsy kite ripped when it got caught in a tree.
Easy enough. But what about when a misplaced modifier is an adverb rather than an adjective? For example:
They considered whether to play the game Sarah had brought thoughtfully.
While Sarah may have consciously brought a particular game to the party, to say she had brought it thoughtfully doesn’t make a lot of sense. Instead, the modifying adverb thoughtfully should be moved to sit in front of the verb it is intended to modify.They thoughtfully considered whether to play the game Sarah had brought.
A misplaced adverb can also cause something called a squinting modifier—a modifier that could potentially look toward (hence the word “squinting”) either the noun before or after it. Take a look at the example below, as squinting modifiers can be tricky to spot.Runners who practice often can go longer distances before getting tired.
The squinting modifier in this sentence allows for two potential interpretations:
Runners practice often so they can go longer distances. Runners can often go longer distances as a result of practicing.
How you fix this sentence will depend on your intended meaning. If it’s the first meaning you’re going for, you could try rephrasing the sentence without an adverb to avoid further confusion:
Regular practice helps runners go longer distances before getting tired.
If it’s the second meaning, you could try a more descriptive adverb: