Dangling participles, sometimes called dangling modifiers, are descriptive words, phrases or clauses suffering from separation anxiety. You’ll find them at the beginning of sentences, perfectly happy to modify, or describe, the closest imposter that gets planted next to them, and cast a shadow of doubt on your writing.
To illustrate…
Incorrect: Having been thrown in the air, the dog caught the ball.
Correct: The dog caught the ball that was thrown in the air.
The ball was thrown in the air, not the dog, but the dangling participle makes this unclear.
Incorrect: After rotting in the cellar for weeks, my brother brought up some oranges.
Correct: My brother brought up the oranges from the cellar, which had been rotting there for weeks.
It’s not the brother who has been rotting in the basement for weeks; it’s the oranges.
Double check your writing to see if you’re dangling your participle. Take the participial phrase and place it after the sentence’s subject (i.e., The dog, having been thrown in the air, caught the ball). If it doesn’t make sense, you’ve dangled your participle. Go back and revise.
