Say What You Mean

Author: Kelly Huckaby

A participle is a type of adjective, usually ending in –ing, which appears before the main clause. It modifies the noun closest to it in a sentence. If the intended noun isn't close enough, the participle will attach itself to another noun and then the sentence won't make sense. Your readers will scratch their heads and say, "Huh?"

As writers, we know exactly what we're trying to say. We type furiously to get all our thoughts down before we lose that great idea. We often rely on spell check to tell us when something isn't correct. However, spell check, by default, often does not catch grammatical errors, only spelling mistakes.

Have you ever read e-mail and noticed a word or two omitted from the message? No big deal—we're all busy—you understand they're in a hurry. In our haste to capture our thoughts, we'll do that too—omit key words from our manuscripts—and that causes participles to dangle and modifiers to be misplaced.

In books and articles, it is a big deal. When readers see missing words they think it's poor writing. Look at these examples.

Wrong: "While walking the dog, a rainbow appeared."

Rainbows don't walk dogs. Try one of these instead:

Right: "While I walked the dog, a rainbow appeared."

Right: "While walking the dog, I saw a rainbow."

Can you spot the error in the following sentence?

Wrong: "Dodging traffic, his cell phone slipped from his pocket."
Cell phones cannot dodge traffic. Try this instead:

Right: "Dodging traffic, he didn't notice his cell phone slip from his pocket."

Do you see a pattern? Participles are at the beginning because they show action. It's important that the action is properly attributed to the correct noun. Here's one more:

Wrong: "Nailed to the roof, she hoped it would stop the leak in her kitchen."

Why is she nailed to the roof? She's not! But that's what this says! Try this instead:

Right: "Nailed to the roof, the tarp would hopefully stop the leak in her kitchen."

I like to quote one of my favorite lines from the movie The Lion King. Two hyenas are talking about the food chain. One comments that they're dangling at the end, to which the other one says, "Man, I hate dangling!" Whenever I see a dangling participle, sentence fragment, or misplaced modifier I think of that quote. You should hate dangling, too!

Check your manuscripts for words ending in –ing. If you find sentences that don't clearly say what you want them to, make changes! Don't leave your readers scratching their heads.