From the course: Writing with Flair: How to Become an Exceptional Writer

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,600 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Misplaced modifiers

Misplaced modifiers

From the course: Writing with Flair: How to Become an Exceptional Writer

Start my 1-month free trial

Misplaced modifiers

“

- Now there's something in grammar referred to as a misplaced modifier. It's another thing that can create out of focus sentences, but I want to try to explain it to you in layman's terms. First, let me just remind you that a modifier is a word or a set of words that alter another term that's in a sentence. So, in this example, Lucy carefully studied the instructions. We've got the word carefully, modifying the word studied. Because it's telling you the way in which Lucy studied the instructions, that is carefully. Carefully studied. So with the phase carefully studied, the word carefully modifies the word studies, simple right? So, even in this sentence, Lucy studied the instructions carefully. Where we've moved the word carefully to a different place. The principle is still the same because the word carefully still modifies the word studied even though it now appears at the end of the sentence instead of right next to the word studied, okay. So if that's the modifier, a misplaced…

Contents