Saturday, January 14, 2012
Dangling participles
In academic writing, dangling participles can cause serious misunderstandings. Consider the following sentence: "After winning the Peloponnesian war, Athens was ruled briefly by the Spartans." By juxtaposing "winning" and "Athens," the sentence implies that Athens won the Peloponnesian War, which is wrong. The Spartans won the war. The sentence should be rephrased so that the participle is closer to the Spartans than to Athens: "After winning the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans ruled Athens briefly." Or, you can just rewrite the sentence and not use a participle: "After the Spartans won the Peloponnesian War, Athens was briefly in their control." Remember that precision is at a premium when writing history!"
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I agree with the content of your post. Dangling modifiers/participles could really be a hindrance in conveying the right message. It could alter the meaning of the entire sentence just because it is positioned inappropriately. We must be very careful with this kind of error. :)
ReplyDeleteDangling participles are really tricky and we must be careful when we are using them.
ReplyDeleteDangling participles can mislead someone in understanding a sentence.
ReplyDeleteIs this your reference site?
http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/WritingGuide/10dangpt.htm
Dangling modifiers could really cause misunderstanding.
ReplyDeleteYour post is similar to what is written in the reference site given by Cristina. You should have revised it first before posting.
ReplyDeleteI agree because it is considered plagiarism if you don't put your reference/s.
DeleteI find that topic interesting even if I'm troubled.
ReplyDeleteUh-oh. Glenn, better revise your post before Ma'am corrects it. I hope you will not do this again. Ma'am Alfelor said that plagiarism can lead to expulsion.
ReplyDelete"Swinging from the trees, we saw spider monkeys." Thanks for reminding us about dangling participles. :)
ReplyDelete