🚀 go-pugleaf

CT.MMJ@forsythe.stanford.edu (Michelle Jahanpour) writes:

>Can anyone out there tell me what a "dangling participle" is?  It
>sounds really lewd to me!

Yeah, when someone told me I had a dangling participle, I looked
down there too.

Dangling participles are usually misplaced modifiers; they need
to be near the thing they modify.  Modifiers with -ing and -ed 
need to be pretty close their noun.
	Walking down the street, the moon was beautiful.
"Walking down the street" modifies the actor, who is nowhere to be
found in the sentence.  
	Walking down the street, I noticed that the moon was
	beautiful.
You can master the dangling participle by thinking up a few examples
on your own.

Incidentally, I found a cheap yet wonderful book that outlines the
basics of sound writing. It's called "A New Guide to Better Writing,"
by Rudolf Flesch and A.H. Lass, New York: Warner Books, 1977.  It 
only costs 3.95.  (I found it at the Paper Cutter.)  The book contains
lots of information that other good books like _Elements of Style_
and _Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace_ don't include.

Mike


==========================
Michael Wilson
idoy@crux1.cit.cornell.edu
==========================