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Professional Editor's Corner: Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers
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Here, the writer suggests that the farmer was the one who laid a golden egg, but that cannot be true. Hes not even female, let alone poultry.
Revision: The farmer proudly presented his prize goose, which had laid a golden egg.
Certain adverbs are more susceptible to being misplaced: almost, even, hardly, just, merely, often, only, and simply.
ONLY
Example: Lasers only slice through tumors. They dont harm the surrounding brain tissue.
Here the writer wants to make a distinction between what lasers destroy (tumors or healthy brain tissue) during surgery, but he or she is actually implying that ALL lasers can do is slice through tumors, which, of course, we know is untrue. Lasers have countless uses.
Revision: Lasers
slice through only tumors. They dont harm the surrounding brain tissue.
We can even add a context, placing during surgery at the beginning of the sentence, but where we put only is most important.
ALMOST
Example: Sheila almost ran around the track twelve times.
The writer here suggests that Sheila ran part way around the track twelve times perhaps she made it halfway, stopped for lunch, tried again and made it three-quarters of the way, and so on attempting to get around the track twelve times without ever actually making one full loop.
However, what the writer probably meant was that Sheila made it all the way around the track eleven times and then part way on the twelfth go round.
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