Dangling Modifiers

When using a present participle (an "ing" verb such as "using" at the beginning of this sentence) in a phrase to begin a sentence, you should place the subject of that "ing" verb immediately after the comma that ends the phrase.  Let's look at a couple of examples:

1) Waiting for the bus, I saw my friend.

2) Waiting for the bus, my friend saw me.

In both sentences, the modifying phrase is "waiting for the bus." "Waiting" is the present participle.  The person who is "waiting" differs in each sentence.  In sentence 1, "I" (the subject immediately the modifying phrase) am waiting.  In sentence 2, "my friend" (the subject immediately after the modifying phrase) is waiting.  When writers do not have the correct subject for the participle, the modifier is said to be "dangling."  The dangling modifier can be comical or confusing:

3) When applying for jobs, my CV speaks for itself.

In sentence number 3, "my CV" is "applying" for jobs.  To fix dangling modifiers, you need either to make the participle a complete verb or to put the correct subject immediately after the comma:

4) When I apply for jobs, my CV speaks for itself.

Quite frequently, we can find dangling modifiers in articles; in fact, the following article by Pierre LeBrun of ESPN (Nov. 25, 2011) about the NHL Winter Classic inspired me to write this post:

Gretzky told ESPN.com via text that he spoke with Sather this week. It was a "nice conversation," Gretzky said, but his answer remained the same.

Speaking of Gretzky, he is still owed about $8 million to $9 million from his Coyotes contract. The NHL met with former Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes in a mediation session on Tuesday. The league launched a lawsuit against Moyes in March 2010. Should mediation eventually produce an agreement, Gretzky will finally be paid the money he's owed, and frankly, it's long overdue.

Having said that, a source told ESPN.com the mediation session between Moyes and the league did not go swimmingly, so, at this point, it's anyone's guess when this will be resolved.

In the second paragraph here, Gretzky (the "he" that follows the comma) is speaking of Gretzky--which I do not think is the case.  The third paragraph is a bit more difficult to understand: "that" in "having said that" seems to refer to the previous paragraph, which means that the "source" who had "said that" might also be Gretzky.  Certainly we can guess what LeBrun means, but we do well not to have others guess at the meaning our writing.

Dangling modifiers also commonly occur with past participles (i.e. eaten, taught, walked) and infinitives ("to" plus a verb such as "to fix").


Resources

The Purdue OWL has a good section on dangling modifiers, as does the University of Ottawa.  The University of Toronto has a good little tutorial on how to fix dangling modifiers.

Towson University and Capital Community College have good exercises that cover all types of dangling modifiers.

Subjects and Verbs

Sentences need both a subject and a verb.  In its simplest form, a subject is who or what does the main action in the sentence.  The verb is the action that the subject does. 

Example 1: Kevin spikes volleyballs.

To find the subject, ask yourself who or what does something?  In example 1, Kevin is doing something; Kevin is the subject.

To find the verb in that sentence, ask yourself what is Kevin doing?  Kevin spikes; spikes is the verb.

Subject: Kevin

Verb: spikes

Example 2: Kevin spikes volleyballs at Michael.

Follow the same procedure as above to find the verb.  Here, there are two people in the sentence: Kevin and Michael.  Which one of them is doing something? Kevin.

What is Kevin doing? Kevin still spikes.

Subject: Kevin

Verb: spikes

Example 3: Kevin spikes volleyballs at Michael that Kim pumped up.

Follow the same procedure as above.  Here, there are three people in the sentence: Kevin, Michael, and Kim.  Which of them is doing or has done something? Kevin and Kim.

Separate those two parts of the sentence:

Kevin spikes volleyballs at Michael.

That Kim pumped up.

Which of those two sentences is complete (i.e. it can exist by itself)?  Kevin spikes volleyballs at Michael. (“That Kim pumped up” cannot be a sentence by itself; it depends on the first part of the sentence for sense.)  Kevin is still the subject of this sentence.

What is Kevin doing? Kevin spikes.

Subject: Kevin

Verb: spikes

Example 4: Kevin and Dan spike volleyballs at Michael.

Again, follow the same procedure.  Here, there are three people in the sentence: Kevin, Dan, and Michael.  Which of them is doing something? Kevin and Dan.

What are Kevin and Dan doing: Kevin and Dan spike.

Subject: Kevin and Dan

Verb: spike

The subject does the main action in a sentence.  The subject can be singular or plural.   The verb is the main action that the subject does.

Resources

St. Cloud State University explains subjects and verbs well;  DeAnza College has a fairly thorough explanation; and D’Youville College has a much shorter one as well as two quizzes.  GrammarBook has a good quiz.

MLA Works Cited - Article from a Database

Students frequently ask how to cite web publications in their Works Cited.  The following is a basic MLA-style entry for a scholarly journal article found on an article database (remember the hanging indent):

Examples:

Deresiewicz, William.  “The End of Solitude.”  Chronicle of Higher Education 55 (2009): n. pag.  Academic OneFile.  Web.  1 Dec. 2010.

Lepage, John Louis.  “Sylvester’s Du Bartas and the Metaphysical Androgyny of Opposites.”  English Literary History 51 (1984): 621-644.  JSTOR.  Web.  7 Nov. 2010.

Please note, you should always evaluate the credibility of your source before you use it.  If you use an article from JSTOR or similar types of databases, you can limit your searches to peer-reviewed articles only

Resources

Gibaldi, Joseph.  MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7^th ed.  New York: MLA, 2009.

I find Concordia University’s guide to MLA style helpful.  See their entry Article in a Journal.

Neither...nor

Recently, a friend (whose first language is not English) said to me, “nor the coffee nor the tea are very good here.”  It was easy enough to understand what he was saying, but his expression prompted this post because it contained two errors that I sometimes find in my students’ work.

First, he was relying on a negation that is not usually found in standard written English.  In French we could say “ni l’un ni l’autre” (literally “nor one nor the other”).  However, “nor…nor” in English is chiefly poetic.  We usually use “neither…nor” to negate two options:

Option 1: The coffee is not very good here.

Option 2: The tea is not very good here.

Option 1 & 2 together: Neither the coffee nor the tea is very good here.

Second, when each one of the two options is singular, we use a singular verb with “neither…nor.”  In this case, coffee is singular and tea is singular.  Think of each sentence individually and use the verb from one of those sentences:

The coffee is not very good here.

The tea is not very good here.

Neither the coffee nor the tea is very good here.

If one option is singular and the other is plural, the verb agrees with the subject closest to the verb.

The coffee is not very good here.

The biscuits are not very good here.

Neither the coffee nor the biscuits are very good here.

Further, “neither…nor” should be used only with two options.  We usually write “neither A nor B,” not “neither A, B, C, nor D.” 

Despite the general truth of these rules, the OED provides some famous exceptions.  For example, Shakespeare has “nor…nor” and “neither A, B, C, nor D” in Measure for Measure:

             Thou hast nor youth nor age,
But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,
Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this
That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
Lie hid moe thousand deaths: yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even. (III, i, 32-41)

Resources

The Writing Center at The University of Wisconsin Madison has a good page on subject-verb agreement: there you can find examples of “neither…nor.”  Numbers 4, 5, and 6 of Capital Community College’s Subject-Verb Agreement page provides some practical and helpful examples.

Proprofs has a quiz for neither/nor and either/or.

Writingcare has a pretty good video clip explaining neither/nor and either/or:

 

Word Processing

A student recently asked me how to save time and finish assignments on time.  One simple answer is to learn how to type.  A lot of time is lost word processing documents.  Do the math for a 1000 word essay:

    1000 words      = 25 minutes of typing alone

40 words/minute 

    1000 words      = 100 minutes of typing alone

10 words/minute 

Learn how to type: it's a life skill in today’s society.   

There are quite a few websites that offer free typing tutorials.  I like Sense-lang.  It has typing tutorials that help you to learn touch typing and a number of games to help improve typing.  You can also try FreeTypingGame.

Complement and Compliment

When you “complement” (with an “e”), you add to or complete something:

The raspberry jam really complements the peanut butter in this sandwich.

(The raspberry jam in combination with the peanut butter makes this sandwich better.)

When you “compliment” (with an “i”), you flatter someone or something:

The raspberry jam often compliments the peanut butter.  The other day I heard it say, “Peanut butter, you sure are the smoothest and creamiest spread I have ever seen.”

(The raspberry jam speaks with the peanut butter and makes it feel good about itself.)

Resources

Paul Brians’s Common Errors in English Usage has an extensive list of errors that is worth perusing.  At the bottom of the Oxford Dictionary’s definition for “complement,” there is also a good explanation of the difference between “complement” and “compliment.”

Proprofs has a good quiz.

Not Only Spell Check

Too many students rely on spell check as their final editing tool.  Spell check is only a beginning.  It will not identify all words spelled incorrectly, especially if the words are real. For example, this sentence makes it past spell check:

“There wear too special affects that blue me away.”

(“There were two special effects that blew me away.”)

I recently asked my students to submit some errors (real or fictional) that made it past spell check:  This one came from a “Hollywood and History” assignment on Remember the Titans:

“There was no Vagina High School Hall of Fame in 1971—although it does exist today.”

Another student suggested the reason why spell check is not more efficient:

“If their where no eras, Mike wood bee out of wok.”

You can avoid such errors by having friends read your work.  

Resources

Purdue OWL Writing Lab and The University of North Carolina have good pages on editing and proofreading.

Advice/Advise, Device/Devise, etc.

In each of these pairs, the word with the “c” is usually the noun; the word with the “s” is the verb. 

I need some advice.  Could you advise me, please?

Left to her own devices, she devised an ingenious plan.

He is licensed to drive, but he forgot his driver’s licence at home.

The team has a practice tonight; they will practise scoring goals.

I remember the difference with a mnemonic.  “C” comes before “s” alphabetically just as “n” (noun) comes before “v” (verb) alphabetically.

However, the difference can also be one of usage.  As always, check a style guide for the audience for whom you write.  For example, “practice” is a noun and a verb in American English.

Resources

ESLdesk has good quizzes for commonly confused words; advice/advise is amongst them.  World-English has a quiz for practice/practise and Santa Monica College has one for device/devise.

If you cannot remember what a noun or a verb is, I always suggest watching the Schoolhouse Rocks videos.  They are accessible and instructive.

Nouns:

Verbs:

 

Capitalization - Titles

When presenting a title of a published work within your text, always consult the style appropriate style guide for your particular class, publication, or reader.  Though the styles are similar, there are some minor differences.  I have outlined some of the main points for three common styles that you might encounter.

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (MLA)

With MLA style, you separate the title from subtitle with a semi-colon, and you should capitalize all principle words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions (after, although, as soon as, because, etc.), including those that follow hyphens in compound words.

You do not reproduce and special characters such as ALL CAPS or capitalize articles, prepositions coordinating conjunctions if they are not the first word of the title.

E.g. Memory in Hearing-Impaired Children: Implications for Vocabulary Development Attitudes toward Mental Health Workers

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA)

With APA, you capitalize major words in the same way that you would with MLA; however, APA differs from MLA in that you should capitalize all words of four letters or more, even if they are minor (“toward” is a preposition, but has a capital in the example).  As well, you capitalize both words of a hyphenated compound if first is capitalized.

E.g. Memory in Hearing-Impaired Children: Implications for Vocabulary Development Attitudes Toward Mental Health Workers

The Chicago Manual of Style

The Chicago Manual of Style states that you follow the same format as you would for headline-style titles.  You should capitalize first and last words and all major words.  Unlike APA but like MLA, you should have lower case letters for prepositions regardless of their length.  The exceptions are prepositions that are used adverbially or adjectivally (i.e. Look Up).  It also specifies that you should provide lowercase for “the second part of a species name, such as fulvescens in Acipenser fulvescens, even if it is the last word in a title or subtitle” (449).

E.g. Memory in Hearing-Impaired Children: Implications for Vocabulary Development Attitudes toward Mental Health Workers

Resources

American Psychological Association.  Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6^th ed.  Washington: APA, 2010.

Gibaldi, Joseph.  MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7^th ed.  New York: MLA, 2009.

University of Chicago.  The Chicago Manual of Style. 16^th ed.  Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2010.

Bring and Take

“Bring” and “take” differ by way of location.  In general, we use “bring” when something comes towards us; we use “take” when something goes away from us:

“Bring me a cup of coffee, please.”

“Take it away: the coffee is cold.”

Resources

John Lawler at the University of Michigan explains the difference well.  The Chicago Tribune has a good article on commonly confused words; it relies on Grammar Girl’s explanation for bring and take.

EC Learn English has a good quiz for these verbs in different conjugations.

Among and Between

Both “among” and “between” are prepositions. Prepositions show the connections between two nouns or phrases.  There are numerous prepositions in English such as on, by, from, for, with, to, of, in, at, behind, by, near, over, and under.

“Between” refers to two items; “among” refers to three or more:

The jackpot was divided between the two winners.

The jackpot was divided among the three winners.

Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden (Gen 3:8).

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman (Gen 3:15).

Resources

The University of Minnesota has a good “quicktips” sheet on prepositions.

Capital Community College has a quiz to recognize prepositions.

Commas – Independent Clauses and Coordinating Conjunctions

Let’s start with the obvious questions: what is an independent clause and what are coordinating conjunctions?

Independent Clauses

Independent clauses are groups of words that could be complete sentences.  They must have a subject and a complete verb:

He walked into the room.

She left.

My wife is in my heart.

My son is in my wallet.

The Dallas Cowboys will not win the Super Bowl next year.

The team will still be considered America’s team.

Coordinating Conjunctions

There are seven coordinating conjunctions in English.  These seven can be remembered by the mnemonic “f.a.n.b.o.y.s.” (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so):

F.or

A.nd

N.or

B.ut

O.r

Y.et

S.o

Joining Independent Clauses

When you have two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, you place a comma after the first independent clause but before the coordinating conjunction:

He walked into the room, and she left.

My wife is in my heart, but my son is in my wallet.

The Dallas Cowboys will not win the Super Bowl next year, yet the team will still be considered America’s team.

Compare this use of a comma with my previous entry.

Resources

The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin explains well how to join independent clauses.  Towson University has a good page on the general use of coordinating conjunctions.  Concordia University explains the differences between phrases and clauses and between dependent and independent clauses.

Karyn Hollis from Villanova University and Quia have good quizzes.

Commas – One Subject and Two Verbs

Sometimes one subject may perform two actions in the same sentence:

   She            woke up           and               gave the world a hurt look.

Subject            verb          conjunction        verb

“She” does two actions in this sentence (“woke up” and “gave”), but “she” only appears once.  In such cases, we usually do not need a comma.  When one subject has two verbs joined by a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so), we do not use a comma:

She woke up and gave the world a hurt look.

NOT She woke up, and gave the world a hurt look.

His words skidded across the living-room floor and landed in her lap.

NOT His words skidded across the living-room floor, and landed in her lap.

She always carries bandages with her but will give them only to bleeding people to whom she has been introduced.

NOT She always carries bandages with her, but will give them only to bleeding people to whom she has been introduced.

In my next entry, I will examine when you do use a comma with a coordinating conjunction.

Resources

The examples in this post were taken from Karen Elizabeth Gordon’s The Well-tempered Sentence:  A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed.  New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1983.  This is a good book if you are looking for a book with humorous examples of punctuation.

See When NOT to punctuate coordinating conjunctions in the Writer’s Handbook at the University of Wisconson.

“Will” and “Going to”

Both “will” and “going to” can be used to indicate a future action or a prediction.  However, they differ slightly.  We often use “will” for the first time that we think of doing the action; we use “going to” when the action has already be determined, as we can see in the following example:

Riding his bicycle, a little boy named Tom runs over a sharp rock.  It punctures his tire.  He walks his bike home, sees his mother, and asks her, “Mom, could you please fix my tire?”

His mother replies, “I’m a bit busy, but I will fix it in ten minutes, Tom.”

The boy leaves, sees his father, and says, “I have a flat tire; I’d like mom to fix it.”  Before Tom can relate that he has already asked his mom, the father calls to her, “Can you fix Tom’s tire?”

She replies, “I am going to fix it in ten minutes.”

She uses “will” when she replies to Tom because she did not know about the flat tire and made a plan for the first time.  She uses “going to” when she replies to her husband because she has already made a plan to fix the tire.

Having written that, I should note that this rule does not always hold and that many speakers and writers use “will” and “going to” interchangeably. 

Resources

The BYU English Language Center has a simple PDF that outlines some of the differences.

Portland Community College has a quiz.

Myriad

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. (New Revised Standard Version, Rev 5:11)

And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.  (King James Bible, Rev 5:11)

The use of “myriad” seems to be an issue of world-ending proportions for some.  The web has myriad complaints about the word.  Contrary to some claims I have encountered about “myriad,” it can be both a noun and an adjective.  As a post about comments in the U Penn LanguageLog successfully illustrates, the word has been written as “myriad” and “myriad of” in different contexts.  The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition 2b for “myriad” as a singular noun clearly illustrates that “myriad of” has been used for a few hundred years to refer to “a countless number of specified things,” as we can see in a few of its examples:

1609    A. Craig Poet. Recreations sig. A4v:   “Thus feeling ill, and fearing worse each day, A miriad of mis-fortunes I embrace.”

1720    A. Hill Creation iv. 4:  “God saw her Grief, and, bent to ease her Pain, And ornament her shadowy Reign, Struck out a Myriad of illustrious Sparks, The Gems of Heav'n, her starry Marks!”

1869    ‘M. Twain’ Innocents Abroad xxx. 321: “Throw a stone into the water, and the myriad of tiny bubbles that are created flash out a brilliant glare like blue theatrical fires.”

1987    Observer 20 Sept. 46/4:  “A myriad of small, specialist software companies have also been spawned in the new ‘sunrise high-tech’ areas.”

For me, the question of “myriad” or “myriad of” is less important than the question of when to use “myriad.”  The OED tells us that “myriad” comes through the post-classical Latin myriades, meaning multiples of ten thousand or a countless number. 

Use “myriad” to refer to a largely uncountable number of items—unless you are aiming for hyperbole.

Resources

"myriad, n. and adj.". OED Online. March 2011. Oxford University Press. 16 May 2011 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/124538?redirectedFrom=myriad>.

Commas - Appositives

We use a comma or commas to isolate an appositive—words or phrases that describe or clarify the noun that preceded it.  For example, “Einstein” is most famously the name of the exceptional physicist, but it is also less-famously the name of Dr. Emmett Brown’s dog from a high-grossing movie in the 80s, Back to the Future.

                                   Albert Einstein                                   

Einstein the dog

In the following sentence, there may be some confusion about which Einstein we are writing: 

Einstein was well known in the 80s. 

When we add more information to specify the Einstein to whom/which we refer, that information is isolated by commas: 

Einstein, one of the greatest thinkers in the history of humanity, was well known in the 80s.

Einstein, the dog from Back to the Future, was well known in the 80s. 

The extra information may be a single word or a long phrase.  Regardless of its length, the appositive is punctuated by a comma or commas.  If the appositive appears in the middle of the sentence, the appositive has commas surrounding it.  If the appositive concludes the sentence, it has a comma at its beginning and a period at its end:

Our family dog, Spot, lived to be fourteen years old.

My brother’s car, a red convertible, accelerates quickly.

Jennifer Smith, our family doctor, studied at McMaster University.

When Tracy was young, she lived in Upsala, a small town in Ontario.

Resources

Purdue OWL explains appositives well.

You can find an interactive quiz at ProProfs.

Phrasal Verbs

Students often ask me how to decrease their word count for assignments.  Changing phrasal verbs to one-word verbs is an easy way to lower word count and improve writing.

Phrasal verbs consist of a verb and a preposition (such as at, from, and in) or a prepositional phrase (such as in the place of or from doing):

come in

give up

step up

wind up

go out from

put in the place of

take away from

stop from doing

There is almost always a more precise single-word verb that can replace a phrasal verb:

Phrasal Verb                       One-word Verb

come in                        =          enter

give up                         =          quit

step up                         =          intensify

wind up                        =          conclude, tease, arrive

go out from                  =          exit

put in the place of         =          replace

take away from            =          confiscate

stop from doing            =          prohibit

Phrasal verbs add to a word count, but they may also confuse a reader who is not familiar with the phrasal verb.  The preposition or prepositional phrase changes the meaning of the verb.  For example, the meaning of “wind up” may be difficult to discover from the meaning of “wind” and can have completely different senses in different contexts: to conclude an action, to tease a person, or to arrive somewhere.

Find the best one-word verb for the situation.

Resources

The English Page explains how to use phrasal verbs properly.  Learn English Today has a handy alphabetical list of phrasal verbs and their meanings.

The English Club and Stuff have good basic quizzes.  Frankfurt International School’s quiz is much more challenging. 

Exclamation Points!!!

Exclamation points are the most irritating of all.  Look! They say, look at what I just said!  How amazing is my thought! It is like being forced to watch someone else’s small child jumping up and down crazily in the center of the living room shouting to attract attention.  If a sentence really has something of importance to say, something quite remarkable, it doesn’t need a mark to point it out.

– Lewis Thomas, “Notes on Punctuation”

 

We must remember that writing projects tone: if we sound too excited or emotional in our writing, our audience may be unlikely to see us as reasonable or credible.  Exclamation points project both excitement and emotion—often unnecessarily, as Lewis Thomas points out:  “If a sentence really has something of importance to say, something quite remarkable, it doesn’t need a mark to point it out.”

Exclamation points are perhaps most frequently used with interjections, words or phrases that exclaim, protest, or command:

Hey!

Look out!

Get off of my foot!

Interjections are usually too informal for academic writing, and exclamation points in general make us seem excitable.  Use exclamation points very sparingly in academic writing.

Resources

Schoolhouse Rock explains interjections well.

Capital Community College has a good explanation of how to use exclamation points—if you do decide to use them.

I highly recommend the Lewis Thomas article “Notes on Punctuation.”  It can be found as a web document on John Lawler’s personal page from the University of Michigan or as a PDF document on Dr. Judith Newman’s Lupinworks.

Fewer and Less

We use fewer for items that we can count; we use less for items we cannot count:

I have fewer students in this class than I had in last year’s class.

My brother prefers less milk in his coffee than his wife does.

How can you differentiate between count and non-count items?  One way is to imagine that you have an armful of the item and that you place the armload on the table.  If you can easily identify each of the items, they are count: oranges, cups, pencils, logs, papers, etc.  If the items are too small or if they would flow off of the table, they are non-count: orange juice sugar, water, sawdust, pulp, etc.

Resources

Merriam-Webster discusses the exceptions to this common rule.

 

Oxford Dictionaries and The New York Times explain this difference simply and they provide good examples.

ProProfs has a good interactive quiz.