Put the description as close as possible to the word it describes. Drawing some trees might help us see why this is necessary:

Lochness put the paper into his pocket with atomic secrets written on it.

Lochness put the paper with atomic secrets written on it into his pocket.

Another point to consider in writing: Is it really necessary for all of those modifying phrases to be present in one sentence?

1. Analivia peddled to the Mathematics Olympics on her ten-speed bicycle with a complete set of differential equations.

2. Analivia peddled on her ten-speed bicycle to the Mathematics Olympics with a complete set of differential equations.

3. With a complete set of differential equations, Analivia peddled on her ten-speed bicycle to the Mathematics Olympics.
4. Analivia peddled to the Mathematics Olympics with a complete set of differential equations.

English Grammar for Dummies picks out sentence C above as the "correct" choice. I propose D. The verb peddled indicates that Analivia is on a bicycle of some kind, so perhaps the 'ten-speed bicycle' phrase is redundant and omittable.

1. Dangling Participles

Participles are verb forms used for specific purposes. Today, we will consider participles which are used to describe nouns and pronouns (i.e. more adjective clauses!). We will look at two types:

-ing phrases

infinitive phrases

Lots of times, these phrases are found at the beginnings of sentences, though they are grammatical in other places, too. If you use one of these, make sure that the phrase goes next to the NOUN or PRONOUN which it is meant to describe.

Right:

Munching a buttered sausage, Eggworthy smiled and waved at his cardiologist.

Wrong:

Munching a buttered sausage, the cholesterol really builds up.

Why? Ask yourself, WHO is munching? In the first sentence, we can see that Eggworthy is munching. In the second sentence, we're not sure. The sentence seems to imply that if 'one' munches, 'one's' cholesterol will build up. To be grammatical, however, the agent must be overtly expressed.

The -ing participles can also come after the agent:

Right:

Eggworthy, munching a buttered sausage, smiled and waved at his cardiologist.

Wrong:

The cholesterol, munching a buttered sausage, really builds up.

Here, it is slightly easier to tell that the first sentence makes sense and the second sentence does not.

Again, drawing trees can help us understand how the phrases are related:

Eggworthy munching a buttered sausage smiled.

Munching a buttered sausage Eggworthy smiled.

Note that the word order in A is also acceptable, but B is less so. The introduction of the second person in B introduces some potential ambiguity. B has the interpretation of B1 and perhaps B2, depending on intonation/punctuation and other factors. Good writers try to avoid constructions with such multiple interpretations (unless they are trying to make a joke), so you should rewrite as B1 or B2, depending upon the intended interpretation.

1. Eggworthy smiled, munching a buttered sausage.
2. Eggworthy smiled and waved at his cardiologist munching a buttered sausage.

Similar facts hold for to infinitives. An infinitive adjective phrase must describe a noun or pronoun.

Wrong:

To sew well, a strong light is necessary.

Right:

To sew well, you need a strong light.

To sew well, [you] use a strong light. [remember: in imperatives, the 'you' is present at deep

To sew well, everyone needs a strong light.

To sew well, one needs a strong light.

To sew well, Mary uses at least a 75 watt bulb.

Be aware that, while all sentences listed in the "right" column above are correct with respect to the fact that the infinitive must modify an overtly expressed subject, the actual expressed subjects above are more or less acceptable in "standard" English. Specifically, more conservative writers generally oppose the use of 'you' and in some cases 'everyone'--they prefer 'one' when speaking of a person in general.

In all of the above sentences, to sew well can also appear at the end.

You need a strong light to sew well.

In fact, -ing phrases and to phrases are both generated elsewhere in deep structure, and moved to the beginning of the sentence via a transformation.

1. Other Structural Ambiguity

…Dummies encourages you to avoid confusing descriptions such as:

The teacher that Lochness annoyed often assigned detention to him.

Did Lochness annoy the teacher often or did the teacher assign him detention often? It can't be both since there is only one adverb! Draw trees--we find two possible analyses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The teacher that Lochness annoyed often assigned detention to him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The teacher that Lochness annoyed often assigned detention to him.

The word order here allows for two possibly syntactic analyses--often can be analyzed to describe annoyed or assigned. We can eliminate ambiguity by putting often either before annoyed or after him.

Beware of only, just, almost, and even. These guys can appear in a variety of places and still pass the ear test, so make sure you think about them carefully. [This is one place where letting your writing 'sit' for a while can help--at the time of writing you may only see one interpretation, but if you set it aside for a day or two then reread, you can often come up with the other interpretation, then successfully edit. Having a second person look over your work can also help you detect this kind of ambiguity.]

Beware of nitpicky English teachers and persnickety editors. Remember the song I Only Have Eyes For You?

The title of this song violates the rule mentioned above. Why?

Do you 'only have eyes' if you're looking at the person in question? No lips, no teeth, no arms, no legs? Of course not. The intended interpretation is 'I have eyes only for you' (I look only at you and no one else.) [And yet, I'm sure no one ever actually misunderstood the intention of the singer.]

2. Split Infinitives

The infinitive form of a verb in English is composed of to and the verb stem. Examples:

to go

to jump

to be

The rule stating that one should not 'split' infinitives is one of the early prescriptive rules derived from Latin--in Latin, infinitives consist of one word, so they cannot be split. It would not have occurred to anyone to state such a rule if English speakers weren't already splitting infinitives!

How can infinitives be split? With adverbs like boldly and with negative elements like not.

to boldly go

to quickly jump

to not be

More and more people are splitting infinitives in English, and they're doing it in more and more traditionally standard genres and contexts. However, the rule still stands in most grammar books. What does this mean for us average folks? In most spoken contexts, no one will notice if you split an infinitive, though you should never underestimate your audience. These days, some people accept split infinitives in writing and other do not. If writing for a particular person (i.e. a professor), try to find out his/her personal preferences. If your audience is larger, then you have to decide what image you wish to project. Splitting the infinitive may produce a more natural-sounding construction; not splitting the infinitive may give you a social 'in' with some people. As Pinker says, your audience will not necessarily know if you're breaking a rule on purpose, because you wish to defy it, or on accident, because you're unaware of it. It's up to you, the writer, to decide on the image you wish to present.

3. Comparisons

In English, there are both inflectional endings and suppletive forms indicating degrees of comparison:

comparative superlative

-er -est

more most

better best

less least

worse worst

more most

Use the correct form (i.e. -er or more) and never use both more and -er together. Use the comparative forms to compare two items; use superlative forms to compare three or more items.

Remember not to compare absolute adjectives--prescriptivists say that you shouldn't say that something is 'more perfect' than something else…..but remember '…in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice…' [at least in some circumstances, we can compare 'incomparables' for poetic reasons.]

Incomplete comparisons: avoid them. Watch out for ambiguous comparisons, too.

Proper comparisons: make sure you give them.

A. Joe DiMaggio played better than any baseball player.

B. Joe DiMaggio played better than any other baseball player.

1. implies that DiMaggio was NOT a baseball player. B. connotes that DiMaggio was the best of all the baseball players.

NOTE: My computer grammar checker does not recognize misplaced modifiers, dangling participles, or any of these other grammar errors as errors.

1. Parallel

tense, voice, aspect, subject, etc, should all be parallel

Listing adjectives? Make sure all the words are adjectives. Listing nouns? Make sure all the words are nouns.

Listing verb phrases? Make sure tense/aspect/voice are all the same:

Yes:

Climbing Mount Everest, skydiving, and becoming President are Al Gore's goals.

No:

Climbing Mount Everest, skydiving, and to become President are Al Gore's goals.