From the course: Preparing for the GMAT

Modification

From the course: Preparing for the GMAT

Start my 1-month free trial

Modification

“

- [Instructor] Dangling modifiers. Misplaced modifiers. I know, they sound a little bit complicated, but basically, when we talk about modification, we're talking about clarity. So, in this video, we'll look at the two basic types of modification issues you'll encounter on the GMAT, dangling modifiers and misplaced modifiers. So, dangling modifiers make it unclear which noun is described by a modifying phrase. So if I tell you that this is an introductory phrase, "Dangling from the edge of the roof," we need the next noun in this sentence to be what that phrase logically is talking about. It doesn't really make a lot of sense for us to say that the helicopter is dangling from the edge of the roof because then it wouldn't really be positioning itself above the man. That wouldn't be very helpful. So, let's look at the correction. "Dangling from the edge of the roof," that's our introductory phrase. Okay, it makes more sense to say that the man is dangling and waiting for the helicopter to position itself above him. So you want to think about, if you have an opening introductory phrase that does not have a subject, or it's not clear what it's talking about, this next noun needs to be what it's talking about for it to make sense. So we want to visually notice long introductory phrases followed by commas. The next noun or pronoun after that comma must make sense as the subject of the introductory phrase. So if we have a misplaced modifier, this is when a modifier is just kind of too far from what it modifies, and it makes things a little confusing. So if I said to you, "LeBron James is one of the most talented basketball players "of his generation that switched teams mid-career." Well, the generation didn't switch teams, right? LeBron James did. So if we corrected that, it would look better and be better as, "LeBron James, "who switched teams mid-career," now it's very clear that LeBron is switching teams, "is one of the most talented basketball players "of his generation." So we want words that modify each other to be as close together as possible for clarity's sake. So, remember, notice sentences with introductory phrases followed by a comma. If the next noun after that comma is not what the phrase is describing, it can most likely be improved by picking a version that rewords the sentence, or even puts the noun being described right after that introductory phrase. And keep in mind that words that describe each other should be as close to each other as possible to avoid confusion.

Contents