Dangling Modifiers
Flying through time and space, it was a fine day to have a TARDIS.
Tut tut. This sentence is deceiving! It looks like everything's correct, but alas! There's a dangling modifier. We need...the Doctor.
Or a proper word to modify...
Let's start with modifiers. What is a modifier?
Modifiers add description. They modify! (Sorry.) They can be a single word, a phrase, or a clause, and they need to be modifying...something. It's vague. But true.
Modifiers have "targets," or something in a sentence that is the specific recipient of their descriptive powers. For instance...
The pink-haired woman loved to dance.
The modifier is "pink-haired" and its target is "woman." Simple enough. The important thing to notice here is proximity.
The woman pink-haired loved to dance.
This doesn't really make a lot of sense. What is "pink-haired love?" Sounds like a great band name! But it's not quite the modifying situation we want in our writing.
Location is everything...
We want our modifiers to be nice and cozy with their targets. Where we place our modifier will alter the meaning of our sentence:
(1) Molly Hooper only liked Sherlock Holmes.
(2) Molly Hooper liked only Sherlock Holmes.
"Only" is our modifier, but each of these sentences says something different.
In sentence (1), Molly Hooper liked Sherlock, but she didn't love him, hate him, or feel anything else for him beyond liking. She only liked him.
In sentence (2), Molly liked no one but Sherlock Holmes. He's the only person she liked. She didn't like Mary, or John Watson, or Mrs. Hudson. She just liked Sherlock.
So we want our modifier on the correct side of our target, and we want it close by.
Dangling Modifiers
When a modifier goes astray, we end up with a dangling modifier. This means the target of the modifier is either missing, or it's too far away for us to properly tell what's being modified.
Carly distracted the Cybermen, waving the sonic screwdriver around and shouting.
Who is waving the sonic screwdriver? Who is shouting? The phrase "waving the sonic screwdriver around and shouting" could be modifying Carly or the Cybermen. Since "the Cybermen" is the closest target, the reader would assume they're doing the waving and shouting, but they're not--"Carly" is actually the target being modified here.
Carly, waving the sonic screwdriver around and shouting, distracted the Cybermen.
Let's look at our first sentence again:
Flying through time and space, it was a fine day to have a TARDIS.
"Flying through time and space" is our modifier. It's a participle phrase, which means it's a phrase with a participle ("to fly") that's acting like an adjective. Adjectives add description, so their modifiers. It's wibbly-wobbly, but you'll get it.
"Flying through time and space" is our modifier, but it's not modifying anything at the moment. Who is flying? There's no target after the comma, and technically, there's no subject in this sentence.
Who is enjoying the fine day? Who is flying the TARDIS? No idea. (Doctor Who?) ;)
How to fix it...
First, we need a subject: Amy Pond. And we need proper placement.
With participle phrases the target being modified needs to immediate proximity to the comma.
When the participle phrase/modifier occurs at the beginning of the sentence the target should immediately follow the comma.
Flying through time and space, Amy Pond thought it was a fine day to have a TARDIS.
"Amy Pond" is flying the TARDIS. "Amy Pond" is being modified by "flying through time and space," so we put "Amy Pond" right after the comma.
Resources:
Grammar Bytes! Dangling Modifier
Grammar Girl: Misplaced Modifiers
Grammar Girl: Dangling Participles
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/dangling-participles
PurdueOWL: Dangling Modifiers
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