Looking to relieve herself of the financial burden she has incurred while practicing Kabbalah, sources reveal that Madonna may be planning to give up the religion. Also so her children can celebrate Christmas.
The first statement ending with a period is a sentence that contains a dangling participle. The second statement ending with a period is not a sentence: it is a fragment.
The participial phrase "looking to relieve herself of the financial burden she has incurred while practicing Kabbalah" modifies the subject of the sentence. The subject of the sentence is "sources," but the sources are not looking to relieve themselves of the financial burden; Madonna is. A participial phrase that does not logically modify a noun in a sentence is an error known as a dangling participle. Correct the error by restructuring the sentence so that it makes sense. The syntax can be modified in many ways; if you are given multiple choices on a standardized examination, be sure to select an answer that clearly expresses logical meaning.
"Also so her children can celebrate Christmas" is a fragment. It contains a subject ("children") and a verb ("can celebrate"), but the inclusion of the subordinating conjunction "so" makes it a dependent clause that cannot stand on its own. ("Also" is an adverb that modifies the entire dependent clause. It does not enable the clause to stand on its own.) One way to correct this error is to restructure the syntax to form an independent clause. Alternatively, both statements may be modified to convey the same meaning in a single grammatically correct sentence.
These are examples of how the two errors can be corrected:
Sources reveal that Madonna may be planning to give up Kabbalah to relieve herself of the financial burden she has incurred while practicing the religion. She would also like her children to be able to celebrate Christmas.
Sources reveal that Madonna may be planning to give up Kabbalah to relieve herself of the financial burden she has incurred while practicing the religion and to allow her children to celebrate Christmas.
Both approaches convey the same meaning as the original two statements without using a dangling participle or a fragment.
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