Standardized examintations will test your ability to identify and correct a dangling participle, which is a participle or a participial phrase that does not clearly modify a word in a sentence.
Reading the question carefully, it was obvious that there was a grammatical error.
When you encounter a participial phrase ("Reading the question carefully"), ask yourself, "Who is doing the action?" and then find the subject in the sentence. If the subject is doing the action, the sentence is correct. If not, you must correct the dangling participle.
In the example, the subject is "it." "It" was not reading - a person has to do the reading.
Reading the question carefully, she spotted the obvious grammatical error.
Here, we see that "she" is the subject. Who was reading? She was reading. The dangling participle has been corrected.
Fortified by hours of studying, the test was a breeze.
Who was fortified? The subject is "test" - was the test fortified? No.
Fortified by hours of studying, he found that the test was a breeze.
"He" was fortified. This sentence is correct.
- Read Grammar Examples and Celebrity Quotes with dangling participles.
- Review verbs and verbals (a participle is a verbal).
- Review dangling participles at Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL).
- Read the OWL's section about participles and participial phrases.
- Use this quick online quiz to test your ability to identify a dangling participle.