Correcting Misplaced Modifiers

When modifying words are not placed close to the word they modify, the result is often confusing or humorous, since the sentence conveys a strange or ridiculous meaning. Compare the following examples:

Visitors should be alert for bears when they are camping in remote regions of the park.

When they are camping in remote regions of the park, visitors should be alert for bears.

Visitors camping in remote regions of the park should be alert for bears.

The first sentence seems to say that bears may be camping in the park, but obviously the writer intended to say that visitors should be alert in remote regions of the park. The modifier when they are camping in remote regions of the park is misplaced. The problem is corrected when the modifier is moved closer to the word visitors, as in the second and third sentences.

Be sure that modifying words or phrases are close to the word that you intend to modify.

Click the sentence that is clearer. When the new city ordinance banned barking dogs, their owners had to find a way to silence them. When the new city ordinance banned them, dog owners had to find a way to silence their barking dogs.