Correcting Dangling Modifiers

Some words and groups of words that function as modifiers in a sentence have no word in the sentence that they could logically modify. These modifiers “hang” or “dangle” at the beginning of a sentence, modifying something that the writer had in mind but never actually stated in the sentence. When a reader looks for a word in the sentence that the modifier might describe, the result is confusing or humorous or both. Consider the following examples:

After seeing an exhibit of his work, Pablo Picasso became one of my favorite artists.

Outside the museum, his paintings were still vivid in my memory.

The first example seems to say that Pablo Picasso saw an exhibit of his own work and became one of the writer’s favorite artists. That is absurd. The second example seems to say that the paintings were outside the museum. That’s not likely. No museum would allow Picasso’s paintings outside. Correct dangling modifiers by rewriting the sentence so that it includes a word that the modifier can logically describe, as in the following edited versions:

After seeing an exhibit of his work, I consider Pablo Picasso one of my favorite artists.

Even when I was outside the museum, his paintings were still vivid in my memory.

Click the sentence that is clearer. Visiting the area of the zoo devoted to lizards, the iguanas intrigued us. Visiting the area of the zoo devoted to lizards, we were intrigued by the iguanas.