Clarity of Modifiers (Writing Tips)

Hello everyone, this is Mr. P. On today's lesson we're going to take a look at clarity of modifiers, some writing tips. Let's get started, shall we? On today's agenda we are going to take a look at identifying misplaced modifiers, editing misplaced modifiers, putting modifiers close towards the modify, clarifying ambiguous modifiers, moving disruptive modifiers, avoiding splitting infinitives. Finally we're going to take a look at identifying and editing dangling modifiers. So let's get started. Identifying misplaced modifiers. A modifier is misplaced when the reader cannot easily determine what it modifies or when it awkwardly disrupts the flow of a sentence. Modifiers are misplaced when they fall confusingly far from the expressions they modify, ambiguously modify more than one expression, awkwardly disrupt the relationships among the grammatical elements of a sentence. So let's take a look at editing misplaced modifiers now. The first point, put modifiers close to the words they modify. For clarity, modifiers should come immediately before or after the words they modify. In the following sentence, the clause after the police arrested them modifies protesters, not property. Putting the clause before the word it modifies makes it clear that if any property destruction occurred, it occurred before, not after the arrest. In this example, we have the protesters were charged with destroying university property after the police arrested them. So after the police arrested them is your clause, and it modifies what? It modifies the subject, the protesters. So what we need to do for clarity is place after the police arrested them before the subject, the protesters. So for clarity, it will be better to say after the police arrested them, the protesters were charged with destroying university property. Continue talking about editing misplaced modifiers. We need to go to the next category, which is clarifying ambiguous modifiers. Because adverbs can modify what precedes or what follows them, it is vital that writers position adverbs carefully. Make sure not to place your adverbs ambiguously, just like this example. And historians who object vehemently argue that the minister was never endangered. So it is much better to place the adverb right after the verb argue in this case. Why? Because it is modifying the minister, that is the noun of the next clause. So we would write historians who object to this account argue vehemently that the minister was never endangered. Problems often occur with limiting modifiers such as only, even, almost, nearly, and just. The restaurant only offers vegetarian dishes for dinner. Only, in this case, modifies the verb offers. In the second example, the only modifies the noun vegetarian. Therefore, place the adverb before the word you wish to modify. Let's take a look at the third category from editing misplaced modifiers, and that is moving disruptive modifiers. When you separate grammatical elements that belong together with a lengthy modifying phrase or clause, the resulting sentence can be challenging to read. It is often acceptable to separate a subject from its verb with a long adjectival phrase that modifies the subject, as in the following sentence. Descartes, one of Europe's most prominent philosophers, deals with personal identity. As you can see from this example, we have Descartes, one of Europe's most prominent philosophers, does the adjectival phrase, and then the predicate deals with personal identity. So I added in between the subject and the predicate, I added an adjectival phrase, and obviously, when I do that, I need commas between the subject and the predicate. An adverb or adverbial phrase that falls between a verb and its direct object is also likely to be disruptive. Like in this example, Newton contested bitterly Leibniz's claim to have invented calculus. So it is better to place, like I said before, the adverb, in this case, bitterly, before the verb because I want the adverb, bitterly, to be modifying the verb, in this case, contested. Continuing with editing misplaced modifiers, we go to the fourth category, avoiding splitting infinitives. An infinitive couples the word to with the base form of a verb. In a split infinitive, one or more words intervene between to and the verb form. Avoid separating the parts of an infinitive with a modifier unless keeping them together results in an awkward or ambiguous construction. In the following sentence, the word not awkwardly splits the infinitive to disrupt and should be moved to precede it. Like I said, in my example, we have not splitting the infinitive to disturb. So the wise thing to do here is to place not before the infinitive to disturb, in this case, right? So the librarian asks us not to disturb other patrons. Finally, we go to the third category, identifying and editing dangling modifiers. A dangling modifier is a descriptive phrase that implies an actor different from a sentence's subject. When readers try to connect the modifying phrase with a subject, the results may be humorous and confusing. The following sentence describes a crowded beach as swimming. Swimming towards the boat on the horizon, the crowded beach felt as if it were miles away. Now, look at as if it were miles away. Let's modify this on this part. So, swimming toward the boat on the horizon, I felt as if the crowded beach was miles away. This sounds much better. Or, you can even write, and I would prefer this one too, as I swam toward the boats on the horizon, comma, the crowded beach seemed miles away. Or even, you can, if you want to place the crowded beach before, which makes sense also because that's the main clause, the independent clause, the crowded beach seemed miles away as I swam toward the boats on the horizon. In summary, this video lesson focused on helping viewers understand how to use modifiers effectively to create clear and well-structured sentences while avoiding common mistakes like dangling and misplaced modifiers. Well, that's it for today. I hope you had a great time. I remind you that if you want to subscribe to my channel, please click on subscribe. If you liked the lesson, please click on the like button, and if you want to share the lesson, you will help me a lot, okay? Having said that, thank you very much for watching, and I see you next time. Take care. Bye-bye.