sat grammar rules<\/a>.<\/p>\nso take a look at the following sentences: is anything wrong?<\/p>\n
studying for finals and playing high school sports, it is hard for many to find time. <\/em><\/p>\nliving for seven months in madrid, martha\u2019s fluency in spanish increased rapidly. <\/em><\/p>\nnot so sure? well, what about the following examples?<\/p>\n
running down the street, a bicycle hit him. <\/em><\/p>\nflipping through channels, the television suddenly turned off.<\/em><\/p>\nsomething weird is clearly going on. was the bicycle running down the street? was a television sitting on a couch and eating doritos while flipping through channels?<\/p>\n
to avoid such absurd scenarios, we have to make sure that when we have a phrase beginning with an \u2013ing<\/em> verb (called a participle) that the phrase, which ends right before the comma, accurately describe the subject that comes right after the comma.<\/p>\nrunning down the street, he had to jump out of the way of an oncoming bicycle. <\/em><\/p>\nflipping through channels, dexter threw his hands up in frustration when the television suddenly turned off.<\/em><\/p>\nnow let\u2019s go back to those first two examples. can you think of ways to improve those sentences? give it a shot. makes sure the \u201c\u2013ing phrase\u201d correctly modifies the subject, as the examples below show.<\/p>\n
studying for finals and playing high school sports, many students find it hard to focus on anything else. <\/em><\/p>\nliving for seven months in madrid, martha became fluent in spanish.<\/em><\/p>\nmodification is basically a fancy way of saying \u201cdescribing\u201d and you can think of the \u201c-ing phrase\u201d as a large adjective that should logically (don\u2019t forget the doritos-eating television) describe the subject.<\/p>\n
sometimes, though, modification comes after the subject.<\/p>\n
john sat on the couch eating doritos and watching a blank screen. <\/em><\/p>\njohn sat on the couch, eating doritos and watching a blank screen.<\/em><\/p>\none of these sentences implies that the couch eats doritos (which isn\u2019t too absurd if you look under some couches). the other is correct because it describes (correctly) john eating the doritos and watching a blank screen.<\/p>\n
the correct sentence uses a comma to separate the phrase, \u201cjohn sat on the couch\u201d from the phrase that says \u201ceating doritos\u2026\u201d. when the \u201cing phrase\u201d comes after the comma, the action in that phrase should always describe the subject of the sentence. in this case, john is that subject of the subject.<\/p>\n
on the other hand if you don\u2019t have a comma separating the \u201c-ing phrase\u201d from the rest of the sentence, then that phrase must logically describe the noun that comes immediately before it. in the first sentence (the one without the comma) there is no comma separating \u201ccouch\u201d and \u201ceating\u201d. therefore, that sentence implies (incorrectly) that the couch is eating doritos and watching a blank screen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
misplaced modifiers mini-quiz<\/em><\/h2>\nstudents multitask<\/u> everyday, indeed many times a day, students believe they are very adept at juggling two or three different activities while studying for a midterm. though he may well be able to learn while multitasking, it is not nearly as efficient as focusing only on studying. yet many students continue to pass up an optimal studying environment preferring<\/u> to multitask at every opportunity. <\/em><\/p>\n 1)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\ta) no change<\/em> \n\tb) to multitask<\/em> \n\tc) students multitasking<\/em> \n\td) multitasking <\/em>\n<\/ol>\n2)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\ta) no change<\/em> \n\tb) environment; preferring<\/em> \n\tc) environment, preferring<\/em> \n\td) environment, they prefer<\/em>\n<\/ol>\n <\/p>\n
answers and explanation<\/h4>\n\nas is, this sentence has two subjects (\u201cstudents\u201d and \u201cstudents\u201d). since students is already the subject of the clause beginning \u201cstudents believe\u2026\u201d, it is easy to add a dependent clause, specifically an \u201c-ing phrase\u201d and voila! we have a valid sentence. answer: d). c) is wrong because it also repeats the subject, \u201cstudents\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\nas is, the sentence implies that the environment prefers to multitask. by putting a comma between \u201cenvironment\u201d and \u201cpreferring\u201d, the sentence is correctly structured to indicate that \u201cpreferring\u201d refers to the subject, \u201cmany students\u201d. answer: c).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
when \u201cwhat sounds right\u201d and \u201cwhat is actually right\u201d conflict, you can bet the sat is waiting with a question to trap the unwary, often on misplaced modifiers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[36,42],"ppma_author":[24882],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
misplaced modifiers \u2014 sat grammar<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n