Misplaced modi er. One of the commonest ways of confusing your audience is to misplace adjectives or adverbs—single words or whole phrases or clauses used as modifiers—leaving readers or listeners in doubt about what you mean to say or write. The answer to this sort of problem is to write and revise with care, noting all adjectives and adverbs of whatever length and complexity and making sure that they are close to the words they modify or are otherwise unambiguously linked to them. Particular care should betaken with inverted sentences, in which phrases or clauses are purposely put where they are less expected and often not very close to the words they modify. The examples that follow are marked right and wrong although in many cases it would be more accurate to say that meaning in one is clearer than in another or that meaning differs from one sentence to another. WRONG: Aiming carefully, the gazelles were shot by the hunter one after the other RIGHT Aiming carefully, the hunter shot the gazelles one after the other.” Here the rst sentence is incorrect because gazelles don’t use guns and don’t aim them. WRONG: The tourist saw a painting in the museum of birds RIGHT The tourist saw a painting of birds in the museum The rst sentence could be correct (there could be a museum devoted to birds but if it is right, it is likely that the museum is called The Museum of Birds or it would be abetter sentence if the correct name of the museum were given and capitalized so that readers would not have to wonder if the statement is about a painting of birds or a museum of birds. WRONG: I almost completed all my work RIGHT I completed almost all my work The rst sentence could be correct, suggesting that you were near to nishing your work or intended to do so but it leaves some doubt about what precisely you mean. The second sentence leaves no doubt that you did the larger part of your work. WRONG: We want to visit the library after our friends RIGHT We want to visit the library after we visit our friends (or after our friends visit the library or to nd our friends The incomplete rst sentence does not make it clear whether he is visiting his friend rst or if he is visiting the library after his friend does, or in order to look for his friend. Depending on what is intended, any of the second variants might be more accurate. There are dozens of other ways to put modi ers where they don’t belong or in places where your audience can’t tell which word or idea they refer to. Check where you put modi ers so that you don’t confuse more than you clarify. See revision, inversion, and capitalization.
