Walking Home Last Night, A Banana Fell on My Head
…that’s one scary banana.
Dangling, Hanging or Unattached Participles - A Writers Worst Nightmare
This is a surprisingly common and extremely flagrant grammatical mistake that has infected the pages of blogs, websites and just about every article containing the written word. I know I’ve made the mistake plenty of times. I also know it makes you look dumb when someone points it out.
People will appreciate and subscribe to your blog, buy your product or read your books if you take the time to avoid silly grammatical errors. So lets try to fix this nuisance by being a bit more perceptive with regards to our writing.
What’s a participle?
A participle is a verbal. A verb form that is not limited by a subject. In other words, it’s the form of a verb, but it’s not a verb itself; it’s an adjective. They almost always end in -ing, -ed or -en. There are three kinds of participles: present participle, past participle and perfect participle. For now, and for the purposes of this discussion, I’ll keep it simple and leave the in-depth definition to someone else.
What’s a dangling participle?
Dangling participles occur where the phrase that begins a sentence does not belong, or was not intended to modify, the clause that follows. They just don’t make sense together.
“Walking home last night, a banana fell on my head.”
That sentence may sound correct, and you definitely know what the writer meant to convey - Last night a banana fell on my head while I was walking home. But, the meaning behind what is actually written is entirely different. No one wants a walking banana to fall on their head. In fact I don’t even want a banana that walks, let alone having it fall on my head.
How can I fix this?
Comb your writing for words that end in -ing, -ed or -en, and make sure your opening phrase is always modifying what follows next. If it doesn’t, you have a suicidal participle - dangling, hanging and unattached. ;o)
What’s your biggest writing pet peeve?
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
Good blog…
I like it
shy guy’s last blog post..Review some blog
Hello,
Just wanted to compliment you on an excellent hook for a blog.
C-Squared’s last blog post..Anathallo - Floating World (2006)
Thank you both very much.
I hoped it would get a second glance…it made me laugh.
A little grammar mistakes can be forgiven. Some of us are not native English speaker. I bought The Gregg’s Reference Manual and it has hundreds of grammar rules in the English language. Not easy to master.
What I find annoying are typos and blatant spelling mistakes in a blog. Darren Rowse of Problogger seems to do this a lot. I don’t know if he’s in a hurry, or just don’t care. It’s not difficult to feed your post into a spelling checker.
Rudy’s last blog post..Pink eye
For me, I think my pet peeve is comma splices. But then again, it’s more of a peeve against myself.
Roberto Villegas’s last blog post..iPhone 1.1.3
You’re forgiven Rudy. But next time… ;P
Wow really? That’s kind of funny that you say Darren does it alot…he’s supposed to be the problogger right? ;o)
Yeah Robert, I, hate, comma splices, too.
Congratulations, Jay. You just got yourself your 37th subscriber. I manage and edit 14 bloggers and stuff like this makes me want to beat myself with the banana until I die. Best headline ever.
Yay! Make that 48th. But Feedburner can be so wishy-washy…tomorrow it’ll probably be 2.
Eat the banana instead, and strategically place the peel in front of those 14 bloggers. ;o)
Ooooh, like Mario Kart! I need one of those spinning banana things that give me five at a time. Aggression and never-before-seen productivity. Awesome!
When “pro” bloggers have to churn out that many posts to please the readers and advertisers, there is no time to make them pretty.
Which is why I’m sticking with you, Jay, the REAL pro blogger.
Rudy’s last blog post..Lunch Bits - Edition 8
[…] Walking home last night, a banana fell on my head. […]
Ha! You’re makin’ me puff out my chest.
Thanks Rudy.
I have a B.A. in English and was raised by two teachers, and I still make grammar mistakes! I know for a fact that I drop my participles quite often.
I don’t know how people from other countries ever learn English when even us natives can’t always follow all of the rules of grammar
Dropped my EntreCard while I was here–ooh, see what I did there? While I was here, I dropped my EntreCard-that’s the correct way to say it.
Elizabeth’s last blog post..Win a $50 Target Gift Card and learn about Capessa
yea i sea what u did. Your a horrible person elizabeth. ;o)
I recently read a great book about punctuation called, “Eats, Shoots & Leaves.” Check it out. It’s hilarious.
Thanks for stopping by Elizabeth.
I always proofread and edit before publishing, but I bet big money that I’ve got some danglers hanging out in my writing.
Thanks for the little lesson!
K Stone’s last blog post..Life Doesn’t Have to Be Miserable!
Hi Jay,
I’m sure you’re having fun with the IttyBiz-bump! Since Naomi told me to, I looked at your About page, and you might want to take a closer look, not for dangling participles, but for homophones. Hint: Your unlikely to like seeing you’re own mistake. I hope this makes me (based on Wednesday’s IttyBiz post) a “Genuine Dissenter” as opposed to the other kind, even though this is my first visit to your site.
Nice site, btw.
- Todd
Todd D. Esposito’s last blog post..Stardom, Take 2
@K Stone - Me too, but I’m sure I miss things…like homophones…
@Todd - Holy crap. I’m such a stickler about that one. YOU’RE truly a “Genuine Dissenter.”
Thanks Todd.
Hah! I was about to point out the “you’re” mistake too, but Jay beat me to it.
Rudy’s last blog post..To rant, or not to rant
[…] Check this out. And […]
NICE ARTICLE. THANKS FOR SHARING. THOROUGHLY ENJOYED READING. GOOD LUCK
Editor, The SciTech Journal’s last blog post..iPhone, Positive and Negative
Its a good point, and grammatically it should be avoided, but how many bloggers even knew what a dangling participle was before reading this? For that matter, how many people are going to read over a dangling participle and realize its incorrect.
Sure, its not as obvious as someone using leetspeak to write a blog, but in the modern age of writing, it seems so trivial.
Judge’s last blog post..Josh Brolin as President Bush?
Probably the same amount of people that are going to read over the last sentence of your first paragraph and fail to realize you forgot the question mark. ;o)
Just because the majority may not give a second glance doesn’t mean we can’t continue to educate ourselves. Perhaps they never knew they were being grammatically incorrect.
But perhaps you’re right; in this modern age of writing it really doesn’t seem to matter. I see “Pro Bloggers” making incredibly obvious grammar and spelling mistakes in just about every post.
Hi there. I have often been annoyed by grammar mistakes in otherwise interesting and readable blog posts. I was actually thinking that in this age of new media, some of the larger blogs should have a copy editor. My biggest pet peeves are similar to your own:
comma splice (connecting two independent clauses with nothing more than a comma)
unnecessary commas
ending sentences with a preposition
dangling modifiers
not knowing the difference between “your” (possessive) and “you’re” (you + are) or “there” (location) “their” (possessive) and “they’re” (they + are)
That seems like a long list, but I feel that if someone is serious about making money as a writer, he or she can take time to train themselves according to six fairly simple rules (at least). Of course, we all make mistakes and typos and if everyone were obsessing over grammar instead of actually writing, nothing would get written. I think what you’re doing here is awesome. Keep fighting the good fight!
midnightferret’s last blog post..I’m Taking Advantage of This Opportunity
You forgot “it’s” and its” or “i.e.” and “e.g.” or “could of, would of” instead of “could have, would have”…
;o)
See, I have a much longer list than you do so don’t feel bad. I don’t stress about it though…after all, what you said is true. If I did, nothing would get written.
Thanks for dropping in midnightferret.
Hah! I just realized I had a pronoun agreement error in that comment…
midnightferret’s last blog post..Focus? What’s Focus? Do I Have It?
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