Place the description beside the right subject.
By Adam Frick · Illustrated draftWho was holding the recording device?
A researcher interviews a patient with a recording device. Who has the device? Before polishing that sentence, I want an answer to that small but essential question. One revision gives the device to the patient; another makes the device part of the researcher’s method. A fluent sentence can still tell the wrong story, so the first editing job is to establish which story the writer means.
See the supporting references.Give the device to the right person.
Give the opening action an actor.
Constructed teaching exampleAfter reviewing the draft, the errors became obvious.
Maya noticed the errors after reviewing the draft.
Identify who has the device.
Constructed teaching exampleThe researcher interviewed the patient with a recording device.
The researcher interviewed the patient who was carrying a recording device.
Express the alternative meaning.
Constructed teaching exampleThe researcher interviewed the patient with a recording device.
The researcher used a recording device to record the interview with the patient.
See the published wording.
Nearly 25 years since its launch, data from this space-based solar observatory has led to the discovery
Having finished the assignment, the TV was turned on.
Grammar cannot tell you who acted.
I prefer to place a description where the intended connection is explicit. But the neat revision about Maya reviewing a draft supplies a person whom the original never names. Unless Maya really did the reviewing, that repair invents a fact. Purdue’s dangling-modifier guidance explains the grammatical problem; the writer must still provide the missing information.
References and evidence
Read the evidence and its limits.
Purdue OWL explains why an introductory action needs an appropriate grammatical subject. The NASA excerpt illustrates a different issue: the opening delays identification of the observatory. The constructed comparisons distinguish those problems and make the factual assumptions behind each revision explicit.