Unlike identifying sentence errors where the mistake is generally grammatical (think: subject-verb agreement, appropriate pronoun choice etc), improving sentences questions have errors that involve the structure of the whole sentence. A common mistake in the sentence is modifier placement. A modifier is a word or group of words that provides more information about the noun or verb in the rest of the sentence. Usually, it’s placed right next to the word it is meant to modify.
E.g. A customer who was caught stealing was thrown out of the store by the security guard.
In this sentence, the modifying phrase is “who was caught stealing” and it is placed right next to the noun it is meant to modify – the customer. If it was placed anywhere else, for example, “A customer was thrown out of the store by the security guard who was caught stealing”, you might be led to think that it was the security guard who stole something, not the customer.
The use of words such as “that”, “which”, “who”, “whom” at a start of a phrase usually indicate that its a modifying phrase and you should try and keep it as close as possible to the word it is modifying. Sometimes, modifying phrases don’t use such words to let you know that it is the modifier. For example,
John and Judy sat discussing the music in the cafe.
Jake told me he went fishing at the store.
The sculptor created a statue filled with inspiration.
The above sentences can be ambiguous. In the first statement about John and Judy, are they discussing the music played at the cafe or are they sitting down at a cafe discussing some type of unknown music? In the second statement, is John fishing at the store? Or is he telling me that he went fishing while we were at the store? In the last statement, is the statue filled with inspiration or was the sculptor filled with inspiration when he molded the statue. Clearly, if I rephrased the above sentences into the format below, I would convey my intended meaning a lot more effectively.
John and Judy sat in the cafe, discussing the music. OR Sitting in the cafe, John and Judy discussed the music.
Jake told me at the store that he went fishing. OR At the store, Jake told me he went fishing.
Filled with inspiration, the sculptor created a statue. OR The sculptor, who was filled with inspiration, created a statue.
Let’s try to do a question from Grockit .
Forgetting its importance, history is a subject most students neglect.
A. Forgetting its importance, history is a subject most students neglect.
B. History is neglected by most students because of their forgetting its importance.
C. Most students, forgetting the value of history, and neglecting it.
D. Most students neglect history because they forget its importance.
E. A subject neglected by most students forgetting its importance is history.
The modifier here is “forgetting its importance” and the current phrasing in the question suggests that history itself forgets its importance. To be correct, it is the students who forget. This rules out choice A. Choice B is also out because “because of their forgetting” is wordy and awkward. Choice C has no verb; it uses two -ing words (gerunds), and would be correct if it said “Most students, forgetting the value of history, neglect it”. Choice D is grammatical and to the point. Choice E is in the passive voice and since there is a direct sentence in Choice D, that would be the best answer.
I hope you understand modifiers a little more. When in doubt, try to misinterpret the meaning of the question. If the structure is ambiguous and lets you do so, then you know that something is wrong with the placement of the modifier. The following is an exchange between two characters in the movie Mary Poppins. Can you spot the misplaced modifier?
“I once knew a man with a wooden leg named Smith.”
“What’s the name of his other leg?”
