Misplaced modifiers

A source of confusion

Good morning, everyone!

Have you ever posted something on social media and been surprised when people completely misinterpreted your meaning? One reason for this misunderstanding could be misplaced modifiers. Misreadings like this can be humorous in social settings, but what if you have misplaced modifiers in your résumé or other work-related documents? They could cost you a job or a promotion.

After reading this post, you can eliminate this source of ambiguity and confusion from your writing, making it more precise and easier to understand.

What is a misplaced modifier?

A misplaced modifier occurs when you have a noun-modifying word or phrase in your sentence that readers could apply to more than one noun. Let's look at some real-world examples of misplaced modifiers.

Back in my 20s, around the time Moses parted the red sea, I read a book called Why Me? by Donald E. Westlake. In one scene, the narrator describes FBI agent Malcolm Zachary's partner like this:

Zarchary's partner, a younger man with a moustache named Freedly—

Well, no. The man was named Freedly.

Zachary's partner, a younger man named Freedly with a moustache—

Zachary's partner, a moustached younger man named Freedly...

The first sentence in this prose is an example of a misplaced modifier, and the other sentences are the narrator trying humorously to fix the problem.

In the example above, it is unclear (albeit intentionally for humorous effect) whether the phrase "named Freedly" adds detail to the noun Zachary's partner or his mustache.

Let's fix the opening sentence to eliminate the misplaced modifier. Let's also use the American variant of the word mustache so my word processor will stop complaining about my spelling.

Zarchary's partner, Freedly, a younger man with a mustache...

That’s better.

Another example of a misplaced modifier is the first sentence of this Groucho Marx joke,

One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know.

Let me know how you would fix this misplaced modifier in the comments.

How can you detect misplaced modifiers in your writing?

The easiest way to detect misplaced modifiers is to see if you can apply your modifiers to more than one noun. Let's walk through another example. 

Now topped with frosting, Mary admired her finished birthday cake.

Looking closely, you'll see that we can apply the modifier "topped with frosting" to two nouns in this sentence: Mary and the cake. Ah ha! We have found a misplaced modifier.

If we apply the modifier "topped with frosting" to the finished birthday cake, we get a reasonable sentence that is most likely the meaning we were trying to convey. However, if we apply "topped with frosting" to Mary, we have a messy scene indeed.

To fix this, we must structure our sentence so that "topped with frosting" can only modify one noun.

"Mary admired her birthday cake now that she had finished topping it with frosting."

Now, we've eliminated the misplaced modifier, and our sentence conveys the message we want it to. In addition, we have ensured our readers will understand our meaning correctly.

Congratulations

Now that you've reached the bottom of this post, you're ready to write clear and precise résumés, business letters, creative stories, and social media posts that won't confuse your readers.

In a later post, we'll look at another type of misplaced modifier, the squinting modifier. See you then.