Now that I have your attention, I’d like to talk about dangling participles. This most famous of danglers is must-know stuff for any self-respecting smarty-pants. Not because the concept will help ...

READING THIS sentence, it may occur to you that something is slightly awry with it. Or you may not notice anything wrong at all. The first three words are a “dangling modifier”. This writing fault has ...

I have been traveling lately, and my word preoccupation rarely takes a vacation. I am not saying this is normal. On the drive north on an interstate, a sign read: When flashing, stop ahead The "when ...

Danglers are an extremely important language concept. Not so much for writers as for jokesters. Danglers in writing and speech don’t necessarily hurt the reader ...

DEAR RICHARD: In a recent edition of the Union-Tribune, I read the following sentence: “Santee leaders passed an ordinance banning children under age 12 from riding e-bikes inDecember.” Why only in ...

What is wrong with these sentences? Hopping briskly through the vegetable garden, John saw a toad. Gently warmed in the oven and smothered in cream cheese, my friends loved the bagels. To be really ...

I wouldn’t know a participle from a hole in the ground, but I know what a dangling participle is; or, at least, I recognise one when I see one, having had them pointed out to me so often. It’s when ...

Consider this sentence, which I heard on Channel 2 on Feb. 3, 2006, at 3:30 p.m. The narrator/presenter was preparing the audience for another episode of "Broadway, the American Musical," which dealt ...