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General practice or not, there is no substitute for proper English - and
dangling modifiers result in sentences that are sometimes humorous, often
misconstrued, and difficult for people of other languages to interpret.
I'm sorry, but I'll have to side with the VP on this one.
Kim
_________________________________
Kim McCarter
Information Design & Development
Harris Corporation, Network Support Division
(321) 724-3497
kmccarte -at- harris -dot- com
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-----Original Message-----
From: Ellen Kelly [mailto:EllenK -at- mentergy -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2002 11:22 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Dangling Modifiers
What's the current thought on dangling modifers?
Every time our VP edits my docs (we are a small company, I take whatever
edits I can get!) he marks up dangling modifiers. My thought on the subject,
which we disucss every time, is that it makes for awkward sentence
constructions that do not mirror the way people talk. This in turn makes the
documentation hard to read, as you have to stop and think through the
sentence.
I usually end up going through and rewriting the sentences so that it is not
an issue. But I resent it, and feel that it is unnecessary.
This time, the documentation "that I have have added dangling modifers to"
will remain as is. Is this blasphemy?
-Ellen
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