There are many collections of hilarious dangling modifiers.
A quick Internet search turned up a Yahoo Answers site
that included these two:
>Having finished my dinner, the waitress offered to bring out the dessert tray.
>
>At age seven, her grandfather passed away.
There are funnier ones, but I shouldn't spoil your Friday afternoon fun
by finding them for you. Besides, they're easy to invent:
"Having spent too much time on the Internet,
the examples can be left to the reader."
We can agree that humor, used properly, can enhance the educational process.
At 02:24 PM 5/21/2010, Ralph A. Raimi wrote:
> Jonathan Groves's example of a dangling participle is a bit lengthy and its logical impotence is not easily seen by someone, such as a fifteen year old, new to the game; so I beg permission to quote an equivalent example that makes the logical structure really evident: "Leaning out the window, it was a beautiful morning." I learned that one about seventy years ago, and it has been worth remembering.
>
>On Fri, 21 May 2010, Jonathan Groves wrote:
>
>> ( ... )
>>For instance, telling them that the sentence "Knowing
>>that fractions are difficult for me to understand, math will always be
>>tough for me to understand" contains a dangling modifier makes no sense to
>>most of them since they don't know what a dangling modifier is.
>> ( ... )
Martin C. Tangora
University of Illinois at Chicago
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