Don’t Dangle

Will we ever know what became of all the mannequins?

An editor complimented me this week by saying I was the first author she had ever known to fix a dangling participle rather than introduce one. I’m proud.

A dangling participle sounds like some finicky grammar tidbit only a fusspot would worry about, but it’s actually quite simple. It’s all about getting a descriptive phrase (the participle) next to the noun it modifies. If it’s closer to a different noun, it “dangles”–i.e. it’s not securely attached to the right noun.

Like this:

The site of the infamous Mannequin Massacre, Algernon had always been fascinated by Lord Lingleberry’s Tower.

The participle (“the site of the infamous Mannequin Massacre”) appears to describe Algernon rather than Lord Lingleberry’s Tower. It dangles.

Algernon had always been fascinated by Lord Lingleberry’s Tower, the site of the infamous Mannequin Massacre.

Now the participle is securely next to the noun it describes. No more dangling.