EXERCISE 14.1: Proofreading Practice

The following paragraph contains several dangling modifiers. Identify them by listing the ones you find for each sentence.

(1) According to some anthropologists, the fastball may be millions of years older than the beginning of baseball. (2) To prove this point, prehistoric toolmaking sites, such as Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, are offered as evidence. (3) These sites are littered with smooth, roundish stones not suitable for flaking into tools. (4) Suspecting that the stones might have been used as weapons, anthropologists have speculated that these stones were thrown at enemies and animals being hunted. (5) Searching for other evidence, historical accounts of primitive peoples have been combed for stories of rock throwing. (6) Here early adventurers are described as being caught by rocks thrown hard and fast. (7) Used in combat, museums have collections of these handstones. (8) So stone throwing may have been a major form of defense and a tool for hunting. (9) Being an impulse that still has to be curbed, parents still find themselves teaching their children not to throw stones.

EXERCISE 14.3: Proofreading Practice

Some of these sentences contain misplaced modifiers and unclear modifiers. Draw an arrow from the misplaced modifier to the more appropriate location.  After finishing a huge dinner, he only ate a few cherries for dessert.

(1) The man who was carrying the sack of groceries with an umbrella walked carefully to his car. (2) He only bought a small amount of food for his lunch because he was going to leave town that afternoon. (3) He whistled to his huge black dog opening the car door and set the groceries in the trunk. (4) The dog jumped into the trunk happily with the groceries.