Fix Misplaced Phrases and Clauses

Read a few sentences aloud and ask what they really say before students start. Then have students check their own drafts for opening phrases.

Move misplaced phrases and clauses in sentences about a pet show, like the poodle with a clipboard. Keep a modifying phrase or clause right next to the word it describes. When it lands next to the wrong word, the sentence says something odd. The directions on the page read: Each sentence about a pet show has a misplaced phrase or clause. Rewrite the whole sentence on the 2 lines so the modifier sits next to the word it describes. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 8th grade sentences, and it works the same at home or at school. At home, a student can work through it alone and then go over it with you, which shows quickly what is solid and what needs another look. In class it works as independent practice, homework or a warm-up, and you can print one copy or a full set.

A misplaced modifier describes a word that is in the sentence but sits in the wrong spot. A dangling modifier has no word in the sentence that it can sensibly describe, so the opening phrase attaches to the wrong subject.

Make the subject after the comma the one doing the action, or rewrite the phrase as a clause. Hiking up the steep trail, we felt our backpacks grow heavier fixes the camping sentence.

Yes. On Dangling Participles to Fix, students write OK and name the noun when the opening phrase already describes the subject, as with Ravi pulling on a second sweater.