Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.

You see the problem, right? “Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender” should by followed by who or what did the enjoying and chatting. Having “the evening” in that position brings us up short.

A participle is a word formed from a verb. Present participles – the ones usually left dangling – are formed with -ing.

The nifty thing participles can do in English is to function as adjectives to modify nouns: finishing touches, talking points, flying squirrel.

A dangling participle happens when a participial phrase, usually at the beginning of a sentence, is not completed by the noun, pronoun, or noun phrase it modifies.

Let me give you a couple of examples from emails or articles that have crossed my desk recently:

  • Speaking as a psychologist myself, these newsletters continuously provide relevant and intriguing discussion topics.

See the problem? The person “speaking as a psychologist” should follow immediately after the participial phrase. Here’s one way to correct it:

  • Speaking as a psychologist myself, I find these newsletters full of relevant and intriguing discussion topics.

Here’s another:

  • After reflecting on the negative thoughts, they lost their strength and my fears diminished.

The person who was “reflecting” should follow the participial phrase. Instead, we have the pronoun “they,” referring to negative thoughts.

You could recast the second part of the sentence to put “I” in the subject position, but I’d change the first part instead:

  • After I reflected on the negative thoughts, they lost their strength and my fears diminished.

See how it works? Now you try.

  • Examining the feasibility of administering the program via videos, responses indicate that parents and children thought there were both pros and cons.
  • Keeping an eye open to possibility, the act of clinging can be reduced and happiness increased.

In my experience, dangling participles are easy to find and correct when they’re someone else’s. When they’re your own, not so much. That’s why the world needs editors! If you need one, I’m here for you.