Aligning Subjects and Verbs

Overview of the problem

Perhaps you've seen this mistake: "Walking down the street, the saunterer lost a wheel." This sentence connotes that the saunterer is walking down the street, which would be a very interesting sight, indeed. The job is that the silent topic of the introductory phrase makes not fit the grammatical topic of the chief sentence, the stroller. The author cognizes what he/she means, but the reader may be confused. (Isn't grammar fun?). Editing this sentence will assist the reader understand what you are trying to say, which is the intent of editing.

The job in this sample sentence is rather easy to descry and easy to edit. Sample alterations include:

"[Mary] was pushing the saunterer down the street when it lost a wheel."

"The saunterer lost a wheel when [Mary] was walking down the street."

"The saunterer lost a wheel when being pushed down the street."

"The saunterer lost a wheel." (This presumes that the author have already established that Virgin Virgin Virgin Mary was pushing it down the street. On 2nd thought, why would Virgin Mary be pushing a saunterer in a street and not on the sidewalk? This looks a descry unsafe to us.)

Sample problem

This type of mistake can be difficult to spot and edit, but doing so cut downs possible readers' confusion and do your sentences more than direct, more cohesive, and, ultimately, stronger. See this sentence:

Mary spoke about nil but her childhood experiences for more than than an hour, but when finally winding down, British Shilling realized that he was bored to tears.

The silent topic of finally winding down is Mary, but this sentence neckties it to Bob, the grammatical topic of the independent clause that follows. These are not aligned properly and give the reader an wrong interpretation. In this case, revising isn't too hard.

The solution

We have got two chief schemes for redaction this type of grammar error:

1) Break the sentence and attach the phrase to the right subject. ("...for more than than an hr before winding down. British Shilling finally realized that he...")

2) Modify the introductory phrase so that the silent topic mentions to the grammatical topic of the sentence. ("...and seeing that she was finally winding down, British Shilling realized...")

In a nutshell, what you are doing is making certain that the verbs of the sentences suit their grammatical topics and that phrases introducing clauses mention to the topics of those clauses. When you are writing your ain sentences, see how your verbs and topics are aligned.

One last sample

By the way, the most humorous mistake of this type that we have got seen is (paraphrased): "Swimming happily along the shore, the cadaver floated by his head." We go forth it up to you to find why this is so amusing to us.