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Broken Construction Sometimes the beginning of a sentence presents quite a differ... Propriety Propriety of style consists in using words in their proper se... Expressive Of Writer Style is expressive of the writer, as to who he is and what h... Attraction Very often the verb is separated from its real nominative or ... Definitions A Pronoun is a word used for or instead of a noun to keep us ... Am Comehave Come "I am come" points to my being here, while "I have come" inti... Present Perfect Tense Sing. Plural ... Ten Greatest American Poets Bryant, Poe, Whittier, Longfellow, Lowell, Emerson, Whitman, ...

LOOSE PARTICIPLES

Common Stumbling Blocks - Peculiar Constructions - Misused Forms. A participle or participial phrase is naturally referred to the nearest nominative. If only one nominative is expressed it claims all the participles that are not by the construction of the sentence otherwise fixed. "John, working in the field all day and getting thirsty, drank from the running stream." Here the participles working and getting clearly refer to John. But in the sentence,--"Swept along by the mob I could not save him," the participle as it were is lying around loose and may be taken to refer to either the person speaking or to the person spoken about. It may mean that I was swept along by the mob or the individual whom I tried to save was swept along. "Going into the store the roof fell" can be taken that it was the roof which was going into the store when it fell. Of course the meaning intended is that some person or persons were going into the store just as the roof fell. In all sentence construction with participles there should be such clearness as to preclude all possibility of ambiguity. The participle should be so placed that there can be no doubt as to the noun to which it refers. Often it is advisable to supply such words as will make the meaning obvious. Next: BROKEN CONSTRUCTION Previous: AND WITH THE RELATIVE Report Privacy SHARE BOOKMARK

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Beginning - Different Sources - The Present Common Stumbling Blocks - Peculiar Constructions - Misused Forms. Diction - Purity - Propriety - Precision. Different Kinds Arrangement of Words - Paragraph Divisions of Grammar Definitions - Etymology. Figures of Speech - Definitions and Examples Use of Figures Great Authors--Classification--The World's Best Books. How to Write - What to Write - Correct Speaking and Speakers Mistakes - Slips of Authors - Examples and Corrections - Errors of Redundancy. Principal Points - Illustrations - Capital Letters. Principles of Letter Writing - Forms - Notes Qualification - Appropriate Subjects - Directions Small Words - Their Importance - The Anglo-Saxon Element Vocabulary Parts of Speech - Requisites