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Ferdis Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Dangling participle
Consider the following sentence:
"All information must be kept secret when reviewing a paper."
In this case we have a dangling participle in 'when reviewing a paper' because it does not reference anything in the sentence --- the intention is, of course, to refer to the reviewer, the one about to read the paper. It is easy to rewrite this sentence to 'All information must be kept secret when you review a paper', but in very formal writing you want to avoid using these personal pronouns. One option is to use 'one', resulting in the sentence 'All information must be kept secret when one reviews a paper'. However, can you also say 'All information must be kept secret when a paper is reviewed'? Here the indirect object is implied --- 'by you'. Is an implied indirect object just as bad as a dangling participle, or is it OK?
"All information must be kept secret when reviewing a paper."
In this case we have a dangling participle in 'when reviewing a paper' because it does not reference anything in the sentence --- the intention is, of course, to refer to the reviewer, the one about to read the paper. It is easy to rewrite this sentence to 'All information must be kept secret when you review a paper', but in very formal writing you want to avoid using these personal pronouns. One option is to use 'one', resulting in the sentence 'All information must be kept secret when one reviews a paper'. However, can you also say 'All information must be kept secret when a paper is reviewed'? Here the indirect object is implied --- 'by you'. Is an implied indirect object just as bad as a dangling participle, or is it OK?
Top answer
Sounds fine to me, as do any dangling participles that are unambiguous, as this one is.
- Sounds fine to me, as do any dangling participles that are unambiguous, as this one is.
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1 Answers
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Sounds fine to me, as do any dangling participles that are unambiguous, as this one is.
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