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Disconnected Modifiers in Context

Knowing how to identify and correct sentence mistakes is key to good writing.  Even experienced writers make sentence-level mistakes, but experienced writers also know to be suspicious of their writing and to spend time examining each sentence for clarity and correctness before publishing their work. Before you move on to your exit assignment for this unit, examine the following paragraphs for any dangling modifiers and click on those sentences to see the author's corrections.

After class is done and I’m dripping with sweat, it’s off to the shower. Walking down the stairs to the first floor, there are many familiar faces—Mrs. Lewis is headed to the weight room; John Taylor is headed to the next spin class; Dorothy Sawyer is done with her workout and is off to work. I am ecstatic to be walking down and not up with sweat making my clothes stick to my skin. Passing by the coffee cart on my way to the locker room I nod hello to the cart attendant. Inside the locker room the voices of woman fill the air, as I try to find my thoughts. The voices fade as one by one the women leave, and a conversation the next aisle down catches my ear; two voices discussing the love for the arthritis swim class, and yet complaining at the same time about the cold eighty-five degree temperature water. The conversation continues as I start to dress with the words “I don’t know what I would do without the Y," and I understand that you can complain about something but still really need it.

Seeing the sights of Santa Rosa Avenue always makes me hungry, all that exercise walking up and down, in and out of all these fabulous stores.  It is a good thing that whenever I am around, there is always something to fill my stomach’s desire.  If I am near 1150 Santa Rosa Avenue on the south side of town, there is Willie Birds.  A large barbequed turkey leg in the middle of summer can really fill a person up.  This older Southern restaurant has established a name for itself by providing fried, barbequed, and smoked poultry all over the USA.  They serve this food in a restaurant that is an old building, with four stained glass windows that serve as the buildings only form of color, which looks like a torn-down brown brick barn.  The restaurant displays a large turkey wearing a straw hat in its logo inviting customers into the eatery.