Placement of modifiers (7)

When we misplace modifiers, we often create unintentional humor – and thereby distract our readers. For example, a recent article in The New York Times (registration required) included this sentence:

“Dr. Frumkin is a founder of Nucleix, a company based in Tel Aviv that has developed a test to distinguish real DNA samples from fake ones that it hopes to sell to forensics laboratories.”

Better:

Dr. Frumkin is a founder of Nucleix, a company based in Tel Aviv that has developed a test to distinguish real DNA samples from fake ones. The company hopes to sell its test to forensics laboratories.

This rewrite is two words longer than the original. We give up a little concision to gain a lot more clarity. A worthy trade-off.

The Takeaway: To avoid unintentional humor, avoid misplaced modifiers. Place every modifier close to the word or phrase it modifies. If that isn’t possible, and you think the reader may associate the modifier with the wrong word or phrase, then recast or break up the sentence.