I’m reading Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak right now and I stumbled upon a really interesting misplaced modifier in a sentence. A little over halfway through the book (p. 108 in the softcover Platinum Edition — ISBN: 0142407321), Melinda states that:

“It is easier to floss with barbed wire than admit you like someone in middle school.”

Before going further, maybe it would be best to define a “misplaced modifier” for all of you that aren’t exactly English nerds like I am. According to The Writers’ Workshop at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, misplaced modifiers are:

“single words, phrases, or clauses that do not point clearly to the word or words they modify. As a rule, related words usually should be kept together.”

An example taken from the site is:

“The robber was described as a tall man with a black moustache weighing 150 pounds.”

In that example, the sloppy wording makes it sound like the moustache weighs 150 pounds, which is clearly incorrect. Now that you’ve seen an example, I’m sure you can see where I’m going with the line from Speak. 🙂

Anderson’s wording makes it seem like Melinda believes that liking a middle-schooler is harder than “flossing with barbed wire.” This grammatical error made me laugh out loud because I took it at face value. I thought Melinda was thinking of herself as a “grown-up highschooler” now and wouldn’t consider junior-high boys because they are all babies.

And now, I decline.

|:| Zach |:|