Question

the following sentence has a dangling modifier.
after reading the book it was based on, several key plot elements were missing from the movie.
which revision best corrects the error in this sentence?
○ several key elements were missing from the movie, i noticed, after i read the book it was based on.
○ i noticed that several key plot elements were missing from the movie after i read the book it was based on.
○ after reading the book that the movie was based on, i noticed that the movie was missing several key plot elements.
○ i noticed, after i read the book it was based on, that several key plot elements were missing from the movie.

Explanation:

A dangling modifier occurs when the modifier (here, "After reading the book it was based on") doesn't clearly modify the intended subject. The original sentence implies "several key plot elements" read the book, which is illogical. We need to rephrase so the modifier modifies a logical subject (a person, like "I").

• Option 1: Has a comma splice (two independent clauses joined by a comma).
• Option 2: The placement of "after I read..." is awkward and still has some ambiguity.
• Option 3: Correctly structures the sentence: the modifier "After reading the book that the movie was based on" modifies "I", and the rest of the sentence clearly states what "I" noticed.
• Option 4: The structure is less clear and more convoluted than Option 3.

So Option 3 properly corrects the dangling modifier by making "I" the subject of the modifier and clearly stating the action.

Answer:

C. After reading the book that the movie was based on, I noticed that the movie was missing several key plot elements.