Shifts in Time

Please read the following:
"In the movie, a young woman receives audio tapes in the mail. The tapes are intended for the previous tenant. The young woman listens to the tapes; they are recordings of 'the sounds of Formosa'.

A young audio technician sent the tapes. He sent the tapes to his ex-girfriend's former address. He didn't know that the ex-girlfriend moved. The young woman got the tapes instead.

The young woman lives a lonely life. She is having an affair with her boss, who is married. One day, she leaves her job and gets on her scooter. She travels through Taiwan to try to find the 'sounds of Formosa' that she hears on the tapes."

--What changes in this passage? In the first and third paragraph, I describe the plot in the present tense. In the second paragraph, I describe the plot in the past tense. This passage is badly written because of the time shift; the second paragraph should be in the present tense.

Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

"In High School, he rarely studied hard."

--"In High School,.." is the modifier. The modifier adds information to the noun that immediately comes after it. In this sentence, the modified noun (subject) is 'he'.

--A 'misplaced modifier' is too far away from the noun it wants to modify, and it appears to modify the wrong word.
"Burnt beyond recognition, my grandmother removed the turkey from the oven."

--the modifier 'burnt beyond recognition' wants to modify the word 'turkey'; instead, it modifies the word 'grandmother'. How would you fix the sentence?

--A 'dangling modifier' has nothing to modify, and it appears to modify the wrong word.
"After an eight hour nap, the plane landed in Taipei."

--Who took the nap? According to the sentence, the plane took the nap. You should change it to "After an eight hour nap, I awoke as the plane landed in Taipei."

Another example:
"At the age of nine, my family moved to Taichung."
--This is a dangling modifier. Change the modifier into a dependent clause.
"When I was nine, my family moved to Taichung."

Another example:
"As a family, the wife should cook and clean for her husband."
--This is another dangling modifier. It identifies only the wife "as a family." You should simply remove the modifier. (And you should make the husband cook and clean sometimes.)

Another example:
"Eating leaves from tall trees, we watched the giraffes at the zoo."
--This is a misplaced modifier because it sounds like "we" are eating leaves from tall trees. Move the prepositional phrase to the beginning of the sentence, and move the "eating..." section to after "giraffes".
"At the zoo, we watched the giraffes eating leaves from tall trees."

A Special Offer

Class:
Some of you have tried to turn in your Paper 1 rewrites late. For this week only, I will accept your Paper 1 rewrites if you bring them to my office hour.
I will give you the opportunity to rewrite Paper 2 as well. It will be due one week after the Paper 2 analysis is due.
Please look to the site this week for a post on "misplaced and dangling modifiers" and "shifts in time."
Sean

I Am Back

Hello everyone:
I am back, but I need to rest before I can catch up with the grading. I will try to keep today's (November 7) office hour. You can pick up your papers at my office hours this week, but I might not have graded your paper when you show up; I will grade it while you are there. I should be caught up by the end of the weekend.
Best,
Sean