I usually don't get too much into grammar on this blog, partly because it's not my strongest point either, but there's one error I've been seeing a lot lately. Here's an example, a headline in an online medical newsletter I receive:
"Hope for cancer patients found in citrus peels."
What are those cancer patients doing in citrus peels?
The classic example of this sentence construction is the old Groucho Marx joke: "One night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. What the elephant was doing in my pajamas I'll never know!"
In the world of Groucho, it may well have been that the elephant was wearing his pajamas (or pyjamas), but in the case of the prostate cancer patients I'm pretty sure they meant, "Citrus peels offer hope for cancer patients." (Just moving it around to "Hope found in citrus peels for cancer patients" is closer than the first version but still awkward.)
I had to look up what this is called: a misplaced modifier, apparently. (And you have no idea how many scholarly papers there are out there that reference the Grouch marx line.) Here's the simple explanation, from a site trying to prepare students for the SAT exam:
"When reading a sentence that contains a modifier, pay attention to what the modifier is describing. My friend saw a puppy on the way to school. The modifying phrase "on the way to school" is misplaced. Since it is closer to "puppy" than to "my friend," the modifier seems to describe "puppy." The puppy was not on the way to school. My friend was on the way to school. To correct the sentence, move the modifier closer to the words it is describing." [If you want to read more about this, go here.]
The problem with mistakes like this, or mixing up peek and peak and pique, for instance, is that it distracts the reader from what you're trying to say. So while I fee like some old high school grammar noodge saying it, it's true: grammar and punctuation count!
