Modification

Learning Objectives

In this section, you will learn how to: 

• Define modifier and differentiate between adjectives and adverbs
• Articulate where in a sentence a modifier should be found, relative to the concept it is modifying
• Apply the Kaplan Method for Sentence Correction to sentences that may have modification errors

A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that describes another part of the sentence. It should be placed as close as possible to whatever it is modifying. Adjectives modify nouns; adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Modifiers describe the word that they are right next to. (The only exception is the case of two modifiers; one has to be first.) The GMAT often creates modification errors by making a modifier appear to describe a word that it actually doesn’t. Use Pattern Recognition to help you spot modification errors on the GMAT.

Modifiers and Their Placement

The most common GMAT modification error is a long modifier at the beginning of the sentence. It should modify the subject of the sentence but will likely not do so properly. Another common modification error is a long modifier that appears in the middle or at the end of a sentence. Often, such a modifier on the GMAT will logically describe something elsewhere in the sentence, but grammatically a modifying phrase must modify the word that comes immediately before or after it. The result of a misplaced modifier is a nonsensical sentence. Also look out for the following:

• Sentences beginning or ending with descriptive phrases
• That/which clauses, especially ones that come at the end of sentences

Modification Exercise

Answers follow this exercise.

In each of the following sentences, first identify what each clause or phrase is modifying. Then, fix each error you find.

1. Upon landing at the airport, the hotel sent a limousine to pick us up.
2. Based on the most current data available, the company made plans to diversify its holdings.
3. Small and taciturn, Joan Didion’s presence often goes unnoticed by those she will later write about.
4. I took several lessons to learn how to play tennis without getting the ball over the net even once.
5. The house overlooked the lake, which was set back from the shore.

Modification Exercise: Answers

1. The sentence seems to be saying that the hotel landed at the airport. Your common sense will tell you that “[u]pon landing at the airport” really intends to modify the unnamed we, instead. So you could say, Upon landing at the airport, we were met by a limousine the hotel had sent.
2. As written, it sounds as though the company was based on current data. “Based on the most current data available” modifies the subject “company.” Obviously, though, what was based on the data were the “plans,” not the company. Based on the most current data available, plans were made to diversify the company’s holdings.
3. It’s Joan Didion—not her presence—who is small and taciturn. Small and taciturn, Joan Didion often goes unnoticed . . .
4. As written, “without getting the ball over the net” is describing “how to play tennis.” The intended meaning is much more likely to be I took many tennis lessons before I could get the ball over the net even once.
5. The misplaced modifying clause produces an absurd image: a lake that’s set back from its own shore. Of course, the “which” clause should follow “[t]he house”: The house, which was set back from the shore, overlooked the lake.

Applying the Kaplan Method: Modification

Now let’s use the Kaplan Method on a Sentence Correction question dealing with modification:

1. Subjects tend to be vividly but disturbingly portrayed in Egon Schiele’s portraits, often his closest friends and relatives.
   1. Subjects tend to be vividly but disturbingly portrayed in Egon Schiele’s portraits, often his closest friends and relatives.
   2. Subjects tend to be vividly but disturbingly portrayed in Egon Schiele’s portraits, who were often his closest friends and relatives.
   3. Subjects of Egon Schiele’s portraits, often his closest friends and relatives, tend to be vividly but disturbingly portrayed.
   4. In Egon Schiele’s portraits, the subjects, often his closest friends and relatives, tend to be vividly but disturbingly portrayed.
   5. Vividly but disturbingly, the subjects portrayed in Egon Schiele’s portraits tended to be his closest friends and relatives.

Step 1: Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors

The entire sentence is underlined, but don’t let that intimidate you. Use the Kaplan Method as you normally would and look for common errors. In this case, the error is a misplaced modifier at the end of the sentence. (Keep in mind that misplaced modifiers can occur anywhere in a sentence, not just at the beginning.) Here, the modifier is the final phrase set off by a comma, “often his closest friends and relatives.” This phrase should refer to “subjects,” but it’s placed right next to “portraits.” Always ask yourself when you see a modifier, “What should this word or phrase refer to? Is it as close to that word or phrase as possible?”

Step 2: Scan and Group the Answer Choices

As you scan, be on the lookout for where the modifier is placed. In these answer choices, the modifying phrase appears in several different positions. Any choice placing it far from the word it modifies—“subjects”—should be eliminated. In (B), the modifying clause “who were often his closest friends and relatives” seems to refer to “portraits” rather than “subjects.” Choice (B) retains the same problem as (A), so you can eliminate it. Choice (D) places the modifier immediately after “subjects,” so this is likely to be your answer.

Step 3: Eliminate Choices Until Only One Remains

In choice (C), “subjects of Egon Schiele’s portraits” seems to be one syntactical unit, so the phrase “often his closest friends and relatives” appears correctly to modify “subjects,” even though it is not directly adjacent to “subjects.” However, (C) is wrong because it is unclear whether “tend to be vividly but disturbingly portrayed” refers to how these subjects are displayed in the portraits or elsewhere; perhaps biographers of Schiele depict them in this manner.

Finally, choice (E) is incorrect because the adverbial phrase “[v]ividly but disturbingly” appears to refer to the verb “tended” rather than to the adjective “portrayed,” making it seem as if the subjects’ tendency to be Egon’s friends is what’s vivid and disturbing. Only (D) properly addresses this misplaced modifier problem; it is therefore your correct answer. Moreover, (D), unlike (C), makes it clear that the vivid but disturbing portrayal is in the portraits themselves. 

Takeaways: Modification

• Adjectives modify nouns; adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
• A modifying phrase must clearly refer to what it modifies. To this end, it should be placed as close as possible to what it modifies.
• Many GMAT modification errors involve misplaced modifiers at the beginning of the sentence. When there is a modifying phrase at the beginning of the sentence, make sure that the thing the phrase describes follows the comma.
• Misplaced modifiers can also occur in the middle and at the end of a sentence, and they may or may not be set off by commas.
• When a modifying word or phrase appears in many different positions in the answer choices, determine what it is meant to modify and pick the choice that places it where it belongs.

Practice Set: Modification

14. Despite being called one of the founding members of the Impressionist movement, Edgar Degas’s paintings often depicted interior scenes as opposed to the landscapes depicted by most other Impressionists, and he publicly rejected the label.
    1. Edgar Degas’s paintings often depicted interior scenes as opposed to the landscapes depicted by most other Impressionists, and he publicly rejected the label
    2. Edgar Degas’s paintings were unlike most other Impressionists in that they often depicted interior scenes as opposed to landscapes, and he publicly rejected the label
    3. Edgar Degas publicly rejected the label and often depicted interior scenes in his paintings instead of landscapes, which were unlike most other Impressionists
    4. Edgar Degas publicly rejected the label and, unlike most other Impressionists, often depicted interior scenes in his paintings instead of landscapes
    5. the interior scenes depicted by Edgar Degas, who rejected the label, were unlike the landscapes depicted by most other Impressionists
15. The superb lyrebird is known for the producing of elaborate songs, including astounding mimicry of other birds and even non-bird animals such as dingoes, which it often uses as part of a complex courtship ritual.
    1. the producing of elaborate songs, including astounding mimicry of other birds and even non-bird animals such as dingoes, which it often uses as part of a complex courtship ritual
    2. producing elaborate songs, which are often used as part of a complex courtship ritual and can include astounding mimicry of other birds and even non-bird animals such as dingoes
    3. their elaborate songs, which can include both astounding mimicry of other birds and even non-bird animals such as dingoes, and also is used as part of a complex courtship ritual
    4. its elaborate songs and astounding mimicry of both other birds as well as non-bird animals such as dingoes, which are often used as part of a complex courtship ritual
    5. the elaborate songs, which they produce, often being used as a part of a complex courtship ritual, including an astounding mimicry of other birds and even non-bird animals such as dingoes
16. Believing in 1958 that Alaska and Hawaii would soon become part of the United States, high school student Bob Heft, for a history class project, designed a flag with 50 stars; approved by President Eisenhower, that design became the American flag.
    1. high school student Bob Heft, for a history class project, designed a flag with 50 stars; approved by President Eisenhower, that design became the American flag
       
    2. for a history class project, high school student Bob Heft designed a flag with 50 stars; approved by President Eisenhower, that design became the American flag
       
    3. the American flag, designed by high school student Bob Heft with 50 stars for a history class project, was approved by President Eisenhower
    4. high school student Bob Heft, for a history class project, designed a flag with 50 stars; approved by President Eisenhower, the American flag was what that design became
       
    5. for a history class project, high school student Bob Heft designed a flag with 50 stars; approved by President Eisenhower, the American flag was what that design became
       
17. Consisting of surreal, nightmarish dreamscapes, H. R. Giger created artwork that often inspires feelings of unease and dread in those who view it, and these reactions are why it was chosen as the basis for the design of the title creature in the 1979 horror movie Alien.
    1. H. R. Giger created artwork that often inspires feelings of unease and dread in those who view it, and these reactions are why it was
    2. the artwork of H. R. Giger often inspires feelings of unease and dread in those who view it, and these reactions are why it is
    3. H. R. Giger created artwork that often inspired feelings of unease and dread in those who view it, and these reactions are why it is
    4. the artwork of H. R. Giger often inspires feelings of unease and dread in those who view it, and these reactions are why it was
    5. the artwork of H. R. Giger often inspired feelings of unease and dread in those who view it, and these reactions are why it was

Advanced Practice Set: Modification

18. The recently discovered planet Kepler-90i was found via machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence in which the identification of planets learned by computers is done from data by finding in the Kepler telescope instances of recorded signals from planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets.
    1. the identification of planets learned by computers is done from data by finding in the Kepler telescope instances of recorded signals from planets
    2. computers learn to identify planets by finding in the Kepler telescope instances of recorded signals from planets beyond our solar system
       
    3. computers learn to identify planets by finding in data from the Kepler telescope instances of the planet’s recorded signals from
       
    4. computers learn to identify planets by finding in data from the Kepler telescope instances of recorded signals from planets
    5. the identification of planets is learned by computers by finding in data from the Kepler telescope instances of recorded signals from planets
19. Closely interrelated concepts, a change in macroeconomic policy tends to affect numerous microeconomic transactions, and the accumulation of microeconomic decisions typically influences the focus of macroeconomic studies, so any economics curriculum requires considerable study of both macroeconomic and microeconomic concepts.
    1. Closely interrelated concepts, a change in macroeconomic policy tends to affect numerous microeconomic transactions, and the accumulation of microeconomic decisions typically influences the focus of macroeconomic studies, so
       
    2. A change in macroeconomic policy tends to affect microeconomic transactions numerously, and the accumulation of microeconomic decisions influences the focus of macroeconomic studies typically; since the concepts of macroeconomics and microeconomics are related closely,
       
    3. A change in macroeconomic policy tends to affect numerous microeconomic transactions, and the accumulation of microeconomic decisions typically influences the focus of macroeconomic studies as a closely related concept, so
       
    4. A change in macroeconomic policy tends to affect numerous microeconomic transactions, and the accumulation of microeconomic decisions typically influences the focus of macroeconomic studies; given these closely related concepts,
       
    5. A change in macroeconomic policy tends to affect numerous microeconomic transactions, and the accumulation of microeconomic decisions typically influences the focus of macroeconomic studies; since the concepts of macroeconomics and microeconomics are closely related,
       
20. Noticing the fact that the three students were arguing while they were writing a joint science report over the proper use of semicolons, their discussion was interrupted by the teacher to give them a quick lesson on punctuation. 
    1. Noticing the fact that the three students were arguing while they were writing a joint science report over the proper use of semicolons, their discussion was interrupted by the teacher
    2. Noting that the three students were arguing while they were writing a joint science report over the proper use of  semicolons, their discussion was interrupted by the teacher
    3. Noting that the three students were arguing over the proper use of semicolons while they were writing a joint science report, the teacher interrupted their discussion
    4. Noticing the fact that the three students were arguing over the proper use of semicolons while they were writing a joint science report, the teacher interrupted their discussion
    5. Noting that the three students were arguing over the proper use of semicolons while writing a joint science report, the teacher interrupted their discussion