I just got back a paper my teacher had corrected, and she labeled the word 'be' in the following sentence as a 'dangling modifier':
How one learns from these experiences will ultimately determine how fulfilled his or her life will be.
Not only am I confused as to whether this classifies as a dangling modifier, I am not sure I see any errors in the grammar at all.
So my questions are:
- What error or awkwardness is present in the above sentence?
- Regardless of whether any errors exist, how could the sentence be rearranged or reworded to keep the same meaning?
Best Answer
Take a look here to read a description of a dangling modifier (which I don't think your query sentence contains).
There is a problem with that sentence, however. This is that the subject is not consistent, and to that extent your teacher was on the right track.
Specifically, one does not go with his or her. To remedy this, you will have to commit yourself to one or the other. Here are the possibilities that would work:
Of these, 1) seems rather old-fashioned today, but both 2) and 3) sound just fine to me.