Writer's Choice Grade 11Unit 18:
Using Modifiers CorrectlyOverviewYour friend Amy tells you about a great band called Terrible Orange. To give you an idea about what they sound like, Amy compares Terrible Orange to two other bands, Renegade Teal and Dismal Yellow. She uses the three degrees of comparison, positive, comparative, and superlative, in her descriptions. Amy says, “ The lead singer of Terrible Orange howls shrilly. ” In this sentence, the positive form, shrilly, is the base form of the modifier and cannot be used to make a comparison. Next, Amy uses the comparative form to evaluate two of the bands: “ Terrible Orange sounds creepier than Dismal Yellow .” Then, she uses the superlative form of the modifier to compare all three bands: “ Renegade Teal's music is by far the most chaotic. ”
Amy continues her descriptions of Terrible Orange. She says, “ Terrible Orange's guitarist, Greg, plays louder than the other guitarist in the band, Julia. ” But, “ They both play very well.” And, “ Actually Ray said that Terrible Orange sounds a bit like Horrible Violet, but I haven't heard any of Horrible Violet's songs. ” Finally, Amy declares, “ I like Terrible Orange, but Dismal Yellow is still the best band. ”
In her descriptions, Amy followed several rules for using the comparative forms of modifiers. In her second sentence, she adds - er to the two-syllable modifier, creepy , in order to form the comparative form. In the third sentence, she adds most to the modifier chaotic , since it has three syllables. In her last statement, Amy correctly employs best , the superlative form of the irregular modifier good. She correctly used well as an adverb, telling how something is ably done and remembering that good can be used only as an adjective. Throughout her statements, she compared like things.
Amy managed to avoid several common modifier errors. She steered clear of double comparisons that use both -er or -est and more or most. She kept away from incomplete comparisons that omit other or else. Amy also shunned double negatives. In other words, she did not incorrectly use two negative words in the same clause. She didn't have any misplaced modifiers hanging around her statements either. A misplaced modifier modifies the wrong word, or seems to modify more than one word, in a sentence. If Amy had used a misplaced or dangling modifier, you could have suggested that she move the modifier as close as possible to the word it is describing so that her statement would be clear. Instead, after school you go to Amy's house and listen to Terrible Orange.
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