Doctor's notes

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‘Walking past two Range Rovers in the driveway, it was clear to see that the Coopers were well off.’ This is a dangling participle, with the person who walked past the Range Rovers not named in the sentence, leaving us looking for the performer of the action (and sometimes assigning it to the wrong actor, for example ‘the Coopers’).

You need to name the person who did the walking: ‘Walking past two Ranger Rovers in the driveway, Yasmin could clearly see that the Coopers were well off.’

Sometimes danglers are more subtle than this, so make sure you can apply the introductory phrase directly to the part of the sentence it is supposed to be referring to: ‘An excellent chef, her Belgian buns were renowned the world over’ might seem all right at first glance, but the Belgian…