Let’s have a look at some more of these modifiers. Rewrite the sentence so the modifier makes the precise
sense that it should. Check your answers against those on this page.
i. With all its ins and outs, many people find language a tough thing to study.
ii. Dialects are really fascinating to anyone who wants to study them of a particular language.
iii. Once opened up, you can find endless mysteries in the study of language.
iv. I first learned about the Appalachian dialect from a professor in college at age 19.
v. Frankly pretty boring, Donald didn’t pay much attention in his linguistics class.Concision
This is not to say, however, that more words always mean more precision. In fact, a lot of the time less is
more. If you were to ask for directions, which answer would you rather receive?
Turn right at Main Street and walk four blocks.or
Since this street, Elm Street, is facing in a northerly direction, and your destination is due north
east, go east when you arrive at the intersection of Elm and Main. Going east will entail making a
right turn in quite that easterly direction. After having made this turn and arrived on the
perpendicular street...The first one, obviously.
And that’s because concision is key when you want to communicate meaning. Really, as long as
everything else is in order—as long as the grammar and punctuation are good to go—the correct answer
will almost always be the shortest.
Let’s see an example.
It is precisely this isolation that has led many scholars to believe that Appalachian English is
9 alike and similar to the English spoken in Shakespeare’s time.9.
A) NO CHANGE
B) similar
C) likely similar
D) similarly alike