Participles, Including “What the Heck?”
Consider the following copy from an attorney’s bio:
Ms. Abkin represents clients in civil and criminal tax matters at all levels of the IRS, including exams, appeals, collection, and, where necessary, litigation.
Literally, the writer is telling the reader that exams and appeals are different levels of the IRS.
This is an instance of an all-too-common grammatical error: the dangling participle.
It’s also an instance of an all-too-common situation: publishing copy before it’s been reviewed by a copy editor or a proofreader.
A big deal? Not at all. But there’s always the risk that some potential client will see this and think “neither this firm nor this attorney is paying close attention to detail, and I’m not comfortable with that.”
