Cake, Participle Phrases & Pie

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Don't worry-I'll try to make this as painless as possible. If I were to tell you I'm talking about participle phrases you might try make a quick exit, so lets talk about cake instead. Imagine the perfect chocolate cake- dripping with decadence, oozing with that take-me stare, daring you to give in to your guilty pleasure. 

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Participle phrases are like the flour used to make your perfect chocolate cake. It's the enriching filler. But add too much… and you'll destroy it.

Think of it that way when you're writing/revising your work-in-progress. Using participle phrases incorrectly will flag you as a novice writer. 

So, what IS a participle phrase?

A participle phrase is a phrase formed with a verb (usually ending in -ed or -in) but acting as an adjective- it gives the sentence more substance or other clarifying information. 

For example: 

Attacked by misquotes, Amy wished Jaden understood her definition of camping. 

"Attacked by mosquitoes" is the participle phrase.

Stuck behind all the tall kids, Lizzy couldn't see. 

"Stuck behind the tall kids" is the participle phrase.

Jordan, running a fever for three days, wouldn't come to school.

"Running a fever for three days" is the participle phrase. 

Here's the basics for diagraming a sentence with a participle phrase:

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An example of a participle phrase diagramed:

Easy as pie? 

Before you go into a sugar coma- let's get cozy with GERUND phrases. These little suckers sometimes masquerade as participle phrases because they share -ing endings. The way you can pick them out is by decoding their place in the sentence. 

A gerund phrase will be the SUBJECT of the sentence. 

Now that you can spot them, what's the deal?

If you decide to use a participle phrase, here are the things to avoid:

• Dangling participle phrases
• Participle phrases that make you slip into passive voice
• Comma Placement
• Throwing off the timing in the sentence (making it seem like two things are happening simultaneously when they are not) 

Kira McFadden wrote a great post that explains some of these here.

You can also check out The Editor's Blog Post on Participle Phrases. 

I hope that you will be able to see these from a mile away in your writing. If you choose to use them, do it with intention and do it correctly.

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Now that the hard stuff's over, let's go have some dessert. 

(Can you spot the participle phrase in my last sentence??)

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See ya next time!

Brooke