Which sentence is written correctly? “Walking into the cafeteria, Victor noticed the smell of fresh pizza”

Use Standard Grammar, Usage, and Spelling to Edit · TELPAS Grades 10–12 writing. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.

Reporting category 2: find and fix an error in a short text. On the real test some of these are typed answers or sentence rewrites. Here they are multiple choice so they can be checked.

The question

Read the sentences. Choose the best answer.

Which sentence is written correctly?

• AWalking into the cafeteria, the smell of fresh pizza was noticed.
• BWalking into the cafeteria, Victor noticed the smell of fresh pizza.Correct answer
• CWalking into the cafeteria, the fresh pizza smelled good to Victor.
• DWalking into the cafeteria, fresh pizza was what Victor noticed.

Why “Walking into the cafeteria, Victor noticed the smell of fresh pizza.” is correct

This tests misplaced or dangling modifiers. A phrase like 'Walking into the cafeteria' describes whatever comes right after the comma, so a person must come next. Only the correct sentence puts 'Victor' there.

Why the other answers are wrong

• Walking into the cafeteria, the smell of fresh pizza was noticed. — This says the smell was walking, because no person comes right after the comma.
• Walking into the cafeteria, the fresh pizza smelled good to Victor. — This says the pizza was walking into the cafeteria.
• Walking into the cafeteria, fresh pizza was what Victor noticed. — The phrase before the comma describes 'fresh pizza', which cannot walk.

Practice more of this

More writing practice for Grades 10–12, or see the TELPAS practice test for 10th–12th grade.