1. Although I think the grammar is correct, I believe in order for it to make sense, the relative clause should be in past progressive: Michelle screamed when she saw the spider that was dangling from the one clean bathroom towel.

2. Using the relative phrase: Michelle screamed when she saw the spider dangling from the one clean bathroom towel.

3. This construction is incorrect because Michelle is not dangling from the towel: Michelle screamed when she saw the spider, dangling from the one clean bathroom towel. The non-restrictive participial phrase "dangling from the towel" is an adverb, and it's saying that Michelle screamed when she saw the spider while Michelle was dangling from the clean towel.

4. It has the same error as 3 in terms of meaning, but the grammar itself is correct like 3.

So what do you think of the book so far?

GMATMadeEasy wrote:Could someone clarify which of the following setences are correct and why ?

This concept is going to clarify many doubt pertaining to many important cocepts used in official questions.

1. Michelle screamed when she saw the spider that dangled from the one clean bathroom towel.
2. Michelle screamed when she saw the spider dangled from the one clean bathroom towel.3.
3. Michelle screamed when she saw the spider, dangling from the one clean bathroom towel.
4. Dangling from the one clean bathroom towel, Michelle screamed when she saw the spider.

Please notice that in sentence 3 and 4, I have simply moved the position of modifier but making a significant difference in meaning. I agree for Q4 that position of modifier is incorrect illogicaly modifying Michelle .

Looking to know good explanation for 1, 2 and 3.

1. Michelle screamed when she saw the spider that dangled from the one clean bathroom towel. - Correct
The relative clause generally follows the word that it describes. Here, THAT is describing spider.

2. Michelle screamed when she saw the spider dangled from the one clean bathroom towel.3. - Wrong
...the spider dangled...does not look proper.
IMO : - Michelle screamed when she saw the spider dangling from the one clean bathroom towel. - correct construction

3. Michelle screamed when she saw the spider, dangling from the one clean bathroom towel..3 - Wrong
Comma+ING modifier shows some kind of consequence/effect of the main clause. Such a thing is not evident here.
Comma+ING is Adverbial modifier and NOT a noun modifier that can modify "spider" here.

4. Dangling from the one clean bathroom towel, Michelle screamed when she saw the spider..[/u]3 - Wrong
It seems as if Michelle is dangling..awkward

Wonderful explanation. One more question though :

2. Michelle screamed when she saw the spider dangled from the one clean bathroom towel.3. - Wrong
...the spider dangled...does not look proper. IMO : - Michelle screamed when she saw the spider dangling from the one clean bathroom towel. - correct construction

Why do you say "does not look proper" what is grammatical explanation , i am trying to figure out proper grammatical rule so that the rule could be applied efficiently.

"dangled" means that the spider is no longer dangling, and therefore progressive "dangling" is the correct phrase tense.

Also you should recognize that the participial phrase used in 2 is directly derived from the participial clause used in 1.

1: "Michelle screamed when she saw the spider that was dangling from the one clean bathroom towel."

2: "Michelle screamed when she saw the spider dangling from the one clean bathroom towel." - with relative pronoun and BE auxiliary verb removed.

So if 2 doesn't make sense, neither is 1.

The relationship between 3 and 4 is one of the same as well. The location of the non-restrictive clause whether in front or back has no bearing on its meaning in the construction.

So if 4 doesn't make sense, neither is 3.