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I was told that the following sentence was incorrect because the participle clause has a different subject:

"When deciding punishments for crimes, criminals' intentions are important."

If that's true, then is the following sentence, which I think sounds quite natural, also incorrect?

"When creating a nutrition plan, age is an important factor."

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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  • The subject of the main clause is not the subject of the participle there.
    – TimR
    Commented May 22, 2018 at 11:42

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The when-clause complements are important and is an important factor and could remain at the front of the sentence or be moved to the end of the sentence:

Criminals' intentions are important when deciding punishments for crimes.

Age is an important factor when creating a nutrition plan.

Most native speakers would understand those when-clauses as a kind of impersonal construction, when one is deciding|creating. They would not parse the sentences so that intentions or age is the subject of the when-clause.

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  • I think "when deciding punishments for crimes" is a participle adverb, and I am not sure if the OP's original sentence is actually wrong. I mean when it comes to participle adverbs, the only wrong construction comes to my mind is dangling participle which is not the case here. Am I right?
    – Cardinal
    Commented May 21, 2018 at 23:22
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    @Cardinal I find nothing wrong with the original construction. I would just say it's less common.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented May 22, 2018 at 0:10

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