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The sentences are,
Filling the shopping cart with D batteries and bottled water, we finally completed our hurricane preparation.
Filling the shopping cart with D batteries and bottled water, our hurricane preparation was finally complete.
I have been told that the latter sentence is correct whereas the former one is not. I am confused and can't understand why the first sentence isn't correct. Anybody who can explain the rule, please?
Only the first sentence is correct.
Filling the shopping cart with D batteries and bottled water, we finally completed our hurricane preparation.
In this sentence "we" (the speaker and his friends) were filling the cart. By this action they completed their preparations for the hurricane.
Filling the shopping cart with D batteries and bottled water, our hurricane preparation was finally complete.
Here the writer has attempted to switch the sentence to passive voice, but has bungled it. With the grammatical subject "we" gone, the remaining noun phrase "our hurricane preparation" becomes the subject. Now the hurricane preparations fills the cart with batteries and bottled water and by so doing becomes complete.
Native speakers of English frequently make this error.
