I don't understand why this is a 'dangling' sentence

Question

I've googled some dangling modifier and sentences, but still not sure what exactly it is. And I don't understand why this sentence I wrote is dangling.

What I wrote was

She went to pay admission fees and one of the staff said, "Why're choosing a major which won't make you a lot of money?", trying to dissuade and telling her to reconsider it.

Teacher told me the bold part is dangling and 'it' after resconsider should be removed, but I don't understand why it's a dangling sentence, because the one who 'tries to dissuade her and tells her to reconsider' is 'the staff'. Why is this a problem though the subject is same?

However I tried to change it to

She went to pay admission fees and one of the staff tried to dissuade her and told her to reconsider. “Why’re you choosing a major which won’t make you a lot of money?”

Is there still dangling part in this sentence? Or is it correct?

Answer 1

In general, a "dangling" sentence, phrase, or clause, is one that is not a complete sentence and requires something else to make it complete.

In your example, "trying to dissuade and telling her to reconsider it" lacks a subject. Who is doing the dissuading and telling? Obviously, from context you mean it to be "one of the staff" but your grammar is not correct to link the two.

... one of the staff tried to dissuade her and get her to reconsider her major by saying, ...

This is pretty much the structure of your second sentence, which is correct.