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Which of the following sentences are correct?

After introducing some anchors by the user, the range of nodes which are affected by a single anchor or a group of anchors should be specified.

After some anchors are introduced by the user, the range of nodes which are affected by a single anchor or a group of anchors should be specified

After some anchors were introduced by the user, the range of nodes which are affected by a single anchor or a group of anchors should be specified

How about this.

After visiting a node which matches the anchor “PageNavigationBar”, the scope of the context is closed.

by selecting the two anchors from the list of anchors and selecting the “Common Ancestor” option, the context is created

I am afraid the way I use of subordinate clauses with "after" or "by" is incorrect or not natural or they can be cases of Dangling Modifiers

What is the general rule?

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The first two sentences are correct. Although you technically don't need the phrase "which are" in either of them. Have you tried something like this:

After the user introduces some anchors, the range of nodes affected by a single anchor or a group of anchors should be specified.

Now I don't know the logic behind how these anchors and nodes work, but does the user also specify the range or is this handled by something else (like the program)? If the user also specifies the range of nodes, you could group together both of the "user responsibilities" into one phrase like this:

After the user introduces some anchors, they also need to specify the range of nodes affected by a single anchor or a group of anchors.

Maybe even drop the last part of the sentence down to "the anchors".

After the user introduces some anchors, they also need to specify the range of nodes affected by the anchors.

The third sounds funny because you are using the past form "were" instead of "are" in the beginning of the sentence, but then using the present form later in the sentence "are affected by". Generally speaking, you want to keep your forms all present or all past.

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    Thank you, yes, the user must specify the range of nodes too. Your said the first sentence is correct grammatically? I think maybe when we say After doing this it is expected that in the rest of the sentence the subject doesn't change for example After doing this, the user should do that
    – Ahmad
    Commented Jun 24, 2015 at 15:53
  • Good point, it would technically be more clear to choose option 2 over option 1. In option 1 it is not structurally clear what is doing the introducing in the phrase "After introducing some anchors by the user", the way the sentence currently stands, it seems like the range of nodes should be doing the introducing, although we know this is not what the author is trying to convey. Option 2 is actually more clear since it specifies that the anchors are being introduced by the user.
    – hotshotjosh
    Commented Jun 24, 2015 at 18:28
  • @Ahmad Also, feel free to mark this question as solved!
    – hotshotjosh
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 21:31
  • Sure I will do, but if I tick your answer as accepted, I may lose the other potential answers! because I am still doubtful if the first sentence is correct or not! if I get sure, I will accept the answer. Thank you again.
    – Ahmad
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 21:35
  • It doesn't close it actually, people still can answer it, but people tend more to answer the question which doesn't have an accepted answer, because accepted answer means the problem was solved for the asker.
    – Ahmad
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 21:42

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