Terminal modifier

A terminal modifier is a free modifier placed at the end of a sentence, after the main clause has finished, so the reader takes the complete statement first and the added detail afterwards.

She found the second door, the torch already flickering, her hand flat against the damp brick. The sentence is complete at door. Everything after it is addition, and the reader takes it as addition, having already banked the event.

This is the easiest position for a reader and the most generous to a writer. Because the main clause has landed, you can keep going — a participial phrase, then an absolute phrase, then an appositive phrase — without the sentence becoming hard to follow. That is exactly what a cumulative sentence is, and why a loose sentence can run long without tiring anyone.

It also matches how perception works. We see the thing, and then we notice its details. Terminal modifiers put the sentence in that order, which is why they read as observation rather than as description.

Two cautions. The end of a sentence is its strongest position, so whatever you put last gets the stress — do not close on the least interesting item. And a terminal modifier can still dangle if it names an action the subject is not performing: He shut the door, waiting in the corridor makes the door wait.