1. Draw a picture of this sentence:
This morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas.

2. What is wrong with this sentence?
This morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas.
Sentence structure makes the reader think that an elephant is wearing my pajamas.
This is called a misplaced modifier

3. Modifier
An optional word, phrase or clause that clarifies or describes a noun or verb in a sentence.
Example: John Carver, a rich man, hired the ships and bought most of the goods for the Pilgrim's journey.

4. Wet cement was running through the parking lot?
Misplaced Modifier
A problematic modifier that is intended to modify one word, but is actually modifying another because of its placement in the sentence.
Example: I slipped on the wet cement running through the parking lot.
Wet cement was running through the parking lot?

5. Correctly Placed Modifier!
I slipped on the wet cement as I ran through the parking lot.

7. Misplaced Modifiers
It's easiest to get modifiers right when you keep them as close as possible to the thing they are modifying.
Here's another example of two sentences with very different meanings:
I almost failed every art class I took.
I failed almost every art class I took.

9. What is wrong with this sentence?
Hiking the trail, the birds chirped loudly.
Who was hiking the trail? The birds?
This sentence is an example of a dangling modifier.

10. Dangling Modifier
A dangling modifier describes a word that is not in your sentence.
Example: Returning to their desks, the mood was anxious.
The group being described is left out of this sentence.
Correction: Returning to their desks, the students were anxious.

11. Dangling Modifiers
Dangling modifiers arise when the writer implies the subject, but does not include it in the sentence.
Example: Lying on the beach, mosquitoes attacked.
Mosquitoes attacked whom?

13. Beware of misplaced and dangling modifiers!
These problems arise because you know what you mean to say, so the error does not jump out at you!

16. Correctly rewrite these sentences in your notebook.
Marin watched a radiant sunset climbing a hill.
The cat was perched on top of the fence that always seemed playful.

18. Sentence Containing Misplaced Modifier
Corrected Sentence