Squinting modifiers

Misplaced, dangling, squinting -- too many labels in my opinion.

From grammar.about.com --> "What you hear often you will believe."  Often is the squinting modifier.  Do you often hear?  Or do you often believe?  This can be fixed by placing often before the verb it is modifying.

     What you often hear you will believe. 

     What you hear you will often believe.

Also from the same website --> "Writing an essay clearly will improve your grade."  Clearly is squinting.  Does it modify writing?  Or does it modify improve?  See if you can fix that one, Sanjay.

Misplaced (dangling) modifiers are my favorite grammatical error because they are very amusing.  The author might not find the humor in them, but the reader does.  Tony's elephant wearing my pajamas is an excellent example.

From chompchomp.com (I had a good laugh while reading these, by the way.)

--> "Tonya made the mistake of walking her boisterous bulldog Billy in high heels."  A bulldog wearing high heels?  I think Tonya was wearing high heels.

--> "Emma Sue was delighted when Mr. Nguyen returned her perfect calculus test with an ear-to-ear grin."  A grinning calculus test, hmm. . .

--> "Sauced with lumpy gravy, the waitress served Gilbert a plate of gray meatloaf."  A waitress sauced with lumpy gravy doesn't seem very attractive.

Follow the link to the chompchomp website and scroll to the bottom of the page.  Click "Start here" and check out the exercises.  Some of the sentences are correct so read carefully.

A squinting modifier is also sometimes called a two-way modifier. This error occurs when a modifier is placed between two words and could modifier either one. In other words, the modifier is squinting--looking two directions--to see which word it is supposed to modify.

"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas."

SQUINT.....who was wearing the pajamas??

(Doesn't fit exactly my 'definition', but it illustrates the point of having to squint to figure out the intended meaning).