Dangling Modification

    Well, even the Associated Press has its bad days. In a Dec. 1, 2018 article "Top Lieutenant to 'El Chapo' Sentenced to Life in Prison," the first line suffers the perils of deadly modification. "A top lieutenant to drug kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman has been sentenced to life in prison in a Virginia courtroom."
    Ugh! The poor man will apparently spend the rest of his days inside a make-shift cell situated in a courtroom. He will at least have a good seat for all the proceedings. 
    This is one example of the punishment poor editing inflicts on unsuspecting readers. The writer could have avoided the misplacement of this prepositional phrase (in a Virginia courtroom) a couple of ways. One method would be to place it first: "In a Virginia courtroom, a top lieutenant..." Another method could be to omit any reference to the courtroom since it is understood that is where sentencing occurs. 
     Grammar instructors spend a great deal of time and deodorant getting students to adopt proper modification practices and avoiding dangling (misplaced) modification. Here is another example: "I found a book that Edward Gorey wrote under my bed." In my opinion, the writer here was blessed to have such a talent residing under his bed. Perhaps, though, the truth is "I found under my bed a book written by Edward Gorey." What do we learn from this? Keep your prepositional phrase close to the noun or verb it modifies. 
     Another editing tool is to remember that when using adverb phrases the noun that appears immediately after the phrase will be considered the subject. Look at sentence (1).
1. Hearing strange sounds coming from the attic, the parents allowed the children to get in bed with them.
The adverb phrase here is [Hearing strange sounds coming from the attic.]
Since there is no subject in this phrase, the sentence assumes the first noun [the parents] is the subject. Though it is possible the parents are deeply frightened by attic noises, the most likely subject is [the children]. So (2) would be correct.
2. Hearing strange sounds coming from the attic, the children got in bed with their parents.
     Hope this helps young writers and learners of English.