Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Modifiers

LESSON: A modifying element modifies what it is next to. KEEP RELATED WORDS TOGETHER. This rule seems self-evident in cases like the following:

The red fish ate the blue crab.
The blue fish ate the red crab.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Are two birds in the bush worth one in the hand?

However, keeping your words under control is not always automatic; it must be consciously monitored. This is especially true in the case of relative clauses (those using the "relative pronouns" which, who, and that, which relate one clause to another). Consider the vast difference in meaning between these two sentences:

Marcia found a childish love letter inside a church program which had been hastily printed.
Inside a church program Marcia found a childish love letter which had been hastily printed.

"Which" will stand for whatever noun phrase stands next to it. We must edit carefully to see that all of our pronoun references are clear.