I can't remember whether the following is called the gerund, or present participle, or something else, but whatever it is i use a lot of it and am interested to know if it is considered poor style. I seem to remember reading something negative about this.

He walked down the road, MOPPING his brow as he went.

She went into the house, LOCKING the door behind her.

June put on her coat,GRABBING her bag and umbrella.

etc,

Obviously there's a place for this, but is it considered lazy, maybe? Or is this needless concern of mine?

Any comments appreciated.

Casey

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Is it considered poor style because even though the sense is obvious, one could say, for example, that you cannot put on your coat and grab a bag and umbrella all at the same time, and that is how it could be interpreted?

No, I can't remember what it's called either, and it's too hot to reach for Fowler.

But I don't think it's poor style at all, properly used. Sure, you need to check it makes sense, which of course June put on her coat,GRABBING her bag and umbrella doesn't. But the others do, and being verbs, sans trimmings, I think they're a very economical way of keeping everything active but also expressive.

One thing about style is relevant, though, which is that the structure of this kind of sentence means it has a very characteristic shape and rhythm, and you would have to make sure you didn't keep doing it; a certain amount of any particular sound is part of what makes your style yours, but too much of anything is really irritating to read. I have a couple of default sentence-shapes which I fall into if I'm not concentrating. Reading things aloud picks up this kind of problem, among other things.

Emma

These are fine. I think what’s frowned upon is this sort of thing:

Mopping his brow, he walked down the road.

Locking the door behind her, she went into the house.

The first one is confusing, because we don’t know which is the dominant action, and the second one gets the actions out of sequence, so it reads clumsily.

Actually, you can put on a coat and grab other things at the same time – you stick one arm in the sleeve and pick something up while you’re wrestling into the other sleeve – as it’s written, the sentence conveys a scrambling haste, so it’s fine, so long as that’s what you intend.

But Emma is right – you have to beware of introducing a repetitive rhythm to the structure of your writing. Pace applies to the length of sentences, and the choice of words as well as to what you actually say.

Dee

Sorry if I am repeating something that has already been said (no time), and I do not have a guide tohand, but my understanding is that it is a gerund if it behaves like a noun. For instance:

I like rollerskating.

His snoring drives me up the wall.

and so on...

Thanks, everyone.

Emma, maybe i am doing all right with these, then, although i can see how too many may result in an irritating style and shall have to do some reading out loud.

Dee, your sentences are good examples for what i need to avoid and that's an interesting comment about pace. I think i'm going to add this to the long list i'm accumualting of things to check when i'm editing.

anisoara,that rings bells with me - oops, wrong name then, for this thread!

Casey

Yes, Ani's right, the gerund is when the -ing form's being a noun. What Casey's got there is a participle.

NB, on the recommendation of a WWer to whom I'm eternally grateful, I bought David Crystal's Rediscover Grammar. I can't recommend it too highly. It's descriptive (this is how it works in formal and/or informal English) not prescriptive (this is correct, this is what you mustn't do). And it sets you thinking about it all in ways that are really useful for writers.

Emma

Thanks for that recommendation, Emma.

i'm reading an excellent self-editing book at the moment, which mentions the gerund. It says that the following constructions, using 'ing' and 'as' are grammatically correct but weaken your writing because the action becomes incidental and 'one remove from the reader' - eg

Putting on her coat, she grabbed the umbrella

As she put on her coat, she grabbed the umbrella.

They say to reassess if you find yourself using more than one or two of the ing or as constructions per page.

Casey

It's a verb phrase, isn't it?

I agree with your editing book, Casey, but for the reason Emma stated about its sound impact. We're all prone, I think, to these construction-tics!

Yep, Lammi, i didn't mean to use the word 'gerund'!Still confused, obviously...

Casey