All About Gerunds

Function

• Gerunds make nouns out of verbs.
• Gerunds make simple verbs into verbs that indicate a state of being or action.

Examples

• A simple verb: Today is the day I plan my recruiting process.
• From verb (plan) to gerund (noun): Planning is critical in doing research.
• The gerund in this indicates a state of being. Here’s one that indicates action: The project has now moved into the planning stage.

• A short list of nouns and their gerunds: 

recruit/recruiting	administer/administering
interview/interviewing	teach/teaching
research/researching	write/writing
describe/describing	plan/planning

Here’s how you might find gerunds used (see below for examples):

• as a subject
• as a direct object
• as a subject complement (an adjective/noun/pronoun that follows a linking verb, such as am, is, are, was, were, has been, are being, might have been, become, and seem.
• as the object of a preposition

In the following sentences, each gerund is in italics. (Thanks to the Purdue OWL for the format.)

As a subject:

Recruiting is the dissertation stage I’m at right now.

As a direct object:

For recruiting I plan to use the snowball method.

As a subject complement:

A common issue in doing a study is recruiting candidates.

As the object of a preposition:

I used the phone book for recruiting candidates.

There is nothing inherently wrong with gerunds. But like pronouns (see examples below), a gerund can be a problem when it’s unclear what it refers to.

Here are two examples of dangling pronouns, so called because it’s not clear what the true subject is:

• John drove across town to pick up his sister and brother for the party but he was late. (Here, it’s not clear whether John or his brother was late.)
• The student sent the same email to the participants and committee but they didn’t respond for several days. (Here, it’s not clear whether the participants or the committee or both did not respond.)

In the following examples, notice the similar lack of clarity when gerunds are misused.

Problem: Hiking the trail, the birds chirped loudly.

Fix: Hiking the trail, Squiggly and Aardvark heard birds chirping loudly.

Problem: Wishing I could sing, the high notes seemed to taunt me.

Fix: Wishing I could sing, I feel taunted by the high notes.

(with thanks to Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty)

Problem: While drinking  our coffee, the lions approached our camp. 

Fix 1: While drinking our coffee, we saw the lions approach our camp. 

Fix 2: While we were drinking coffee, the lions approached our camp.

Problem: After reviewing  the data, it was concluded that the experiment was poorly designed. 

Fix: After reviewing  the data, the panel concluded that the experiment was poorly designed.

Problem: Before sampling  the extract, the pH was determined.

Fix 1: Before sampling the extract, we determined its pH. 

Fix 2: Before the extract was sampled, the pH was determined.

(with thanks to Bruce Jaffee)

Here’s another trio of misused gerunds:

Problem: Yelping and whining, an early-morning jogger rushed to the werewolf’s aid.

Fix 1: Hearing yelping and whining, an early-morning jogger rushed to the werewolf’s aid.

Fix 2: Yelping and whining, the werewolf attracted the attention of an early-morning jogger, who rushed to its aid.

Problem: A consummate high-wire artist, he assumed her wobbles were feigned until she plummeted to the floor amid gasps from the audience.

Fix: Knowing Nadia to be a consummate high-wire artist, he assumed her wobbles were feigned until she plummeted to the floor amid gasps from the audience.

Problem: Enjoying her new-found freedom, the Greyhound bus trip to Vegas was a short one.

Fix: Enjoying her new-found freedom, she found the Greyhound bus trip to Vegas a short one.

(with thanks to the Grammar Sherpa)

If you run into one of these problems, or just feel unsure when using a gerund, try using the past tense of the verb. The following examples are based on those given above.

Problem: Hiking the trail, the birds chirped loudly.

Fix: The birds chirped loudly as we hiked the trail.

Problem: While drinking our coffee, the lions approached our camp. 

Fix: We drank our coffee and watched the lions approach the camp.

Problem: After reviewing the data, it was concluded that the experiment was poorly designed. 

Fix: After we reviewed the data, we concluded that the experiment was poorly designed.

Problem: Before sampling the extract, pH was determined.

Fix: Before we sampled the extract, we determined the pH.

Problem: Yelping and whining, an early-morning jogger rushed to the werewolf’s aid.

Fix: As it yelped and whined, an early-morning jogger rushed to the werewolf’s aid.

Problem: A consummate high-wire artist, he assumed her wobbles were feigned until she plummeted to the floor amid gasps from the audience.

Fix: He assumed the wobbles of the consummate high-wire artist were feigned until she plummeted to the floor amid gasps from the audience.

A final note: We use gerunds all the time, whether in speaking or writing. However, while a gerund error made in speaking can often be understood from context, it’s harder to understand a gerund error in writing. It requires careful rereading. It may even need a proofreader.

Tim McIndoo, who has been a dissertation editor since 2007, has more than 30 years of editorial experience in the fields of medicine, science and technology, fiction, and education. When it comes to APA style, he says, "I don't write the rules; I just help users follow them."