Day 193: Remove the preposition from phrases ending in gerunds.

Prepositional phrases provide many problems with direct, active writing. Prepositional phrases ending in gerunds are especially problematic. (A gerund is a verb ending in –ing that is being used as a noun, such as the name for a type of activity. A gerund is similar to a nominalization in that the verb is being used as a noun.)

You can improve most sentences containing these phrases by removing the preposition and then revising the sentence. When possible, also change the gerund so that it is being used as a verb. Consider this sentence.

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“We would like your help with locating a new car.”

The prepositional phrase ending in a gerund is “with locating.” In this sample, removing the preposition “with” does not require any revision for grammatical correctness:

“We would like your help locating a new car.”

Now consider this sentence.

“We would like your support for presenting our audit findings.”

The prepositional phrase ending in a gerund is “for presenting.” We can revise this sentence in the same manner as in the previous sentence. However, we can revise it more deeply by changing the gerund as well:

“Please help us present our audit findings.”

As you can see, by removing the preposition and changing the gerund to an action verb, the sentence is more direct and concise.