A gerund is a verb that ends in –ing and functions as a noun. For example:
Learning > Learning is fun.
In this sentence, “learning” is a thing. Thus, as you know, it’s a noun.
It’s easy to confuse a gerund with the present continuous tense of a verb, because the present continuous tense includes an –ing participle: “Marvin is learning to dance.” Simply ask yourself if the –ing word is an action word or a thing. If it’s a thing, you’ve got yourself a gerund.
Gerunds are problematic because they can render your writing passive. Remember, verbs are strong words, and words of action: they are the strongest words in a sentence. If you turn them into nouns, you make them weaker and more boring. Consider the following example:
Learning is fun. Writing, however, is no fun at all. Figuring out what you need to say is difficult, and trying to produce it is even worse.
Now consider this version:
It’s fun to learn. It’s no fun at all, however, to write. It’s difficult to figure out what you need to say, and it’s even worse to try to produce it.
You can see that the second version is stronger and more immediate.
Gerunds are not evil: there’s no need to eradicate them from your essays completely. Try, however, to use them only when no other form of the verb will do: if you can fiddle around with sentence a little and use an infinitive or an active form instead, do that.
