Prepositional Phrases, Participial Phrases, Gerund Phrases, and Infinitive Phrases

Identify the following underlined phrases as prepositional, gerund, participial, or infinitive phrases. If the phrase is a prepositional phrase, identify it as an adjective or as an adverb phrase.

a) (1) Reading the newspapers, I was struck (2) by the difference (3) between fact and fiction.

b) (4) Writing fiction requires different talents than (5) writing non-fiction.

c) (6) Realizing they are likely (7) to be sued for what they write, writers of non-fiction are very careful about (8) qualifying what they say (9) with frequent attributions.

d) (10) Rarely claiming any direct certainty, they credit others with saying what they report (11) in their stories (12) through phrases like “unofficial sources report,” “it is said,” and the like.

e) Fiction never claims (13) to be fact, and the writer of fiction seems to aim at (14) distorting the facts deliberately.

f) This writing, though written (15) by real people and (16) shaped by real experiences, aims at the creation (17) of unreal characters and events and depends upon the reader’s imagination (18) to make them real.

g) The difference (19) between fact and fiction in writing comes from (20) aiming at two very different uses of the printed word.

Answer Sheet

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