Appositive (gerund) or participle phrase in this sentence

It is an appositive noun phrase. If it were supposed to modify crews, it should follow crews immediately. If you're right, then it's a misplaced participial phrase.

good question.

But particple phrases can be placed away from the word it modifies.

Look at the bottom part of this link, and it explains you can.

Give me your thoughts after reading this:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/627/

Eddie-

I find nothing in the link you sent which supports your opinion. Furthermore, the article clearly states that a participle should be placed as close as possible to the noun which it modifies.

Beyond that, keeping here would not work as a participle modifying crews because, in fact they were not 'keeping' but rather 'trying to keep', since the second part of the sentence t

Sorry, read post below.

This is directly copied and pasted from the website: (The bold below is is most relevant)

Punctuation: When a participial phrase begins a sentence, a comma should be placed after the phrase.

• Arriving at the store, I found that it was closed.
• Washing and polishing the car, Frank developed sore muscles.

If the participle or participial

Also, an appositive 'equals' the noun it is in apposition to. It simply renames the noun.

Here, 'keeping the oil from spreading' doesn't seem to rename it. In fact, it describes what the crew are doing, or more sprecifically, what the crew are failing to do. This is how I see it, anyway.

I see it as an appositive, describing what the word "containment" means, which would be useful for those not used to the specific use of that word in this situation.

Although I agree at times the particple phrase can move away from what it modifies, plunking it down in the middle of a sentence like that is not a likely choice, and if that was the writer's intention (to use it to modify "c

O.k., I think I have done something pretty silly.

I have re-read the sentence and now agree that it is an appositive. I think I misread what 'containment' meant in this sentence and couldn't understand how it was an appositive.

Thank you both for putting me straight and helping me realise that I shouldn't try and analyse sentences at 2.00am, haha.

But yes, that site doe

1a. Crews worked at containment, | keeping the oil from spreading.
1b. Crews worked at | containment, keeping the oil from spreading.

At first sight, it looks a little ambiguous; 1b suggests "apposition", and 1a, a participial qualifier of "crews". But:

2. Crews worked all night in very unsatisfactory conditions, keeping the oil from spreading.
3. Crews worked at containm

Cheers, Eddie-

Yes, I see the example that you gave (I didn't find it on my own before), although as a strict prescriptivist grammarian I would call it a dangling participle.

I'm glad we got this all sorted out.