: Re: Why does using this "-ing" verb construction make my writing weaker? I had to write a scholarship essay, wherein I wrote this sentence: Over the ensuing years I read as much as I could,

Participles are not -past action- unless they are actually past tense. Your English major friend should learn more about English. "Having tried" would be the past action. What you used was a "verbal adjective." The structure you used is called a participial phrase. While they are valid grammatical structures, they are somewhat antiquated in the modern vernacular and while papers need to be formal, it is not always a good idea to choose a more antiquated structure when other more succinct and easier to read structures exist.
In this case, I would have used "in order to" as well as it better conveys the purpose of your decision to read more.

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: Re: Why does using this "-ing" verb construction make my writing weaker? I had to write a scholarship essay, wherein I wrote this sentence: Over the ensuing years I read as much as I could,

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