"I appreciate your taking over as editor, Dave's taking over as Treasurer, and Michael's taking over as webmaster. "

My question is, Are these gerund phrases, which would require the possessives, or are they participles? Does he appreciate Rebecca/Dave/Michael ...for/who are...taking, or does he appreciate the acts of taking over that are being done by these people?

My comment regarding Francis Christensen is that his definition of the cumulative sentence does indeed state that the free modifiers follow the main clause, but it is a main clause that may have free modifiers before or within the main clause as well. In fact, the Second Principle of The Christensen Rhetoric Program is "Direction of Movement," in which he shows that modifiers point ahead as well as backward. I have talked with his widow, Bonniejean, about this slightly confusing matter, and she shrugs and says, "Whatever makes for the best writing."

It is fun to get kids exploring the potential of the placement of these modifiers. I have them compare these three sentences:

Sliding into home plate, the rookie brought the crowd to their feet.

The rookie, sliding into home plate, brought the crowd to their feet.

The rookie brought the crowd to their feet, sliding into home plate and kicking up a cloud of dust.

(Anyone bothered by that last one?)

P.S. When I introduced myself a couple of weeks ago, I said I teach at a boys prep school, grades 7-9. Actually, it's 7-12, and I teach the parts of the Christensen method in grades 7 and 9, and pretty much the whole thing to a junior/senior writing elective. I also run a summer program based on his system (www.writeforcollege.com)

Cheers, and Happy New Year! I'm off to shovel snow.

Don Stewart