How to use gerunds and participial phrases in sentence writing

The dictionary definition of a participle is; ‘a verb ending in –‘ing’ (present) or –‘ed’, -‘en’, -d, -t, -n, or -ne (past) that functions as an adjective, modifying a noun or pronoun. A participial phrase consists of a participle plus modifier(s), object(s), and/or complement(s)’. 

An earlier column discussed gerunds which, basically, are verbs with the ‘ing’ ending. This could be a bit confusing but there is a clear difference between gerunds and participial phrases. In sentences, gerundstake the place of nouns while participles, as earlier stated here, function like adjectives