How to Improve Writing with Great Sentence Openers

 

Prepositions Followed by Present Participles (—ing) Used as Sentence Openers

Beyond locking them all into that stockade at night, there was no great precaution taken (Sabatini 63).

After doing the breakfast dishes, I rode my bike to the cleaner’s by the station (Murakami 56).

After introducing myself, I said that I was planning to marry Kumiko in the near future (Murakami 77).

Without even asking her if she cared to dance, he put out his arm to encircle her slender waist (Tolstoy, Anna Karenina 73).

On entering the study Ryabinin looked about, as his habit was, as though seeking the holy picture, but when he had found it, he did not cross himself (Tolstoy, Anna Karenina 157).

Without wasting time, he dispensed the money as well as his insidious smile (Guerrero 75).

In all of the above examples, the present participles function as the object of the prepositions.

‘Not,’ being an adverb, may be used to negate the present participle:

Not saying a word, the man in black motioned him to follow. (Stendhal, The Red and The Black 175).

Not liking to sit in the cold and darkness, I thought I would lie down on my bed, dressed as I was (C. Bronte 210).

Not looking to right or left Bill carried Haroun to the vehicle, which was drawn by two fine gray mares with silken tails and manes (Caldwell 133).

The Present Progressive tense—which is not to be confused with the present participle—  takes the form be + Verb with -ing ending.

He is chewing.
She is gossiping.
They are skating.
I am coming home.

This tense is often used to show what is happening at the time of speaking: 

Pepino is barking at the snake.
Cell phones off. The conference is starting.

And it is also used to indicate actions that occur over a period of time, including the present:

I'm playing for the Giants.
The President is working at Camp David.
How is it going? 

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Accounting Terms: Incremental Analysis and Capital Budgeting

Unit 26 -- Incremental Analysis and Capital Budgeting

Annual rate of return method
determines the profitability of a capital expenditure by dividing expected annual net income by the average investment.

Capital budgeting
 is the process of making capital expenditure decisions in business. Capital expenditures usually entail the purchasing of Plant Property and Equipment.

Cash payback
is a technique that identifies the time period required to recover the cost of a capital investment from the net annual cash flow produced by the investment.

Cost of capital
is the rate of return that management expects to pay on all borrowed and equity funds.

Discounted cash flow
is a technique that considers both the estimated total net cash flows from the investment and the time value of money.

Incremental analysis
is the process of identifying the financial data that change under alternative courses of action.

Internal rate of return (IRR)
is the rate that will cause the present value of the proposed capital expenditure to equal the present value of the expected net annual cash flows.

Internal rate of return (IRR) method
is used to find the interest yield of the potential investment.

Net present value (NPV)
The difference that results when the original capital outlay is subtracted from the discounted net cash flows.

Net present value (NPV)
is a method that discounts net cash flows to their present value and then compares that present value to the capital outlay required by the investment.

Opportunity cost
is the potential benefit that may be obtained from following an alternative course of action.

Required rate of return
is the rate that is generally based on the company’s cost of capital.

Sunk cost
is a cost that cannot be changed by any present or future decision.