A gerund phrase functions in a sentence as

An adverb

An adjective

A noun

A noun   --  always (no exceptions)

Explanation:

      subject

Killing people is abominable behavior.

                        object

I hate answering questions on Fridays.

the rhetorical devices that he used in "common sense" are syntax for his sentence structure and pathos for his emotion against the british unfairly treating the "americans" and logos of what documents that what happened to the pilgrims when they had the mayflower compact and how that the british were wanting to have one religion but the compact said for any religion to be accepted.

jenkins wanted the narrator to write a ghost story for his magazine. he wanted the narrator to give the readers a story based on the supernatural. he wanted him to give the readers real 'horror' stories and not the type of live ghosts which he had presented in his earlier stories.