“To develop” vs. “On developing”

Question

I am writing a school project report and I came across the following. What is the difference between the two? Which is more preferred if there is no difference in meaning?

Our focus is on developing a model that is both easy and extendable...

Our focus is to develop a model that is both easy and extendable...

Answer 1

They're both very similar, but I see two key differences in the focus of the sentence:

To say your focus is on developing, is use the verb develop as more of an ongoing process; there's more focus in the process of developing, rather than the end goal of developing.

To say your focus is to develop, is more goal oriented; there's more emphasis on the verb develop as something that needs to be finished.

They'll both serve you well in either situation, but you may have more success getting your point across if you take that into account.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I agree with Zolani13 that if you say your focus is on developing a model that you're emphasizing the development process.

I think the first sentence is a more common construction with the word focus. We are used to hearing the preposition "on" with the word "focus" -- We focus on things. If you want to use the second sentence, you might want to reword it slightly to: Our aim is to develop a model that is both easy and extendable...

You might be interested in this NGram (a graph comparing the two phrases from 1950 to 2008, in "lots of" English language books):

Answer 3

From the bird's eye view of work-flow analysis, there are three stages:

• Subject definition
• Goal definition
• Execution.

As further elaboration ...

1. Subject definition:
   The talks and discussions are on developing a more efficient and effective model.
   
   The focus is on developing a more efficient and effective model.
   The subject is "developing a more efficient and effective model".
   

2. Goal definition:
   The strategy and intention is to develop a more efficient and effective model.
   
   The focus is to develop a more efficient and effective model.
   The goal is "developing a more efficient and effective model".
   

3. Execution:
   Process for developing a more efficient and effective model have started.
   
   The focus is "developing a more efficient and effective model".
   The result of "developing a more efficient and effective model" will be increased profits.