The phrase "act of attempting" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing the process or effort involved in trying to achieve something.
Example: "The act of attempting to solve the problem was more important than the outcome itself."
Alternatives: "effort to try" or "attempt to do".
He could not witness this without feeling concern for the child's welfare within his heart-and-mind, though this feeling would not necessarily move him to perform the moral act of attempting to save the child.
Companies looking for successful investments in a controversial area or sector can also find themselves in a high-wire act of attempting to balance their financial pressures with public demands, legal risks and brand vulnerability.
In court, one of Mr. El-Hage's lawyers, Sam A. Schmidt, told the judge, "They have to abandon any claim that any member of Al Qaeda actually participated in the physical act of attempting to kill or killing Americans in Somalia".
This is the sad case of patient X, who is now forced to spend the rest of his life without vision, further compounding whatever underlying psychosocial stimuli initially prompted the act of attempting suicide.
"Defiance was the act of attempting to raise a country based on slavery.
I finally realized that the simple act of attempting this crazy journey was sufficient and that my ego needed to be stripped of its megalomania.
That act of attempted patricide reflected Trey Songz's growing stature, but also his hubris.
"I call this an act of attempted murder because the Chinese sank a Vietnamese fishing boat and then ran away," Linh said.
The teenager's mother told Sky News that she was "in a state of shock" and described the alleged attack on her son as an "act of attempted murder".
Oates: Yes, I'm sure that you are right, Meghan — the act of writing is an act of attempted comprehension, and, in a childlike way, control; we are so baffled and exhausted by what has happened, we want to imagine that giving words to the unspeakable will make it somehow our own.
A group of young neo-Nazis led four nights of riots against the refugee population there, culminating in an act of attempted murder: the rioters tried to burn down a building with 150 Vietnamese immigrants inside.
