G5-a Select the appropriate verb tense to place events in past, present, and future time.
When selecting the correct verb tense for a sentence, pay special attention to conventional usage or to the relationships among different verbs within the context of your essay. See R2-a for a review of the basic verb tenses.
FOR MULTILINGUAL WRITERS
See T2 for advice on how to use the correct tense in conditional clauses, two-word verbs, and helping (auxiliary) verbs and whether to use a gerund or an infinitive form after a verb.
Change verbs from the past tense to the present when discussing events in a literary work or film, general truths, ongoing principles, and facts.
Readers expect the use of the present tense in a literary analysis, as if the action in a work were always ongoing.
Readers also expect general truths, facts, and ongoing principles to be stated in the present tense. (See also E2-a.)
| GENERAL TRUTH | The family is the foundation for a child’s education. |
| ONGOING PRINCIPLE | Attaining self-sufficiency is one of the most important priorities of our energy policy. |
| FACT | The earth is tilted at an angle of 23 degrees. |
Note: Some style guides make different recommendations about verb tense, depending on the field and its conventions. The style guide of the American Psychological Association (APA), for example, recommends using the past tense for past studies but using the present tense for research implications and conclusions.
| APA STYLE | Davidson stated that father absence is more than twice as common now as in our parents’ generation. |
Change the verb from the past tense to the past perfect (using had) to show that one past action took place before another.
The past action identified by the verb had called occurred before the past action identified by the verb claimed.
FOR MULTILINGUAL WRITERS
Certain verbs—ones that indicate existence, states of mind, and the senses of sight, smell, touch, and so on—are rarely used in the progressive tense. Such verbs include appear, be, belong, contain, feel, forget, have, hear, know, mean, prefer, remember, see, smell, taste, think, understand, and want.
progressive tense A tense that shows ongoing action, consisting of a form of be plus the -ing form of the main verb: I am waiting.