E2 Shifts

Instructor's Notes

LearningCurve activities on verb tenses and shifts are available at the end of the Effective Sentences section of this handbook.

Follow the same pattern throughout a sentence or passage to avoid a shift in tense, person, number, mood, voice, or type of discourse.

E2-a Use one verb tense consistently in a passage unless a tense change is needed to show a time change.

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If you tend to mix verb tenses as you draft, perform a special edit of your entire essay concentrating on this one issue.

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Change the tense of any verbs that do not follow the established tense in a passage unless they show logical time changes.

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Change verbs to the present tense to discuss events in literature, general truths, facts, and other ongoing principles.

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Discussing such events may require tense shifts in a sentence or text. (See also G5-a.)

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E2-b Change the nouns and pronouns in a passage to a consistent person and number.

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In casual conversation, people often shift between singular and plural or between the third person and the second. In writing, however, such shifts may be confusing.

Note: Also consider how your choice of person suits the tone or approach of your essay. The first or second person, for example, will usually strike a reader as less formal than the third person.

E2-c Establish a consistent mood and voice in a passage.

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The original sentence shifts from the indicative mood (I entered), used for statements and questions, to the subjunctive mood (I could know), used to indicate hypothetical, impossible, or unlikely conditions.

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Although mood and voice may need to change to fit the context of a sentence, unneeded shifts may seem inconsistent. (See also G5-c on mood, G5-d on voice, and T2-a on conditional clauses.)

Change the verbs in a conditional clause or passage to a consistent mood.

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Make the verbs in a passage consistent, preferably using the active voice.

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(See also G5-d.)

E2-d Use either direct or indirect quotation without mixing the two.

Writers use direct quotation to present statements or questions in a speaker’s or another writer’s own words; they use indirect quotation to present the person’s words without quoting directly.

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To avoid shifts between direct and indirect quotation, make sure that your pronouns are consistent in person (see G2) and your verbs are consistent in mood (see G5-c).