Consistent Verb Tense

One common mistake that’s easy to make, but also easy to skip over, is consistent verb tenses in a paper. When you’re writing, you don’t want to start a paragraph in past tense but shift to present tense halfway through – it makes it hard for the reader to follow you.

Today a student came in and we worked some structural issues for a descriptive paper she was writing. At the end I asked her if there was anything else she wanted help with and she mentioned she sometimes has problems with her verb tenses. I didn’t even think about it until she mentioned it. When students are worried about word choice and correct information in a paper, sometimes verb tense gets tossed to the side in favor of other, seemingly more important issues. After this reminder today, though, I’ll try to keep verb tense in the back of my mind in future sessions.

The general rules are simple:

• Keep events that happened in the past in past tense (and the present with present tense, and the future with future tense).

• Habitual actions and facts are in present tense since they always happen or are always true.

• It’s OK to change tense when describing things that happen at different times, or if you are describing a past event and put in a habitual action.

Take a look at my second paragraph, the one that starts with “Today.” I change tense in that paragraph, but it works. I start out describing what happened at one tutoring session earlier today in past tense(the first three sentences). Then I describe a habitual action of students, which I believe is always the same, so it’s in present tense. Then I described a future action I plan to do in future tense. If I were to leave it in all present tense, it wouldn’t be very clear.

To catch potential inconsistent verb tenses:

• Go through your paper and circle all your verbs as you read them, and make sure they’re the same tense (unless it fits the last two rules). This is especially important when describing an event, because inconsistent verb tenses can throw off a reader and make it hard to understand what’s going on.

Tenses in common types of academic papers:

• When writing a paper that analyses a theory, such as for psychology, sociology, biology, etc., writing is usually in present tense. For example: The theory of diffusion of responsibility explains why people don’t always call 911 or help during emergencies. I would go on to talk about how people do not feel as responsible when other people are present. However, if past examples are used instead of just habitual actions or general factual statements, such as Kitty Genovese’s death in 1964, use past tense: When Kitty Genovese was stabbed in New York, many people were in their homes and heard her screams, but most thought neighbors probably called the police.

• For historical analysis papers, usually in English Lit. classes, use past tense. For example: Ernest Hemingway’s military experience in Europe during World War I influenced themes, characters and plot lines in his writing…Hemingway served as an ambulance driver in World War I, and after being injured, he fell in love with his nurse… (but I will switch to present tense when describing what happens in the book), which also describes the character of Frederic Henry and his experience in A Farewell To Arms.

• Lab reports use past tense (and usually in passive form) – the experiment was conducted at a past date: Ten isopods were placed in each container. The isopods were observed and their movements were recorded at each five-minute interval.

• Argumentative papers tend to be mixed because they mix factual statements and specific examples that usually occur in the past.

The Purdue OWL has a good, thorough explanation of how to be consistent with your verb tenses.

Proofreading and minor editing

First off, clarification: proofreading is looking for and fixing typos, missing or extra words and other small errors; editing is fixing grammar and punctuation and some content.

One of the most frequent requests I get is to check for little mistakes on a final draft of a paper. Because I get this request, students must know they often miss little things, but they are often surprised when I find they have misspelled a word, used the wrong verb tense or forgot a word completely.

Students should know that they’re not alone in making these mistakes. For my writing center training, I’m reading a book about tutoring at writing centers and they wrote the word “propositions” instead of “prepositions,” leading to a confusing sentence that told me not to make propositions before commas or periods. It happens even to the experts, I guess. I’ve also seen plenty of typos in popular novels and newspapers.

It’s easy to make fun when these mistakes are made in public documents, but proofreading can be tough.

I’d like to think I’m pretty accurate at proofreading, but I will sometimes let stupid mistakes slip, and notice them right before I turn in a paper.

• I have often heard that reading you paper backward is a good way to catch mistakes such as typos, missing words, extra words, awkward phrases and incomplete sentences. For awhile this method was never really explained to me, and I thought it meant reading each word individually from the last word to the first. That seemed excessive and I didn’t use it (though it would be an extra-thorough way to find individual typos if you really need a paper to be perfect). Now that I know it means reading whole sentences, it makes more sense, though I admit I still don’t do this, but it sounds very helpful.

• Though it is easy to write a paper on the computer, it is much harder to proofread and edit on a computer than on paper, so print your papers and read them. Keep in mind that spell check doesn’t catch everything. Homonyms don’t get caught, it doesn’t always catch missing words, and typos can result in actual words. You might end up with a sentence like “The Americans wont he Revolutionary War,” instead of “The Americans won the Revolutionary War.” Also, “cant” and “wont” are words, so be aware of apostrophe placement in contractions and possessives such as “student’s” and “students’.” For one reason or another, it’s also harder to catch mistakes on a computer screen. At a recent copyediting internship at a local newspaper, when we edited the paper, we would read stories on our online database and correct mistakes, but read them again printed out, where we would catch new mistakes almost every time. If possible, print out all your papers and read them before turning them in. Reading out loud can also help this along.

• One of the best ways to catch typos and little mistakes is to have someone else read it. Just like having someone else read a paper for clarity, if you have a reader who is observant and wants to help, he or she will find mistakes you miss. Once you’ve read your paper so many times, you know what you’re trying to say and it becomes nearly impossible to catch mistakes.

Grammar Girl also discussed proofreading on a previous entry entitled Proofreading Tips, which I thought was well written.

I think I proofread this entry well enough, but I might need someone to help me through the third point and let me know of any mistakes. I’ve read this too much to be able to edit thoroughly on my own.