Academic writing is a type of writing that is formal, precise, and clear. It is typically used in academic settings, such as in research papers or in theses. One important aspect of academic writing is the use of tense. Tense refers to the time frame in which the action or event being described is occurring. In English, there are three main tenses: past, present, and future. Choosing the correct tense is crucial for maintaining clarity and consistency in academic writing.
In general, academic writing tends to use the past tense. This is because most of the research and information being presented in an academic setting has already been completed and is being reported on. For example, a research paper might describe an experiment that was conducted in the past and the results that were obtained. In this case, the past tense would be used to describe the experiment and the results.
However, there are some situations where it may be appropriate to use the present tense in academic writing. For example, if you are discussing a theory or concept that is still widely accepted and relevant today, it may make more sense to use the present tense. For example, "Einstein's theory of relativity states that time and space are relative and not absolute." In this case, the theory is still widely accepted and relevant, so the present tense is used to describe it.
It is important to be consistent in the use of tense in academic writing. Mixing tenses can be confusing for the reader and can make the writing seem unclear or disorganized. For example, it would not be appropriate to switch back and forth between the past and present tense within the same paragraph or section of a paper.
In conclusion, tense is an important aspect of academic writing and should be carefully considered when composing research papers or other academic documents. Using the correct tense helps to maintain clarity and consistency in the writing, which is crucial for effective communication in the academic setting.
Tense Use in Academic Writing
Each In this FLM, students are asked to complete a fill-in-the-blank outline which accompanies all three videos, covering the topics of common verb tense use in academic writing. The present perfect tense is also used to summarize the findings of previous research. The present perfect tense emphasizes what has been done or what is known to be true. Think of it as academic fortune telling. Example The collected samples were analyzed by a third party lab and returned to us over the course of 96 hours. Future simple The future simple is used for making predictions or stating intentions. Present Perfect Actions that started in the past and have not finished She has lived in Melbourne for two years.
Exams are also seen by some as more flexible in relation to content, timing and question types. The first combines the simple present and simple future, which is a common form of conditional sentence used for describing a likely outcome of a possible or real situation e. Raucher and other researchers first mentioned this effect in their study. Doctors stated that Wilma Rudolph would require leg braces to counter the effects of childhood polio. The continuous aspect usually implies an informal tone though in most cases, the present perfect or the present simple are more appropriate. When discussing and analyzing nonfiction, similarly, use the present simple to describe what the author does within the pages of the text argues, explains, demonstrates, etc. Correct: The study ended suddenly because many of the participants had moved away.
This applies to fictional narratives in books, films, plays, etc. Martinez 2011 argues that educators are aware of the need for early diagnosis. As for the specific ways of using the present simple tense, one should mention the following: 1. Here are some examples: Stative verbs agree involve realise appear know recognise believe like resemble consist love seem constitute mean understand doubt need want hate own weigh include prefer wish e. They are not normally used in continuous or progressive forms. When referring to actions that will come in the academic paper, the writer should use the present or future tense. The oral performance skills were pronunciation, vocabulary, wordformation, grammar and language functions.
Present Perfect The present perfect consists of a past participle the third principal part with "has" or "have. Also, it is used for stating hypotheses. The two groups were pretested and posttested on their oral performance skills. Here, we explain how and where to use these different tenses. For instance, the outcomes and processes can be summarized in the past tense while the implications and future relevance can be described in the present tense. For example, you are free to use it in your thesis proposal to explain what you are going to do.
Tense Use in Academic Writing: Past, Present and Future
Computer-mediated communication CMC has developed at an astonishing rate in its short history. Is It a separate section? Example Around 89% of the treated samples demonstrated higher water resistance. Present Perfect The present perfect tense is widely used when one needs to mention previous findings indicating the data that is relevant today. Tenses are often employed to display how the author feels about the subject being reported. Seventy-eight girls of second year prep students in two classes from Sammanoud Prep School for Girls were chosen as the subjects of the study. What are explained here active tenses based on situation But what about Passive tenses based on situation, is there any rules when we use passive tenses? Only use a perfect tense whether present perfect or past perfect to emphasize that something about the past is still relevant. A Few Words about Other Tenses Whereas the three tenses mentioned above are the most popular and widely used in academic writing, there are some cases when one may need to use other tenses to make distinctions between the times.
All the videos have captions that you can view on YouTube. John had hoped to have won the trophy. It includes a language review section, lots of guided practice and freer paragraph writing practice. With the present perfect tense, you will also be able to refer to previous research without having to mention them. Tenses locate an event in time, while aspects communicate durations and relationships between events that happen at different times. Note, however, that the facts and generalizations that emerge from past research are reported in the present simple.
Usually the action that is represented by the present perfect tense was completed before the action of the main verb. If the actions in the sentence or paragraph happen at the same time, you will have to use the same tense for all of them. In both of these cases, the action happened in the past. The present simple tense is used when an action is happening right now or happens regularly, while the present perfect tense is used for actions that took place in the past and continued to the present time. According to the findings by Henderson 2008 , all the interviewees reported negative side effects from the drug.
To familiarize the reader with the findings of earlier studies. On the other hand, …. Future: They will walk. The examples above are the simple forms of each of these tenses. The experimental group was taught the first term units including stories of Hello! This is because the authors are reporting what they did in the past; the sentence is not presenting a universal step that should be taken in order to replicate the results. The Methods section is often a descriptive listing of the steps that should be taken to replicate the study results. In present simple, the past simple, and the present perfect.
