essay writing in past tense

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Verb Tense Consistency

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Throughout this document, example sentences with nonstandard or inconsistent usage have verbs in red .

Controlling shifts in verb tense

Writing often involves telling stories. Sometimes we narrate a story as our main purpose in writing; sometimes we include brief anecdotes or hypothetical scenarios as illustrations or reference points in an essay.

Even an essay that does not explicitly tell a story involves implied time frames for the actions discussed and states described. Changes in verb tense help readers understand the temporal relationships among various narrated events. But unnecessary or inconsistent shifts in tense can cause confusion.

Generally, writers maintain one tense for the main discourse and indicate changes in time frame by changing tense relative to that primary tense, which is usually either simple past or simple present. Even apparently non-narrative writing should employ verb tenses consistently and clearly.

General guideline: Do not shift from one tense to another if the time frame for each action or state is the same.

Explains is present tense, referring to a current state; asked is past, but should be present ( ask ) because the students are currently continuing to ask questions during the lecture period.

CORRECTED: The instructor explains the diagram to students who ask questions during the lecture.

Darkened and sprang up are past tense verbs; announces is present but should be past ( announced ) to maintain consistency within the time frame.

CORRECTED: About noon the sky darkened , a breeze sprang up , and a low rumble announced the approaching storm.

Walk is present tense but should be past to maintain consistency within the time frame ( yesterday ); rode is past, referring to an action completed before the current time frame.

CORRECTED: Yesterday we walked to school but later rode the bus home.

General guideline: Do shift tense to indicate a change in time frame from one action or state to another.

Love is present tense, referring to a current state (they still love it now;) built is past, referring to an action completed before the current time frame (they are not still building it.)

Began is past tense, referring to an action completed before the current time frame; had reached is past perfect, referring to action from a time frame before that of another past event (the action of reaching was completed before the action of beginning.)

Are installing is present progressive, referring to an ongoing action in the current time frame (the workers are still installing, and have not finished;) will need is future, referring to action expected to begin after the current time frame (the concert will start in the future, and that's when it will need amplification.)

Controlling shifts in a paragraph or essay

General guideline: Establish a primary tense for the main discourse, and use occasional shifts to other tenses to indicate changes in time frame.

• Rely on past tense to narrate events and to refer to an author or an author's ideas as historical entities (biographical information about a historical figure or narration of developments in an author's ideas over time).
• Use present tense to state facts, to refer to perpetual or habitual actions, and to discuss your own ideas or those expressed by an author in a particular work. Also use present tense to describe action in a literary work, movie, or other fictional narrative. Occasionally, for dramatic effect, you may wish to narrate an event in present tense as though it were happening now. If you do, use present tense consistently throughout the narrative, making shifts only where appropriate.
• Future action may be expressed in a variety of ways, including the use of will, shall, is going to, are about to, tomorrow and other adverbs of time, and a wide range of contextual cues.

Using other tenses in conjunction with simple tenses

It is not always easy (or especially helpful) to try to distinguish perfect and/or progressive tenses from simple ones in isolation, for example, the difference between simple past progressive ("She was eating an apple") and present perfect progressive ("She has been eating an apple"). Distinguishing these sentences in isolation is possible, but the differences between them make clear sense only in the context of other sentences since the time-distinctions suggested by different tenses are relative to the time frame implied by the verb tenses in surrounding sentences or clauses.

Example 1: Simple past narration with perfect and progressive elements

On the day in question...

By the time Tom noticed the doorbell, it had already rung three times. As usual, he had been listening to loud music on his stereo. He turned the stereo down and stood up to answer the door. An old man was standing on the steps. The man began to speak slowly, asking for directions.

In this example, the progressive verbs had been listening and was standing suggest action underway at the time some other action took place. The stereo-listening was underway when the doorbell rang. The standing on the steps was underway when the door was opened. The past perfect progressive verb had been listening suggests action that began in the time frame prior to the main narrative time frame and that was still underway as another action began.

If the primary narration is in the present tense, then the present progressive or present perfect progressive is used to indicate action that is or has been underway as some other action begins. This narrative style might be used to describe a scene from a novel, movie, or play, since action in fictional narratives is conventionally treated as always present. For example, we refer to the scene in Hamlet in which the prince first speaks (present) to the ghost of his dead father or the final scene in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing , which takes place (present) the day after Mookie has smashed (present perfect) the pizzeria window. If the example narrative above were a scene in a play, movie, or novel, it might appear as follows.

Example 2: Simple present narration with perfect and progressive elements

In this scene...

By the time Tom notices the doorbell, it has already rung three times. As usual, he has been listening to loud music on his stereo. He turns the stereo down and stands up to answer the door. An old man is standing on the steps. The man begins to speak slowly, asking for directions.

In this example as in the first one, the progressive verbs has been listening and is standing indicate action underway as some other action takes place. The present perfect progressive verb has been listening suggests action that began in the time frame prior to the main narrative time frame and that is still underway as another action begins. The remaining tense relationships parallel those in the first example.

In all of these cases, the progressive or -ing part of the verb merely indicates ongoing action, that is, action underway as another action occurs. The general comments about tense relationships apply to simple and perfect tenses, regardless of whether there is a progressive element involved.

It is possible to imagine a narrative based on a future time frame as well, for example, the predictions of a psychic or futurist. If the example narrative above were spoken by a psychic, it might appear as follows.

Example 3: Simple future narration with perfect and progressive elements

Sometime in the future...

By the time Tom notices the doorbell, it will have already rung three times. As usual, he will have been listening to loud music on his stereo. He will turn the stereo down and will stand up to answer the door. An old man will be standing on the steps. The man will begin to speak slowly, asking for directions.

In this example as in the first two, the progressive verbs will have been listening and will be standing indicate ongoing action. The future perfect progressive verb will have been listening suggests action that will begin in the time frame prior to the main narrative time frame and that will still be underway when another action begins. The verb notices here is in present-tense form, but the rest of the sentence and the full context of the narrative cue us to understand that it refers to future time. The remaining tense relationships parallel those in the first two examples.

General guidelines for use of perfect tenses

In general the use of perfect tenses is determined by their relationship to the tense of the primary narration. If the primary narration is in simple past, then action initiated before the time frame of the primary narration is described in past perfect. If the primary narration is in simple present, then action initiated before the time frame of the primary narration is described in present perfect. If the primary narration is in simple future, then action initiated before the time frame of the primary narration is described in future perfect.

Past primary narration corresponds to Past Perfect ( had + past participle) for earlier time frames

Present primary narration corresponds to Present Perfect ( has or have + past participle) for earlier time frames

Future primary narration corresponds to Future Perfect ( will have + past participle) for earlier time frames

The present perfect is also used to narrate action that began in real life in the past but is not completed, that is, may continue or may be repeated in the present or future. For example: "I have run in four marathons" (implication: "so far... I may run in others"). This usage is distinct from the simple past, which is used for action that was completed in the past without possible continuation or repetition in the present or future. For example: "Before injuring my leg, I ran in four marathons" (implication: "My injury prevents me from running in any more marathons").

Time-orienting words and phrases like before, after, by the time , and others—when used to relate two or more actions in time—can be good indicators of the need for a perfect-tense verb in a sentence.

• By the time the senator finished (past) his speech, the audience had lost (past perfect) interest.
• By the time the senator finishes (present: habitual action) his speech, the audience has lost (present perfect) interest.
• By the time the senator finishes (present: suggesting future time) his speech, the audience will have lost (future perfect) interest.
• After everyone had finished (past perfect) the main course, we offered (past) our guests dessert.
• After everyone has finished (present perfect) the main course, we offer (present: habitual action) our guests dessert.
• After everyone has finished (present perfect) the main course, we will offer (future: specific one-time action) our guests dessert.
• Long before the sun rose (past), the birds had arrived (past perfect) at the feeder.
• Long before the sun rises (present: habitual action), the birds have arrived (present perfect) at the feeder.
• Long before the sun rises (present: suggesting future time), the birds will have arrived (future perfect) at the feeder.

Sample paragraphs

The main tense in this first sample is past. Tense shifts are inappropriate and are indicated in bold .

(adapted from a narrative)

Inappropriate shifts from past to present, such as those that appear in the above paragraph, are sometimes hard to resist. The writer becomes drawn into the narrative and begins to relive the event as an ongoing experience. The inconsistency should be avoided, however. In the sample, will should be would , and rise should be rose .

The main tense in this second sample is present. Tense shifts—all appropriate—are indicated in bold.

(adapted from an article in the magazine Wilderness )

This writer uses the present tense to describe the appearance of a dragonfly on a particular July morning. However, both past and future tenses are called for when she refers to its previous actions and to its predictable activity in the future.

Click here for exercises on verb tense.

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• Writing Tips

Tense Use in Academic Writing: Past, Present and Future

4-minute read

• 2nd December 2016

While the dreary constraints of physical reality mean that we’re stuck in the present for all practical purposes, in speech or writing we can skip from past to present to future at will.

To do this, you’ll need to master the past, present and future tense. These grammatical tenses are useful in all kinds of writing, but here we’ll focus on their use in academic work .

What is Grammatical Tense?

Before anything else, we need to quickly clarify what we mean by “grammatical tense.”

The main thing you need to know is that the form of the verb in a sentence changes depending on when the action described occurs.

As such, by modifying a sentence to adjust the tense, we can change its meaning:

Present Tense: Alfred burns the cakes.

Past Tense: Alfred burned the cakes.

Future Tense: Alfred will burn the cakes.

In the first example, the present tense verb “burns” suggests that it’s happening now. The past tense verb “burned”, however, shows that it has already happened. And by adding the helping verb “will,” we can instead suggest that the action is going to happen in the future.

The examples above are the simple forms of each of these tenses. There are many variations on these, however, so it’s worth checking how each form differs in practice.

The Past Tense in Academic Writing

In an academic paper, you could use the past tense to show that an idea is not widely accepted any more. In the following, for instance, the past tense “claimed” and “has since been disputed” both signal that the study no longer applies:

Cook and Moore (1964) originally claimed that profane language is amusing, although this has since been disputed by many experts.

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The past tense is also commonly used in academic writing when describing the methods used in an experiment that has already been conducted:

The sample was tested using several techniques.

Some colleges have specific instructions for how a methodology chapter should be written, though, so make sure to check for rules about tense use in your style guide.

The Present Tense in Academic Writing

The present tense is dominant in most forms of academic work, since it applies when writing about current events or states of being. This includes describing:

• Existing facts and theories (e.g., “Profane language is common among young people…”)
• The findings of a study (e.g., “The results demonstrate that…”)
• The opinions or claims of other thinkers (e.g., “Cook and Moore argue that…”)

The present tense is usually correct even when describing a study that happened in the past, as long as the conclusions are still relevant in the present.

The Future Tense in Academic Writing

The future tense is less common in academic writing, but it still has a couple of important roles. One is in research proposals , since you’ll need to describe your research aims, predictions about results, and the methods you intend to use:

This study will examine the role of profane language in comedy. We predict that profane language will be considered hilarious by the majority of respondents.

The future tense is also useful when recommending fresh avenues of research or suggesting how the results of a study could be applied:

Our study suggests that further research should be conducted into the increasing use of profane language in everyday life.

The crucial thing is that the future tense is used when describing something that hasn’t yet happened or that is expected to occur in the future.

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Verb Tenses

What this handout is about.

The present simple, past simple, and present perfect verb tenses account for approximately 80% of verb tense use in academic writing. This handout will help you understand how to use these three verb tenses in your own academic writing.

Click here for a color-coded illustration of changing verb tenses in academic writing.

Present simple tense

The present simple tense is used:

In your introduction, the present simple tense describes what we already know about the topic. In the conclusion, it says what we now know about the topic and what further research is still needed.

“The data suggest…” “The research shows…”

“The dinoflagellate’s TFVCs require an unidentified substance in fresh fish excreta” (Penrose and Katz, 330).

“There is evidence that…”

“So I’m walking through the park yesterday, and I hear all of this loud music and yelling. Turns out, there’s a free concert!” “Shakespeare captures human nature so accurately.”

Past simple tense

Past simple tense is used for two main functions in most academic fields.

“…customers obviously want to be treated at least as well on fishing vessels as they are by other recreation businesses. [General claim using simple present] De Young (1987) found the quality of service to be more important than catching fish in attracting repeat customers. [Specific claim from a previous study using simple past] (Marine Science)

We conducted a secondary data analysis… (Public Health) Descriptional statistical tests and t-student test were used for statistical analysis. (Medicine) The control group of students took the course previously… (Education)

Present perfect tense

The present perfect acts as a “bridge” tense by connecting some past event or state to the present moment. It implies that whatever is being referred to in the past is still true and relevant today.

“There have been several investigations into…” “Educators have always been interested in student learning.”

Some studies have shown that girls have significantly higher fears than boys after trauma (Pfefferbaum et al., 1999; Pine &; Cohen, 2002; Shaw, 2003). Other studies have found no gender differences (Rahav and Ronen, 1994). (Psychology)

Special notes

Can i change tenses.

Yes. English is a language that uses many verb tenses at the same time. The key is choosing the verb tense that is appropriate for what you’re trying to convey.

What’s the difference between present simple and past simple for reporting research results?

• Past simple limits your claims to the results of your own study. E.g., “Our study found that teenagers were moody.” (In this study, teenagers were moody.)
• Present simple elevates your claim to a generalization. E.g., “Our study found that teenagers are moody.” (Teenagers are always moody.)

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Biber, Douglas. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English . New York: Longman.

Hawes, Thomas, and Sarah Thomas. 1997. “Tense Choices in Citations.” Research into the Teaching of English 31 (3): 393-414.

Hinkel, Eli. 2004. Teaching Academic ESL Writing: Practical Techniques in Vocabulary and Grammar . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Penrose, Ann, and Steven Katz. 2004. Writing in the Sciences: Exploring the Conventions of Scientific Discourse , 2nd ed. New York: Longman.

Swales, John, and Christine B. Feak. 2004. Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills , 2nd ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Writing academically: Tenses

• Academic style
• Personal pronouns
• Contractions
• Abbreviations
• Signposting
• Paragraph structure
• Using sources in your writing

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“Quote” Author, Book

In simple terms, verb tenses refer to the past, present or future. Verb tenses tell the reader when something happened, and are used to convey what is or is not known at the time of writing.

If you are reporting on your own or others’ specific research activities (such as methods that were used, or results that were found) then you would generally use the past tense.

• An experiment was conducted…
• It was found that…
• Brown (2010) found that…

In the example based on Brown’s research, the writer was referring to a specific result that Brown found when he conducted his research in 2010, and is therefore written in the past tense.

Present tense

Use the present tense if you are making general statements that draw on previous research, and usually indicates what is known at the time of writing , for example:

Example: 

• The research shows...
• The results of the experiment suggest that…
• Brown’s (2010) study suggests that…

In the above example based on Brown’s research, the writer makes a reference to what is known at the time of writing , and so it is written in the present tense.

Here is an example of using both the past and present tense in your writing:

Example:  Brown (2010) conducted a survey of 1000 students. The results of his survey suggest that all his students are geniuses.

In this example the writer refers to a specific survey that Brown conducted (past tense) in 2010. The writer then conveys how the results of Brown’s survey are still considered worthy today by writing in the present tense ( suggest ).

Compare this to the following example:

Example:  Brown (2010) conducted a survey of 1000 students. The results of his survey suggested that all his students were geniuses, but his later work (Brown, 2015) suggests this is not the case.

As previously, Brown’s specific study of 2010 is referred to in the past tense. But we now find that a later study by Brown (2015) appears to be in disagreement with his earlier 2010 study. Consequently the writer now refers to the conclusions drawn from the 2010 study in the past tense ( suggested ), and it is the results of Brown’s 2015 study – which represents what is known at the time of writing - that is referred to in the present tense ( suggests ).

Future tense

The future tense is not often used in academic writing because it tends to imply a level of certainty that academics can find uncomfortable. If you use verbs such as will or shall then be certain of your certainty! Otherwise use verbs that express possibility, such as could or may .

The exception is in research proposals where you are writing about what you intend to do - so the future tense is used.

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English for Uni

Tenses in Academic Writing

Ms parrot: you've got talent.

View the video, then try the tenses exercises to test your knowledge! Watch the whole story, or see sections of the story below . All the videos have captions that you can view on YouTube.

View the video on Chinese channel youku .

View the individual video chapters

To view the individual chapters of the above video, you can either click the 'PLAYLIST' menu item in the above YouTube video and select the chapter from there, or, you can click one of the pictures below and view the individual video on YouTube. All the videos have captions that you can view on YouTube.

• You've Got Talent - The TV Show
• You've Got Talent - Teaching on Tenses
• Exercise 1: Present simple, past simple or present perfect
• Exercise 2: Present simple, past simple or present perfect
• Exercise 3: Explaining tense usage
• Exercise 4: Present simple or present perfect
• Exercise 5: Verbs and actions
• Exercise 6: Subject and verb agreement

You can view the video transcript here. You can also view the information on this page as a PDF or as a Word document and download the exercises as a PDF or as a Word document. And remember that you can see the video from China on youku .

Tenses in different languages Teachers' notes

Using tenses

Writers use tenses to give a particular meaning. The writer might be trying to emphasise the currency, regularity or even ownership of an idea. Some tenses are therefore used more than others in academic English.

The simple tenses are used for events which are immediate facts (or strong predictions in the future), complete or unchanging.

The perfect tenses are used to show the prior nature of an event in relation to some other point in time.

The continuous/progressive tenses are used for an event which is not complete, or is temporary or changing. (N.B. The word 'continuous' is used in British and Australian grammar books, while US grammar books use the word 'progressive' for these tenses.)

Here is a timeline to show you some tenses commonly used in academic writing:

Simple and perfect, present and past tenses are used most in academic writing. How many tenses did you spot in the video?

Present simple

- A general principle Talent shows usually allow people to demonstrate their creative abilities.

- Someone's opinion Professor Grahamarian thinks that talent shows are important.

- The results of an experiment The judges' scores show that X is the clear winner.

- A habitual action in the present People nearly always feel nervous before they perform on stage.

- A theory Bobby Dylan's theory about talent contests is that one should not judge by appearances.

- A claim Bobby Dylan claims that talent shows are the best way for people to become famous.

- A fact Talent shows are exciting.

Past simple

- What happened There were two acts. Prince Wolfgang won the competition.

- What happened in the past but is different now In the past, shows were simpler.

- Ideas that were held in the past but are no longer held People thought that talent contests were bad.

Used to is also used to compare the past to the present

People used to win smaller prizes. [This implies that the situation has changed.]

Present perfect

- Something that has changed over time Recently, talent contests have become bigger and more glamorous.

- Recent research and its present impact Recently, research has shown that such talent contests can make people nervous.

Tenses less used in academic writing

Generally, academic writing is based on research or theories that already exist, have already happened, or refer to a current event or view. This means that the various forms of the future are less likely to be used in essays, although they might be used in reports.

- ‘going to' future: They are going to research this next year.

- future simple: They will research this next year.

- future continuous:  They will be playing some music by Mozart.

- future perfect:  At the end of August they will have had over 150 rehearsals.

The continuous/progressive forms are less common in academic writing because they indicate something temporary.

- present continuous/progressive: They are researching this now.

- present perfect continuous/progressive: They have been researching this for many years.

- past perfect continuous/progressive: They had been researching this for many years before they found any significant results.

- future perfect continuous/progressive: By 2025, they will have been researching this for eleven years.

The past perfect situates one activity in the past before another activity. It is sometimes used in academic writing.

- past perfect: They had researched this for many years before they found any significant results.

The difference between the past perfect and the past perfect continuous is that the continuous form puts more emphasis on the length of the activity.

Stative verbs

Some verbs are called ‘stative verbs'. These are verbs that refer to states or preferences rather than to physical actions. They are not normally used in continuous or progressive forms. Here are some examples:

e.g. We say They agree rather than They are agreeing.

(Visit the Perfect English Grammar website for a comprehensive list of stative verbs and explanations about how to use them.)

Consistency of verb tenses

Jumping from tense to tense can make reading difficult and confusing. Within a sentence there needs to be a logical sequence to the ideas or events. From sentence to sentence within a paragraph there also needs to be a logical relationship.

Incorrect: The study ended suddenly because many of the participants have moved away.

This is confusing because the writer starts by looking back at the past ( ended ) but then changes their perspective to the present perfect ( have moved ).

Correct: The study ended suddenly because many of the participants had moved away.

This is better, because all the action is situated in the past.

Future tenses

It is sometimes hard to choose which future tense to use in English, as the differences in meaning can be very small. For example, the future continuous is more informal than the future simple. Here are some examples:

They will leave tomorrow. (prediction)

They leave tomorrow. (formal)

They are leaving tomorrow. (planned event; arrangements already made)

They are going to leave tomorrow. (planned event; focuses on intention)

They will be leaving tomorrow. (less definite; informal)

They will have left before you arrive tomorrow. (situates the event before another event)

Verb tenses when citing sources

When you are reporting on research in the past, then a past tense is mostly used. e.g. According to the findings by Henderson (2008), all the interviewees reported negative side effects from the drug. However, in a literature review or a paragraph that is trying to stress that certain ideas are still relevant, the present perfect tense may be used.

e.g. Even though linguists have argued that language learning is an incremental process, young children have shown that risk taking and game playing speed up the process (Chen 2009; Brown 2003).

In addition, if research results are still meaningful then the present simple is used. e.g. The data collected from Green's (2004) research suggest that exposure to stress reduces language fluency. (N.B. data can be either singular or plural.)

Subject/verb agreement

Present simple. All the verb endings are the same in regular verbs, except in the third person singular ( he/she/it ). Verbs after he/she/it add - s or -es .

Most verbs in the present simple add - s in the third person .

-es is added to verbs ending in - o , -ch , -sh , - ss , - tch , - x and -z .

Verbs ending in a consonant + y (e.g. deny , rely ) change the y to an i and add -es .

When there are several nouns, check which is the subject of the verb to see how it agrees. The subject may not be the word closest to the verb.

e.g. The use of these procedures is recommended by the university. (In this example, it is the word use which is the subject.

e.g. Recent discoveries in the area have led to an improvement in treatment.

Noun + noun = plural verb

e.g. A girl and a dog were sitting on the library steps.

Difficult cases - The number of + singular verb. The number of cases is declining.

- A number of + plural verb. A number of people are waiting for their results.

There is/There are Turn the sentence round to see if you need there is or there are .

e.g. There is an excellent article in this journal = An excellent article is in this journal.

e.g. There are some excellent articles in this journal = Some excellent article s are in this journal.

Aspect - for advanced grammar lovers

The word ‘tense' is often used to cover the two terms ‘tense' and ‘aspect'. ‘Tense' refers to the time when something happens (present, past or future). ‘Aspect' refers to how we experience the action (as something which is complete, ongoing or before another action). In English we usually refer to three aspects: simple, perfect and progressive/continuous.

The following chart is the same as the chart at the top of this page, but includes aspect as a separate category.

The simple aspect is used for facts or strong predictions.

I work in the maths department.

I cycle to the university every day.

I have an exam next week.

I submitted my assignment last week.

I will study engineering next year.

The perfect aspect is used to indicate that something happened before another point in time and is still relevant at that point in time.

I have submitteed my report.

She had left before we arrived.

He will have graduated before we even enrol.

The progressive aspect is used for an event which is not complete, or is temporary or changing.

He is busy entering the data. (= at the moment)

They are getting harder to approach.

She was working on her literature review all night.

He will be leaving at 10 am tomorrow.

A lot of the information on this page is based on Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The grammar book (2nd ed). US: Heinle & Heinle.