Tenses Present Past and Future The verb tenses

Tenses Present , Past and Future

The verb tenses may be categorized according to the time frame: • Present Tense • Past Tense • Future Tense Each one has its own different aspects of tense.

Academic Writing There are four tenses that make up 98% of the tensed verbs used in academic writing. The most common tense is present simple, followed by past simple , present perfect and the future. Each one of theses tenses has different functions in academic writing.

Present Tense : (S+V(simple)+C) The present simple is used to: - describe an action, an event, or condition that is occurring in the present, at the moment of speaking or writing. - express an unchanging, repeated, or reoccurring action or situation. - represent a fact I speak English everyday Time signal : now , everyday, always, often, every week, usually, never. Present simple is the most common tense in academic writing, and it is usually considered as the “default” unless there is a certain reason to choose another tense (e. g. a sentence contains a past time marker). It is usually correct even when describing a study that happened in the past, as long as the conclusions are still relevant in the present:

Functions Examples 1) To frame a paper. It is used in introductions to state what is already known about the topic, and in conclusions to say what is now known. Scholars share a common argument that engineering is the most male dominated of all professions. 2) To point out the focus, main argument, or aim of the current paper. (present and future) This paper analyses the impact of high temperatures on certain species. 3) To make general statements, conclusions, and interpretations about findings of a study “The results demonstrate that…” The opinions or claims of other thinkers “Cook and Moore argue that……. . ” Existing facts and theories “polite language is common among young people…”) 5) To refer to tables or figures. Table 1 presents the main tenses in English. 6) To describe the events or plot of a literary work. This usage has the name “Narrative present”. In Mansuji Ibuse’s Black Rain, a child reaches for a pomegranate in his mother’s garden, and a moment later he is dead, killed by the blast of an atomic

Present Perfect Tense (S+ Have or Has + PP+C) The present perfect tense is used to describe action that began in the past and continues into the present or has just been completed. I have lived here for 2 years Time signal : once, twice, for 2 years, since 1993, this week. Present perfect is usually used when referring to previous research, and since it is a present tense, it indicates that the findings are relevant today. More specifically, this tense might have the following functions:

Functions Example 1) To introduce a recent report or paper. There has been a large body of research regarding the effect of carbon emissions on climate change. 2) To summarize previous research with general subjects (such as “researchers have found…”) Some studies have found that girls have significantly higher fears than boys after trauma (Pfefferbaum et al. , 1999; Pine and Cohen, 2002; Shaw, 2003). Present perfect places emphasis on what has been done rather than on what is known to be true (present simple). 3) To point out a “gap” in existing research: to make a connection between the past (what has been found) and the present (how will you add more to the field). While these measures have proved to be reliable and valid predictors of what they are measuring, there is little data on how they relate to each other. 4) To describe previous findings without referring directly to the original paper. It has been shown that biodiversity is not evenly distributed throughout the world.

Past Tense : (S+V(P)+C) Past tense expresses an action or situation that was started and finished in the past. He wrote his article yesterday Time signal : yesterday, last month, last night, a forth night ago. In Academic writing past simple is used to refer to actions completed in the past. Some specific functions of this tense has in academic writing include:

Functions Examples 1) To report specific findings of a previous study (usually with the authors’ names in the sentence) to support a general statement. Cook and Moore (1964) originally claimed that formal language is amusing, although this has since been disputed by many experts. Note: This fact is no more acceptable. 2) To describe the methods or data from a completed experiment. Statistical analyses were used to determine relationships between variables. 3) To report results of the current empirical The L 1 -English writers utilized mostly study. NP- and PP-based bundles (78. 3% of types 77. 1% of tokens). 3) After any past time marker. After the war, Germany had to face strong reparations from the allied nations.

Future Tense : Future tense expresses an action or situation that will occur in the future She will go to Paris tomorrow. I am going to read newspaper tomorrow • Time signal : tomorrow, next week, next year The future tense is less common in academic writing, but it still has a couple of important roles:

1 - 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. 2 - It is also useful when recommending fresh ways 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. Note: 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.