Scribd
Upload
46 views

Verb Tenses in Academic Writing: Simple Present

A presentation of most common verb tenses used in academic writing

Uploaded by

RenataSku
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
46 views

Verb Tenses in Academic Writing: Simple Present

A presentation of most common verb tenses used in academic writing

Uploaded by

RenataSku
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

VERB TENSES IN ACADEMIC WRITING

According to corpus research, in academic writing, the three tenses used the most often are the simple
present, the simple past, and the present perfect (Biber et al., 1999; Caplan, 2012). The next most common
tense for capstone writers is the future.
 Simple present: Use the simple present to describe a general truth or a habitual action. This tense
indicates that the statement is generally true in the past, present, and future.

Example: The hospital admits patients whether or not they have proof of insurance.

 Simple past: Use the simple past tense to describe a completed action that took place at a specific point
in the past (e.g., last year, 1 hour ago, last Sunday). In the example below, the specific point of time in the
past is 1998.

Example: Zimbardo (1998) researched many aspects of social psychology.

 Present perfect: Use the present perfect to indicate an action that occurred at a nonspecific time in the
past. This action has relevance in the present. The present perfect is also sometimes used to introduce
background information in a paragraph. After the first sentence, the tense shifts to the simple past.

Example: Numerous researchers have used this method.

Example: Many researchers have studied how small business owners can be successful beyond the initial
few years in business. They found common themes among the small business owners.

 Future: Use the future to describe an action that will take place at a particular point in the future (at
Walden, this is used especially when writing a proposal for a doctoral capstone study).

Example: I will conduct semi-structured interviews.

Avoid unnecessary shifts in verb tense within a paragraph or in adjacent paragraphs to help ensure smooth
expression.

 Use the past tense (e.g., researchers presented) or the present perfect (e.g., researchers have presented)
for the literature review and the description of the procedure if discussing past events.
 Use the past tense to describe the results (e.g., test scores improved significantly).
 Use the present tense to discuss implications of the results and present conclusions (e.g., the results of the
study show…).

When explaining what an author or researcher wrote or did, use the past tense.

 Patterson (2012) presented, found, stated, discovered…

However, there can be a shift to the present tense if the research findings still hold true:

 King (2010) found that revising a document three times improves the final grade.
 Smith (2016) discovered that the treatment is effective.

1
________

_______________________

2
3
4

You might also like