Tenses of The Verb

Writing about Your Research: Verb Tense
Consistency of verb tense helps ensure smooth expression in your writing. The practice of the discipline for
which you write typically determines which verb tenses to use in various parts of a scientific document. In
general, however, the following guidelines may help you know when to use past and present tense. If you have
questions about tense or other writing concerns specific to your discipline, check with your adviser.
Use Past Tense…
To describe your methodology and report your results. At the time you are writing
your report, thesis, dissertation or article, you have already completed your study, so
you should use past tense in your methodology section to record what you did, and in
your results section to report what you found.
 We hypothesized that adults would remember more items than children.
 We extracted tannins from the leaves by bringing them to a boil in 50%

methanol.
 In experiment 2, response varied.
When referring to the work of previous researchers. When citing previous research
in your article, use past tense. Whatever a previous researcher said, did or wrote
happened at some specific, definite time in the past and is not still being done. Results
that were relevant only in the past or to a particular study and have not yet been
generally accepted as fact also should be expressed in past tense:
Sample Sentence Explanation

"Smith (2008) reported that adult Smith’s study was completed in the
respondents in his study past and his finding was specific to
remembered 30 percent more than that particular study.
children."
"Previous research showed that The research was conducted in the

children confuse the source of their past, but the finding is now a widely
memories more often than adults accepted fact.
(Lindsey et al., 1991)."
To describe a fact, law or finding that is no longer considered valid and relevant.

"Nineteenth-century physicians held Note the shift here from past tense
that women got migraines because (discredited belief) to present
they were 'the weaker sex,' but (current belief).
current research shows that the
causes of migraine are unrelated to
gender."
Use Present Tense. . .
To express findings that continue to be true. Use present tense to express general
truths or facts or conclusions supported by research results that are unlikely to change
—in other words, something that is believed to be always true.

"Genetic information is encoded in Note also that no source citation is
the sequence of nucleotides on needed here since it is a widely
DNA." known and well-accepted fact.
"Galileo asserted that the earth The asserting took place in the past,
revolves around the sun." but the earth is still revolving
around the sun.
Here you use past tense to indicate

1) “Singer (1982) stated that sexual what Singer reported (sentence one),
dimorphism in body size is common but present tense to indicate a
among butterflies.” research result that is unlikely to
change (sentence two).
2) "Sexual dimorphism in body size
is common among butterflies
(Singer 1982)."
"We chose Vietnam for this study

because it has a long coastline." Use past tense to indicate what you
did (chose Vietnam), but present
tense to indicate you assume that the
length of Vietnam's coastline is
unlikely to change.
"We used cornmeal to feed the Past tense reflects what you did
fingerlings because it provides high (used cornmeal), but present tense
nutritional content at a relatively indicates that neither the nutritional
low cost." content nor the cost of cornmeal is
likely to change.
To refer to the article, thesis or dissertation itself.

"Table 3 shows that the main cause Table 3 will always show this; it is
of weight increase was nutritional now a fact that is unlikely to change,
value of the feed." and will be true whenever anyone
reads this sentence, so use present
tense.
To discuss your findings and present your conclusions.

"Weight increased as the nutritional Use past tense to indicate what you
value of feed increased. These found [weight increased], but use
results suggest that feeds higher in present tense to suggest what the
nutritional value contribute to result implies.
greater weight gain in livestock."
Source:
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Ed. The

Comprehensive Guide to Writing in the Health Sciences, University of Toronto.

Tenses of The Verb

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Writing about Your Research: Verb Tense

Use Past Tense…

 We hypothesized that adults would remember more items than children.

 We extracted tannins from the leaves by bringing them to a boil in 50%

 In experiment 2, response varied.

Sample Sentence Explanation

"Previous research showed that The research was conducted in the

Sample Sentence Explanation

Use Present Tense. . .

Sample Sentence Explanation

Here you use past tense to indicate

"We chose Vietnam for this study

Sample Sentence Explanation

To discuss your findings and present your conclusions.

Sample Sentence Explanation

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Ed. The

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