Why so tense?
It is important to use the correct tense(s) in your writing. As well as being grammatically correct, it’s a necessary step in ensuring your content is understood the way you want it to be understood, and will help you come across as professional.
There are 12 tenses in the English language (some argue more!) but, for the purposes of this lesson, we will only discuss the fundamental trio of past tense (things that have already happened), present tense (things that are happening right now) and future tense (things that are yet to happen). In other words:
Past tense: I ate my lunch.
Present tense: I am eating my lunch.
Future tense: I will eat my lunch.
Most importantly, choose the right tense. Think about when the action is happening, in the piece you are writing, and choose the tense in which you will write. It’s important to do this mindfully: don’t take it for granted.
If you are recounting something that already happened (a place you visited, research you undertook, an article you read), your copy will likely be written in the past tense. If you are expressing your feelings, your thoughts on a topic, or describing something, your copy will likely be written in the present tense. And if you want to speculate about something yet to come (maybe an upcoming event, recipe instructions, new products you intend to release, or simply your wishes, hopes and goals for the future), you will most likely write your copy in the future tense.
Once you’ve chosen the appropriate tense for your piece of writing, be sure to follow the following three rules.
Rule 1: Keep your tenses consistent
Best practice is to stick to the one tense the entire way through. I realise this sounds obvious, but it’s also very easy to slip into changing tenses without realising it.
For example, “David went to the hospital to see Margaret, and she told him she is feeling much better.”
This sentence uses two words in the past tense (“went” and “told”), but then switches to the present tense (“is feeling”). The result is confusing. David’s journey to the hospital occurred in the past, so how can Margaret be saying she feels better in our present?
The accurate rendering would be, “David went to the hospital to see Margaret, and she told him she was feeling much better.”
Rule 2: Use signal words
Despite Rule 1, there are times when we do need to change tense within a piece of writing. But you should only do this if you need to highlight a very distinct change in the timeframe.
For example, “During lockdown I taught myself how to bake sourdough. Now, I make fresh bread for my family every week.”
In this content it is necessary to change tense because I taught myself (past tense) how to bake sourdough during lockdown. But this has impacted my actions in the present (I make fresh bread).
The way to change tense with elegance and grammatical accuracy is a) not to do it until absolutely necessary (see Rule 1), and b) to use “signal words” to indicate the change.
Signal words tell your reader that you are making a change. They force you to be mindful (no willy-nilly tense changes for no good reason) and this in turn gives your writing more clarity and power.
Some examples of signal words you might use to indicate a change of tense are “now,” “meanwhile,” “previously,” “then,” “so that,” “next,” and “as a result.”
For example:
“My uncle is happy to be in Paris, although he left his beloved dog behind.” He is happy (present tense), although (signal word) he left (past tense).
“The Ambassador will speak at the conference, even though we asked him not to.” He will speak (present tense), even though (signal words) we asked him (past tense).
Rule 3: Move backwards, not forwards
Never move forwards in time in the one sentence. Go back in time if you must, but never forward.
Even in the sourdough baking example I gave in Rule 2, the switch in tense came in two separate sentences, not in the same one.
NO: “I told him I am leaving today.”
(Transitions from past to present)YES: “I told him I was leaving today.”
(Stays in the past)NO: “He is nervous because the exam will be this afternoon.”
(Transitions from present to future)YES: “He is nervous because the exam is this afternoon.”
(Stays in the present)NO: “During lockdown I taught myself how to bake sourdough, and make fresh bread for my family every week.” (Transitions from past to present)
YES: “During lockdown I taught myself how to bake sourdough, and made fresh bread for my family every week.”
(Stays in the past), OR…YES: “I make fresh bread for my family every week, having taught myself during lockdown.”
(Transitions from present to past)
The way I remember this rule is that we kind of know what happened in the past, because we’ve been there before. But we can’t foretell the future. So you can change tenses from the future or present to the present or past, but not the other way around.
This is a tricky rule to follow, because sometimes it feels counter-intuitive. But it’s an important one to commit to, for clarity of your writing and grammatical consistency.
NOTE: Error in the Workbook. There is a “Good Writing Checklist” on page 36 of Workbook 2. On point 8 of that checklist I remind you to only change tense within a sentence forwards, not backwards, as per Rule 3. I don’t know what I was typing because you should only change backwards, not forwards! If you download a new Workbook from our Resources page, that error has been corrected.
Homework
Look back over recent content you have written, and double-check that it is a) written in the most appropriate tense, and b) only transitions when necessary, using signal words and the appropriate direction to ensure clarity.