Tense ("Homer composed his epics spontaneously in performance"),
So, when writing about the man, you should speak in the past Discussing Homer, not hisĮpics, calls for the past tense, because he's dead and can't come to life the This isn't necessarily true of the authors themselves, however. The vividness with which they re-occur whenever they pass through our mindsĪnd, because they're works of fiction, they can and do relive with every re-reading. Happen over and over again each time we read them. The dead." It's best in this case to use the present tense ("journeys"),īecause stories like Homer's epics exist in a timeless realm where they can Of The Odyssey, the hero Odysseus journeys to the realm of In a work of literary fiction, use the present tense: "At the midpoint Here's how to construct tenses properly for both types of paper. So, in describingĬharacters or recapitulating the plots found in literature, it's best to use Takes place in works of fiction exists in a timeless world. When the topic is literature, however, it's a different matter. Of verbs used in history papers are past-tense (e.g.
In historical studies that is, by definition, in the past. It was only eleven o’clock and my mum says, ‘You’re late again.’ And I say, ‘No, I’m not.’ Then my dad starts to shout.The tense of the verb in a sentence reflects the time at which the action is We also use the present simple when we report what people say as part of a story: The soldier watches her and after a few minutes follows her.Ī man walks into a restaurant with a monkey on his shoulder. It ’s seven o’clock in the evening and an old woman walks slowly out of her garden and towards the bus stop. We also use the present simple when we tell stories or jokes. In spring 1984 the government is defeated and an election takes place. In formal writing the present simple is also used to refer to important events in the past:
For example, news headlines are commonly written in the present simple: We commonly use the present simple to refer to the past when we want to make events sound as if they are happening now.
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