To think about tenses are very important for non-native english speaker. I am one of them. In the manuscript, I donot find rhythm, I write a paragraph in past continuous than present indefinite and so on. Can anyone help me which tense would be best to write a report, thesis or manuscript?
When you are writing a research paper, write in the past tense.
The references you cite in your literature review should be in the past tense, because the studies were conducted in the past and the findings were published in the past.
Your own findings should also be presented in the past tense, because your data collection and analysis were both done in the past, before you started writing (or at least they ere supposed to be).
I think that your research questions can be in the present tense because they are written the way you formed them originally, before you collected your data. But even if the questions are in the present tense, when you answer the research questions, your answers are stated in the past tense.
In your discussion and analysis, you may use present tense, such as "...based on our research findings, students are more likely to..." Also, "This study agrees with XXXXX who found that..."
So things that happened in the past are written in the past tense. General concepts or idea may be stated in the present tense. For example, "Gardner described instrumental motivation, which he said is motivation to achieve an external goal."
I know that English verb tenses can be very confusing. I hope I have helped a bit.
When you are writing a research paper, write in the past tense.
The references you cite in your literature review should be in the past tense, because the studies were conducted in the past and the findings were published in the past.
Your own findings should also be presented in the past tense, because your data collection and analysis were both done in the past, before you started writing (or at least they ere supposed to be).
I think that your research questions can be in the present tense because they are written the way you formed them originally, before you collected your data. But even if the questions are in the present tense, when you answer the research questions, your answers are stated in the past tense.
In your discussion and analysis, you may use present tense, such as "...based on our research findings, students are more likely to..." Also, "This study agrees with XXXXX who found that..."
So things that happened in the past are written in the past tense. General concepts or idea may be stated in the present tense. For example, "Gardner described instrumental motivation, which he said is motivation to achieve an external goal."
I know that English verb tenses can be very confusing. I hope I have helped a bit.
Hope this book would help you.
Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps
Book by Margaret Cargill and Patrick O'Connor
While writing papers, you are likely to report on an experiment that is already complete so past tense is preferred. Have a look at REF-N-WRITE scientific paper writing tool, you can use this tool to compare your text with previously published text and get writing ideas. Here is the link for the site.
http://www.ref-n-write.com
They have some nice tutorials here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf7qyyKtbyQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6hlXzqO3r4
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