What tense in a scientific paper The 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results Are InMust the word after “can” be present tense?Why no Future Perfect in “At the end of the year there will be an exam on everything you've studied”?Continuous present tense in the place of simple present tenseTense Usage in Scientific Paper for analysisVerb Tense for RecommendationPresent or future tense?Is it true that English has no future tense?Simple past or past perfect-storyDo native speakers know the tenses?What exactly is tense?
Falsification in Math vs Science
What are the motivations for publishing new editions of an existing textbook, beyond new discoveries in a field?
How to notate time signature switching consistently every measure
How technical should a Scrum Master be to effectively remove impediments?
When should I buy a clipper card after flying to OAK?
What is the meaning of the verb "bear" in this context?
Resizing object distorts it (Illustrator CC 2018)
Time travel alters history but people keep saying nothing's changed
Why do UK politicians seemingly ignore opinion polls on Brexit?
Output the Arecibo Message
What to do when moving next to a bird sanctuary with a loosely-domesticated cat?
One word riddle: Vowel in the middle
Can you compress metal and what would be the consequences?
Why is the maximum length of OpenWrt’s root password 8 characters?
Why do we hear so much about the Trump administration deciding to impose and then remove tariffs?
Button changing it's text & action. Good or terrible?
Which Sci-Fi work first showed weapon of galactic-scale mass destruction?
What do hard-Brexiteers want with respect to the Irish border?
How to manage monthly salary
Is there any way to tell whether the shot is going to hit you or not?
Where to refill my bottle in India?
Why is the Constellation's nose gear so long?
Why isn't airport relocation done gradually?
slides for 30min~1hr skype tenure track application interview
What tense in a scientific paper
The 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results Are InMust the word after “can” be present tense?Why no Future Perfect in “At the end of the year there will be an exam on everything you've studied”?Continuous present tense in the place of simple present tenseTense Usage in Scientific Paper for analysisVerb Tense for RecommendationPresent or future tense?Is it true that English has no future tense?Simple past or past perfect-storyDo native speakers know the tenses?What exactly is tense?
.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;
I am currently writing my first scientific paper and therefore I am wondering which tense I should use in it.
I'd tend to use a future tense, but present perfect seems to be suitable as well.
e.g.
[In the first part of this paper, we will study how ...]
or
[In the first part of this paper, we have studied how ...]
tenses writing-style
asked Aug 12 '18 at 0:22
p_punktp_punkt
111
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 5 hours ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
add a comment |
I am currently writing my first scientific paper and therefore I am wondering which tense I should use in it.
I'd tend to use a future tense, but present perfect seems to be suitable as well.
e.g.
[In the first part of this paper, we will study how ...]
or
[In the first part of this paper, we have studied how ...]
tenses writing-style
asked Aug 12 '18 at 0:22
p_punktp_punkt
111
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 5 hours ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
7
How about simple present? It was good enough for Watson & Crick. More seriously, look at a few papers in your field and see what tenses they use. I would be very surprised if any of them used present perfect.
– Peter Shor
Aug 12 '18 at 0:27
Also, if the present perfect is used, it would only be used after you've already discussed something, not before discussing it.
– Jason Bassford
Aug 12 '18 at 2:32
More things to consider are word count and international readship. You might have a page limit and "we study" simply takes up less room than "we will study" and "we have studied" or (in some cases) "we have been studying". It is also easier to read if English isn’t your first language. Also, at the point of reading, the paper is complete, so "will" (and future tense) is, perhaps, redundant. Although at the point of writing, future tense feels natural for referring to sections not yet written.
– Pam
Aug 12 '18 at 11:16
1
p_punkt, sorry to be so obvious and that's down first to your department and then to your college… If they have no style guides then please consider which professional association most suits your career goals, and follow that style guide.
– Robbie Goodwin
Aug 12 '18 at 20:41
@p_punkt you should use present, but mainly because it allows for more active writing style e.g. "in this study we exam..." avoiding passive writing is more important than tense.
– faustus
Dec 11 '18 at 18:47
add a comment |
I am currently writing my first scientific paper and therefore I am wondering which tense I should use in it.
I'd tend to use a future tense, but present perfect seems to be suitable as well.
e.g.
[In the first part of this paper, we will study how ...]
or
[In the first part of this paper, we have studied how ...]
tenses writing-style
asked Aug 12 '18 at 0:22
p_punktp_punkt
111
I am currently writing my first scientific paper and therefore I am wondering which tense I should use in it.
I'd tend to use a future tense, but present perfect seems to be suitable as well.
e.g.
[In the first part of this paper, we will study how ...]
or
[In the first part of this paper, we have studied how ...]
tenses writing-style
tenses writing-style
asked Aug 12 '18 at 0:22
p_punktp_punkt
111
asked Aug 12 '18 at 0:22
p_punktp_punkt
111
asked Aug 12 '18 at 0:22
p_punktp_punkt
111
asked Aug 12 '18 at 0:22
p_punktp_punkt
111
asked Aug 12 '18 at 0:22
p_punktp_punkt
111
111
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 5 hours ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 5 hours ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
7
How about simple present? It was good enough for Watson & Crick. More seriously, look at a few papers in your field and see what tenses they use. I would be very surprised if any of them used present perfect.
– Peter Shor
Aug 12 '18 at 0:27
Also, if the present perfect is used, it would only be used after you've already discussed something, not before discussing it.
– Jason Bassford
Aug 12 '18 at 2:32
More things to consider are word count and international readship. You might have a page limit and "we study" simply takes up less room than "we will study" and "we have studied" or (in some cases) "we have been studying". It is also easier to read if English isn’t your first language. Also, at the point of reading, the paper is complete, so "will" (and future tense) is, perhaps, redundant. Although at the point of writing, future tense feels natural for referring to sections not yet written.
– Pam
Aug 12 '18 at 11:16
1
p_punkt, sorry to be so obvious and that's down first to your department and then to your college… If they have no style guides then please consider which professional association most suits your career goals, and follow that style guide.
– Robbie Goodwin
Aug 12 '18 at 20:41
@p_punkt you should use present, but mainly because it allows for more active writing style e.g. "in this study we exam..." avoiding passive writing is more important than tense.
– faustus
Dec 11 '18 at 18:47
add a comment |
7
How about simple present? It was good enough for Watson & Crick. More seriously, look at a few papers in your field and see what tenses they use. I would be very surprised if any of them used present perfect.
– Peter Shor
Aug 12 '18 at 0:27
Also, if the present perfect is used, it would only be used after you've already discussed something, not before discussing it.
– Jason Bassford
Aug 12 '18 at 2:32
More things to consider are word count and international readship. You might have a page limit and "we study" simply takes up less room than "we will study" and "we have studied" or (in some cases) "we have been studying". It is also easier to read if English isn’t your first language. Also, at the point of reading, the paper is complete, so "will" (and future tense) is, perhaps, redundant. Although at the point of writing, future tense feels natural for referring to sections not yet written.
– Pam
Aug 12 '18 at 11:16
1
p_punkt, sorry to be so obvious and that's down first to your department and then to your college… If they have no style guides then please consider which professional association most suits your career goals, and follow that style guide.
– Robbie Goodwin
Aug 12 '18 at 20:41
@p_punkt you should use present, but mainly because it allows for more active writing style e.g. "in this study we exam..." avoiding passive writing is more important than tense.
– faustus
Dec 11 '18 at 18:47
7
7
How about simple present? It was good enough for Watson & Crick. More seriously, look at a few papers in your field and see what tenses they use. I would be very surprised if any of them used present perfect.
– Peter Shor
Aug 12 '18 at 0:27
How about simple present? It was good enough for Watson & Crick. More seriously, look at a few papers in your field and see what tenses they use. I would be very surprised if any of them used present perfect.
– Peter Shor
Aug 12 '18 at 0:27
Also, if the present perfect is used, it would only be used after you've already discussed something, not before discussing it.
– Jason Bassford
Aug 12 '18 at 2:32
Also, if the present perfect is used, it would only be used after you've already discussed something, not before discussing it.
– Jason Bassford
Aug 12 '18 at 2:32
More things to consider are word count and international readship. You might have a page limit and "we study" simply takes up less room than "we will study" and "we have studied" or (in some cases) "we have been studying". It is also easier to read if English isn’t your first language. Also, at the point of reading, the paper is complete, so "will" (and future tense) is, perhaps, redundant. Although at the point of writing, future tense feels natural for referring to sections not yet written.
– Pam
Aug 12 '18 at 11:16
More things to consider are word count and international readship. You might have a page limit and "we study" simply takes up less room than "we will study" and "we have studied" or (in some cases) "we have been studying". It is also easier to read if English isn’t your first language. Also, at the point of reading, the paper is complete, so "will" (and future tense) is, perhaps, redundant. Although at the point of writing, future tense feels natural for referring to sections not yet written.
– Pam
Aug 12 '18 at 11:16
1
1
p_punkt, sorry to be so obvious and that's down first to your department and then to your college… If they have no style guides then please consider which professional association most suits your career goals, and follow that style guide.
– Robbie Goodwin
Aug 12 '18 at 20:41
p_punkt, sorry to be so obvious and that's down first to your department and then to your college… If they have no style guides then please consider which professional association most suits your career goals, and follow that style guide.
– Robbie Goodwin
Aug 12 '18 at 20:41
@p_punkt you should use present, but mainly because it allows for more active writing style e.g. "in this study we exam..." avoiding passive writing is more important than tense.
– faustus
Dec 11 '18 at 18:47
@p_punkt you should use present, but mainly because it allows for more active writing style e.g. "in this study we exam..." avoiding passive writing is more important than tense.
– faustus
Dec 11 '18 at 18:47
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
Generally, scientific papers are written in the present tense, with past tense used to describe the experiments that were done during the research, and future tense reserved for planned future work.
Here is a writing style guide from Nature that gives more detailed explanations about tenses.
There are several conventions about the use of tense that vary between authors, and may vary between scientific disciplines. For example, previous work done by other researchers can be reported in past tense or in present perfect tense. I would suggest looking at several papers in your discipline to see how they use tenses.
answered Aug 13 '18 at 11:14
Peter Shor Peter Shor
63.2k5123229
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "97"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);
else
createEditor();
);
function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader:
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
,
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);
);
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f459782%2fwhat-tense-in-a-scientific-paper%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Generally, scientific papers are written in the present tense, with past tense used to describe the experiments that were done during the research, and future tense reserved for planned future work.
Here is a writing style guide from Nature that gives more detailed explanations about tenses.
There are several conventions about the use of tense that vary between authors, and may vary between scientific disciplines. For example, previous work done by other researchers can be reported in past tense or in present perfect tense. I would suggest looking at several papers in your discipline to see how they use tenses.
answered Aug 13 '18 at 11:14
Peter Shor Peter Shor
63.2k5123229
add a comment |
Generally, scientific papers are written in the present tense, with past tense used to describe the experiments that were done during the research, and future tense reserved for planned future work.
Here is a writing style guide from Nature that gives more detailed explanations about tenses.
There are several conventions about the use of tense that vary between authors, and may vary between scientific disciplines. For example, previous work done by other researchers can be reported in past tense or in present perfect tense. I would suggest looking at several papers in your discipline to see how they use tenses.
answered Aug 13 '18 at 11:14
Peter Shor Peter Shor
63.2k5123229
add a comment |
Generally, scientific papers are written in the present tense, with past tense used to describe the experiments that were done during the research, and future tense reserved for planned future work.
Here is a writing style guide from Nature that gives more detailed explanations about tenses.
There are several conventions about the use of tense that vary between authors, and may vary between scientific disciplines. For example, previous work done by other researchers can be reported in past tense or in present perfect tense. I would suggest looking at several papers in your discipline to see how they use tenses.
answered Aug 13 '18 at 11:14
Peter Shor Peter Shor
63.2k5123229
Generally, scientific papers are written in the present tense, with past tense used to describe the experiments that were done during the research, and future tense reserved for planned future work.
Here is a writing style guide from Nature that gives more detailed explanations about tenses.
There are several conventions about the use of tense that vary between authors, and may vary between scientific disciplines. For example, previous work done by other researchers can be reported in past tense or in present perfect tense. I would suggest looking at several papers in your discipline to see how they use tenses.
answered Aug 13 '18 at 11:14
Peter Shor Peter Shor
63.2k5123229
edited Aug 13 '18 at 11:19
answered Aug 13 '18 at 11:14
Peter Shor Peter Shor
63.2k5123229
answered Aug 13 '18 at 11:14
Peter Shor Peter Shor
63.2k5123229
answered Aug 13 '18 at 11:14
Peter Shor Peter Shor
63.2k5123229
63.2k5123229
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f459782%2fwhat-tense-in-a-scientific-paper%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
7
How about simple present? It was good enough for Watson & Crick. More seriously, look at a few papers in your field and see what tenses they use. I would be very surprised if any of them used present perfect.
– Peter Shor
Aug 12 '18 at 0:27
Also, if the present perfect is used, it would only be used after you've already discussed something, not before discussing it.
– Jason Bassford
Aug 12 '18 at 2:32
More things to consider are word count and international readship. You might have a page limit and "we study" simply takes up less room than "we will study" and "we have studied" or (in some cases) "we have been studying". It is also easier to read if English isn’t your first language. Also, at the point of reading, the paper is complete, so "will" (and future tense) is, perhaps, redundant. Although at the point of writing, future tense feels natural for referring to sections not yet written.
– Pam
Aug 12 '18 at 11:16
1
p_punkt, sorry to be so obvious and that's down first to your department and then to your college… If they have no style guides then please consider which professional association most suits your career goals, and follow that style guide.
– Robbie Goodwin
Aug 12 '18 at 20:41
@p_punkt you should use present, but mainly because it allows for more active writing style e.g. "in this study we exam..." avoiding passive writing is more important than tense.
– faustus
Dec 11 '18 at 18:47