Essay Writing Tips

You must not confuse the readers. That’s the ultimate rule in essay writing. And one common dilemma in writing essays is the major reason for confusion – verb tense inconsistency.

Students that tend to have inconsistent verb tenses have a “time warp” in their essays. Verbs tell not only what action takes place, but importantly when it takes place. Inconsistent use of verb tenses will definitely affect the logical flow of events, which is vital in essay writing. To avoid this, a mastery of the different verb tenses is more than necessary.

e· Present tense shows an action or condition existing at the present time. It uses the base form of the verb without any kind of helping verb.

· Past tense shows an action beginning and ending in the past. The past form of the verb is used and doesn’t have any helping verbs.

· Future tense involves an action or condition that will begin in the future, that has not yet occurred, using the helping verb “will” or “shall” plus the base form of the main verb.

· Present Perfect tense shows action that started in the past and continues into the present, or a condition that happened at an indefinite time in the past. It uses the helping verb “have” or “has” plus the past participle of the main verb.

· Past Perfect tense shows an action that started in the past and ended before another past action began. It employs the helping word had is used before the past participle of the main verb.

· Future Perfect tense shows a future action that will have ended before another action begins. It employs the helping verbs “will” or “shall” and “have” before the past participle form of the main verb.

Good essays require the writer to be consistent, using a particular tense without switching from one to the other. Lack of consistency in verb tense causes confusion on the part of readers and eventually they’ll stop reading