Local Revision: Tense Usage

What Time is it?

In this blog we are going to evaluate the verbs from the last blog post, and categorize them in tenses.

Thomas B. "Clock Pocket Watch Gold Valuable Time Pointer" 1/12/15 via pixabay. Creative Commons 0 Public Domain License.

Original List of Verbs:

don't

agree

do

claimed

is

go

didn't

become
are

is

contains

boasts

having

are

dive

is

figure
are

going

is

made

wear

believes
is

told

wear
go
is

are

ridiculed 

given

returned
is

claimed

resurfaced

causing

is

took 

say

were
are

changed

recognized

dropped

Past Tense:

claimed (2)

made

told

ridiculed

given

returned

resurfaced

took

were

changed

dropped

recognized

Present Tense:

is (8)

are (5)

go (2)

wear (2)

don't

agree

do

didn't

contains 

boasts

having

dive

figure

going

believes

say

given

causing

Future Tense:

become

Question Time

1. The most used tense in my draft was by far the present tense.

2. The tense of the tone has an effect that makes the reader feel either in the moment of the controversy, or that the controversy has already happened. The present tense gives a sense of a first hand experience, and seems to attach the situation to the reader. Past tense gives the feel of a dead controversy, and makes it seem as if its a history lesson rather than a recent occurrence. Future tense is tough to analyze because there was only one instance of it in my QRG; however, it gives a looking forward kind of view, and puts the topic off to the side rather than it being a priority.

3. So far the tenses seem to flow very well together. It doesn't appear to be confusing, as there weren't any comments on my QRG being confusing due to tense. The tenses don't seem to contradict each other, but I am going to make edits to try and keep the tenses consistent when discussing different parts of my controversy.

4. I think that I could add more present tense to my piece. I feel that the addition of present tenses to the essay makes the reader feel more engaged instead of reading a news story like a history book. It gives a sense of being active in the controversy, and pulls at the emotions more. We look at history and can see all of the horrible things civilizations have done to each other. When instances like this happen in the present (like ISIS), it raises more attention to the reader.