Page 159 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

TEACHING VERB TENSES AND VOICE 145
THE SIMPLE PRESENT-TENSE USES AND FUNCTIONS
Forms and Meanings
The simple present tense refers to actions and events that are general (i.e., they have no specific [or definite] time to which they refer). In academic writing, present-tense verbs refer to states or habitual (and repeated) activi- ties (e.g., be-verbs, linking verbs [become, seem, appear], consist, believe, know; Quirk etal., 1985).
The simple present tense refers to actions/events that take place gen- erally in the present, but not necessary at the present moment or time.
For example, in (1), the action study refers to general time (i.e., it took place in the past, takes place in the present, and is likely to continue to take place in the future).
1. Sociologists study social experiences in each stage of life.
However, the present-tense action study may not necessarily take place at this moment if none of the sociologists is at work, at this moment, studying social experiences. In fact, the simple present tense cannot be used to refer to actions and events that take place at this very moment (or at any specific moment).
Simple present-tense verbs are not marked for plural and first-person singular subjects (e.g., /, we,you, they study), but are marked by -s or -es for third-person singular subjects (e.g., he, she, it studies).
Functions and Uses
In general terms, in academic writing the present tense is strongly associ- ated with verbs that refer to mental and logical states,whereas the past tense denotes specific actions and events in the past time (Biber et al., 1999). For the purposes of written academic discourse outside of references to specific past-time events, such as those in business case studies or specific events, the present tense provides a relatively safe venue because in academic text the uses of the simple present tense are highly conventionalized (Swales, 1990a) and, hence, may be appropriate in various contexts.
One of the contexts where the past tense can be appropriate—but en- tirely optional—is citations of earlier research, as in Smith (2000) found/in- vestigated/reported. ... Even in these constructions, the present tense can be used appropriately -.Johnson (1999)finds/investigates/reports....According to Swales and Feak (1994), the uses of "citational" present are very common in the academic genre. They pointed out that in general, citing, reviewing, or referring to sources allows writers options in their choice of tenses.
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