College Composition / Unit 4 CMP 0096 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Repairing Tense Shifts
The idea
Repairing a tense shift means finding the governing tense and bringing stray verbs back to it, while keeping shifts that mark real changes in time.
In practice
Work in order. First, read the passage and decide its governing tense, usually the tense of most of its main verbs. Second, list every verb. Third, mark each verb that differs from the governing tense. Fourth, for each marked verb, ask whether the action really happened at a different time; a memory within a present-tense narrative, or a general truth stated in the present, can justify a shift. Fifth, change the verbs that shift without reason. Sixth, reread to make sure the revision still shows the order of events.
Where people slip
Do not force every verb into one tense. "The study found that sleep improves memory" correctly mixes the past, for the study's action, with the present, for a finding that still holds.
Your place on the trail
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