Page 150 - English for Writing Research Papers

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that the focus is on Europe not North America), but readers do not necessar-
ily read all parts of the paper. If the main contribution of the paper is in the
findings rather than how the tests were set up, then the readers might well

skip the Methodology and go straight to the Results and Discussion. By
adding a few extra sentences to the Discussion, you can help readers orient
themselves better.

(2+3) Because of the addition of the extra sentence, it is clear that were identified

and were assigned are Wordsworth’s findings.

(4) In the previous two sentences, Wordsworth has been talking about what he

did, so the reader can assume that It was found refers to Wordsworth’s work.
(5) The use of the past simple ( had ) rather than the present simple ( have ) makes

it clearer for the reader that these are Wordsworth’s findings. The general con-
vention (but not rule) of tense usage in Results and Discussions sections is that
you use the present simple, present perfect or past simple to refer to other
authors but only the past simple to refer to your work. The present perfect
should not be used to refer to work that you have carried out.

(6) The present perfect is fine here because Wordsworth is referring to

Coleridge’s work. Wordsworth could also have used the past simple ( were
found ).

(7) By using our , Wordsworth makes it clear that he has returned to talking about

his own findings.
The OV highlights that:

• using figures, tables and references does not necessarily help the reader to under-
stand whose work you are talking about. The reader still has to make an effort

• mistakes and inconsistency in tense usage can completely confuse the reader.
If such mistakes are made frequently it could become quite irritating for the
referee or reader

The RV demonstrates that
• you can still keep your journal happy by not using we – for some reason they
raise less objections if you use our !

• each sentence should be a logical progression from the previous one. If you
mention someone else’s work and then your work in consecutive sentences,
the connection between the two must be clear to the reader. It is not enough
just to use two different tenses