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14.8 What tenses should I use?

In this section, the example sentences S1, S3 and S5 are taken from Audoly and
Neukirch’s paper (14.3), and S2, S4 and S6 from Rozek’s paper (14.6 and 15.4).

The present simple is generally used to begin the Introduction in order to describe
the general background context, i.e. what is known already.
S1. The physical process of fragmentation is relevant to several areas of science and
technology.
S2. Persistence is an attribute valued by many.

The present perfect is then used to show how the problem has been approached
from the past until the present day.
S3. Because different physical phenomena are at work during the fragmentation of a solid
body, it has mainly been studied from a statistical viewpoint [1–5].
S4. Persistence has most often been studied in terms of cultural differences.

During the review of the literature, several tenses are used (Sect. 15.7 ).

At the end of the Introduction, the present simple is used again when the authors
state what they will do in the rest of their paper ( we explain, I hypothesize ).

S5. In this Letter, we explain this multiple failure process and point out a general mechanism
of cascading failure in rods: a breaking event induces strong flexural waves which trigger

other breakings, leading to an avalanche like process.
S6. Because of these fi ndings, I hypothesize that subjects with internal attribution styles (as
measured by the APCSS), higher levels of perfectionism, and any form of feedback will
show greater task persistence.

In S5 Audoly and Neukirch use the present simple to report their findings (see the

underlined verbs). Not all authors use the present simple in this context because a

general convention (but not rule) is that when you present your findings you use the
past simple - the idea is to use the present simple for what is already accepted in
the literature, and the past simple for your new contribution.

In S6 Rozek uses the future simple to talk about his claim / conclusion. This usage
of the future tends to be confined to where authors set out to prove a hypothesis,

rather than to give hard results.