Grammar help
Feb. 27th, 2008 01:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenI know, right? Moi!? Needing of the grammar help? But I totally do.
For my news and feature writing class, I got marked down on an assignment for mixing tenses (SHOCKING!). I want to be sure that he doesn't try to mark me down again for something I feel that I navigate pretty well in my academic writing, so I have to ask:
In an essay where you are writing in past tense but need to describe things that are a perennial thing, you can switch to present, right? My example:
A competitive cheerleading routine lasts two and a half minutes, divided into three segments. There is gymnastic tumbling; group stunting work where some girl, the flyers, are lifted and tossed; dancing; and, of course, cheering for the local team. She summarized routines thusly: “It’s like holding your breath for two and a half minutes, running a marathon, doing sprints, and smiling all at once. And making it look like nothing.”
Describing the events, I used past tense. But describing the rules of the thing--which are not linked to the past, and are immutable givens at any time--it is right to switch to present tense, correct? It was in French...
For my news and feature writing class, I got marked down on an assignment for mixing tenses (SHOCKING!). I want to be sure that he doesn't try to mark me down again for something I feel that I navigate pretty well in my academic writing, so I have to ask:
In an essay where you are writing in past tense but need to describe things that are a perennial thing, you can switch to present, right? My example:
A competitive cheerleading routine lasts two and a half minutes, divided into three segments. There is gymnastic tumbling; group stunting work where some girl, the flyers, are lifted and tossed; dancing; and, of course, cheering for the local team. She summarized routines thusly: “It’s like holding your breath for two and a half minutes, running a marathon, doing sprints, and smiling all at once. And making it look like nothing.”
Describing the events, I used past tense. But describing the rules of the thing--which are not linked to the past, and are immutable givens at any time--it is right to switch to present tense, correct? It was in French...
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no subject
Date: 2008-02-28 06:26 pm (UTC)