METM26 presentation

Who’s speaking, please? Tense and speaker voice in research articles

“The respondent referred to this impact as an aspect that distinguishes/distinguished X from Y." In this statement from a qualitative research article, the tense of the verb distinguish determines whose voice the reader hears: past tense puts the observation in the mouth of the respondent; present tense suggests that the distinction is universally acknowledged.

In research articles, past tense generally marks an utterance as referring to the author’s own findings, whereas present suggests universality. Writing about qualitative research may pose the additional challenge of integrating (present tense) examples from interviews. Direct quotations can be punctuated accordingly, but in paraphrasing it is often tense that signals whether a statement is reported matter, a consensus, or an authorial conclusion. Where multilingual authors report on interviews conducted in a language other than English, the situation may be further complicated by language interference.

As editors or translators, we may be caught in the crossfire of tense conventions in different languages. The more alert we are to possible tense issues, the better we can help our authors adopt appropriate English-language and/or disciplinary conventions, and communicate clearly to their readers.

After an introduction to tense use in English-language research articles and the implications of tense choice for speaker voice, participants will divide into smaller groups to consider further examples from the presenter’s editing practice. Do we agree on what tense is required in a given example? What would we advise the author? Can we identify patterns and/or draw up guidelines to help editors and authors negotiate this grey area in academic writing?

The interactive session will be relevant for all editors, translators, and writers of research articles in English. Though the examples will be taken from social science texts, the issues with tenses apply to all academic writing.

About the presenter

Maria Sherwood-Smith lectures in academic English at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of Leiden University, the Netherlands, where she gives courses for early-career researchers on various aspects of academic communication and participation. She also works as an academic editor and translator.