Saturday, February 20, 2016

Local Revision: Tense Usage


Present:

Know(3)

Spur

Fill

Is (40)

Agree

Sit

Watch

Break

Meet

Uphold

Scream

Does (2)

Support

Back(2)

Present (2)

Has(7)

Bet

Promote

Gives

Debate

Begins(2)

Believes(3)

Do (3)

Understand

Exists

Works

Continues

Following

Differs

Think

Can(3)

Observe

Should(2)

need

gets

use

exists

surrounding

claims

makes

compare

come

will

give

chalk

pick

look

lose

represent

run

could

do

would (2)
flop
take
spend

Past:
Released
Had
Provided
Rejected
Clashed
Went
Began
Seemed
Got
Hashed
Rose
Took
Was(5)
Shined
Depicted
Finished
Cited
Had(2)
Did(2)
Prevented
Taken
Proven
Left
Boiled
Defined
Defended
Operated
Agreed
Shed
Future:
Watch
Continue
Will
Represent
Could
Would(5)
Should(2)
Grow
Evolve
Will
Become
Remember

Reflection:Past tense is the most prevalent tense in my draft by far. I think the present tense is really good to use, because it puts the reader into the moment of the debate and is by far more engaging than the past tense. Future wouldn't really make sense much in a postmortem analysis, so I think present is the right way to go for a great proportion of the assignment.
 But I'm worried my shifts don't exactly flow. Just going through the original list, there are sudden shifts, rather than just stretches of one tense that eventually move to another. This has always been a problem of mine. I'll be working on this as I revise.
Specifically, when I talk about the debate itself (not on the events leading up to it or anything else, just the debate), present tense would be the way to go. The entire story would be captivating if the reader could feel like they were right there in the Creation Museum watching it all go down. And I think this is what I did naturally; I just need to make it work a bit better. I need to transition more effectively and place a little more conscious effort on my tense.

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