{"id":2027,"date":"2014-01-23T16:03:08","date_gmt":"2014-01-23T16:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section\/"},"modified":"2025-02-17T11:15:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T11:15:23","slug":"getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section","title":{"rendered":"Getting the tenses right: Materials and methods section"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">An <a href=\"http:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/using-past-and-present-tenses-in-research-writing\">earlier post<\/a>&nbsp;discussed the use of tenses in research papers. Here, we will expand on this a bit and discuss tense usage in specific sections.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;\">In the introductory section, the present tense is more common because in that section you state your reasons for undertaking the piece of research described in the paper. The section also describes what is currently known about the topic, which makes the present tense the most natural tense to use.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The materials and methods section describes what you did and how you did that. Here<span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;\">, the past is more natural because you are describing work that is already complete at the time of writing. Thus, it is simply a description of your actions. Typically, you begin with the choice of the materials: for example, in agricultural research, it is common to describe the crop and the specific variety or hybrid that you chose, as well as the kind and amount of fertilizers used, pesticides applied (if any), and so on, as in \u201cThe rice variety IR 8 was chosen for the experiment\u201d or \u201cFor the analysis, ripe fruits of the following six apple varieties were chosen.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;\">As you can see, the simple past is the natural choice.&nbsp;Sometimes, you may need to use the past perfect tense, as in \u201cthe seeds had been exposed to ultraviolet radiation for 4 hours before sowing,\u201d to describe some earlier stages of the experimental procedure.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\">Since the materials and methods section is an account of your actions and not your intentions, the future tense is out of place. On the other hand, it is common in the discussion section, toward the end, to indicate the future course of action suggested by the results of current research&nbsp;\u2013 and the future tense is the most natural choice then.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\">For further reading, you can read this post:&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/is-it-acceptable-to-use-first-person-pronouns-in-scientific-writing\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;\">Is it acceptable to use first person pronouns in scientific writing?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An earlier post&nbsp;discussed the use of tenses in research papers. Here, we will expand on this a bit and discuss tense usage in specific sections. In the introductory section, the present tense is more common because in that section you state your reasons for undertaking the piece of research described in the paper. The section [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[2636,212],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar-language","tag-grammar-tips","tag-language-tips"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Getting the tenses right: Materials and methods section | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many authors struggle with the usage of tenses in their research paper. This post discusses tense usage in specific sections of the manuscript to help authors write with more confidence.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Getting the tenses right: Materials and methods section | Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many authors struggle with the usage of tenses in their research paper. This post discusses tense usage in specific sections of the manuscript to help authors write with more confidence.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-23T16:03:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-17T11:15:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Getting-the-tenses-right-Materials-and-methods-section-resized.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"656\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Yateendra Joshi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Yateendra Joshi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Yateendra Joshi\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cddcdcb60c05f8fe00b1e54c1ebf7980\"},\"headline\":\"Getting the tenses right: Materials and methods section\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-23T16:03:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-17T11:15:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section\"},\"wordCount\":328,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Grammar Tips\",\"language tips\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Grammar &amp; Language\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section\",\"name\":\"Getting the tenses right: Materials and methods section | Editage Insights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-23T16:03:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-17T11:15:23+00:00\",\"description\":\"Many authors struggle with the usage of tenses in their research paper. This post discusses tense usage in specific sections of the manuscript to help authors write with more confidence.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"width\":656,\"height\":336},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Getting the tenses right: Materials and methods section\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\",\"name\":\"Editage Insights\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Editage Insights\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":324,\"caption\":\"Editage Insights\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Editage\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cddcdcb60c05f8fe00b1e54c1ebf7980\",\"name\":\"Yateendra Joshi\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4b1cf3d3ed6f68fa18f3b9f8710f5ec58edfa8472c0f66251c74fbade5ed991?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4b1cf3d3ed6f68fa18f3b9f8710f5ec58edfa8472c0f66251c74fbade5ed991?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Yateendra Joshi\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/yateendra-joshi\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Getting the tenses right: Materials and methods section | Editage Insights","description":"Many authors struggle with the usage of tenses in their research paper. This post discusses tense usage in specific sections of the manuscript to help authors write with more confidence.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Getting the tenses right: Materials and methods section | Editage Insights","og_description":"Many authors struggle with the usage of tenses in their research paper. This post discusses tense usage in specific sections of the manuscript to help authors write with more confidence.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section","og_site_name":"Editage Insights","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","article_published_time":"2014-01-23T16:03:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-17T11:15:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":656,"height":336,"url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Getting-the-tenses-right-Materials-and-methods-section-resized.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Yateendra Joshi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Editage","twitter_site":"@Editage","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Yateendra Joshi","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section"},"author":{"name":"Yateendra Joshi","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cddcdcb60c05f8fe00b1e54c1ebf7980"},"headline":"Getting the tenses right: Materials and methods section","datePublished":"2014-01-23T16:03:08+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-17T11:15:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section"},"wordCount":328,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","keywords":["Grammar Tips","language tips"],"articleSection":["Grammar &amp; Language"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section","name":"Getting the tenses right: Materials and methods section | Editage Insights","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","datePublished":"2014-01-23T16:03:08+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-17T11:15:23+00:00","description":"Many authors struggle with the usage of tenses in their research paper. This post discusses tense usage in specific sections of the manuscript to help authors write with more confidence.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","width":656,"height":336},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/getting-the-tenses-right-materials-and-methods-section#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Getting the tenses right: Materials and methods section"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/","name":"Editage Insights","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization","name":"Editage Insights","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp","width":2560,"height":324,"caption":"Editage Insights"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","https:\/\/x.com\/Editage"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cddcdcb60c05f8fe00b1e54c1ebf7980","name":"Yateendra Joshi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4b1cf3d3ed6f68fa18f3b9f8710f5ec58edfa8472c0f66251c74fbade5ed991?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4b1cf3d3ed6f68fa18f3b9f8710f5ec58edfa8472c0f66251c74fbade5ed991?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Yateendra Joshi"},"url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/yateendra-joshi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2027"},{"taxonomy":"new_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_categories?post=2027"},{"taxonomy":"new_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_tags?post=2027"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=2027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}