Tense and time self-assessment answers
Oliver Twist
Yes. The world of Oliver Twist is described by the clause “in this workhouse was born … the item of mortality”. This clause contains three relative clauses (“which I need not trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all events” and “whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter”), but these describe Dickens’s world, not Oliver’s.
No. This verb does not describe Oliver Twist’s world, but that of Charles Dickens himself when writing the book.
KS3 writing
Yes, the two worlds are clearly separated by the choice of tense. The present tense is used to refer to the world of Dickens and the book, while the past tense is used only for Oliver Twist’s world.
No. The two worlds are in fact clearly separated by the choice of tense. The present tense is used to refer to the world of Dickens and the book, while the past tense is used only for Oliver Twist’s world.
Yes, this tense choice is inconsistent. As the writer is commenting on an author and the events in a text, the literary convention is that the present tense should be used consistently for the writer’s world. The only verbs which should be in the past tense are those which are direct quotes from the text referred to.
Alternatively, of course, the KS3 writer could have chosen to use the past tense, ignoring the literary convention. But in that case all the verbs outside the direct quotations should have been consistently in the past tense.
(Compare a corrected version of the KS3 text.)
No, this tense is not inappropriate – it is consistent. As the writer is commenting on an author and the events in a text, the literary convention is that the present tense should be used consistently for the author’s world and for the world of the book. The only verbs which should be in the past tense are those which are direct quotes from the text referred to.
Alternatively, of course, the KS3 writer could have chosen to use the past tense, ignoring the literary convention. But in that case all the verbs outside the direct quotations should have been consistently in the past tense.
Compare the corrected version of the KS3 text below.)
Corrected version of the KS3 writing
using consistent present tenses; the verbs whose tenses have been corrected are highlighted:
At first he seems a little excited by the encounter of aliens, trying to imagine what they look like but by the end he is ‘overcome with disgust and dread’ so completely changing his opinion. He also seems apprehensive when he “presently saw something stirring within the Rocket”, not knowing what it is.
H. G. Wells then starts to describe their movements. He says it “rose slowly and painfully out of the cylinder” he also describes their difficulty to move or breathe due to the painfulness as earth has a stronger gravitational pull.
He uses many strange ways of describing them which actually describe a very accurate picture.
