Editing: Editing Your Tenses
English: Year 5 & 6 National Curriculum, topic 2.4.14
Editing Your Tenses
Your tense needs to be the same and correct throughout a piece of writing.
Tenses
- You need to use the same tenses throughout a piece of writing.
- This doesn’t always mean the tense needs to be the same the entire narrative
- For example, a flashback may be in a different tense.
- But, the tense needs to be the same within a section of writing.
Correct example
- I caught the bus. I went to school. I ate my lunch. I talked to my friends.
- These sentences all use the past tense.
Incorrect example
- My name is Jenny. I was eight years old. I like going swimming and cycling.
- Not all the verbs in this sentence are in the right tense.
- Most of the verbs are in the present tense.
- The odd one out is 'was', which is in the past tense.
- The sentence should be: I am eight years old.
Good example
- I have a dog. He is often sleepy. He sleeps with my brother. He sleeps on walks. But he does not sleep on his skateboard!
- These sentences all use the present tense.
Bad example
- Lily loved her teddy bear. When he goes missing, she was very sad.
- Not all the verbs in this sentence are in the right tense.
- Most of the verbs are in the past tense.
- The odd one out is 'goes', which is in the past tense.
- The correct sentence should be: When he went missing, she was very sad.
Test yourself on Editing: Editing Your Tenses
Which verb is in the wrong tense?
Hattie loves to sing. Hattie also loves to dance. She was entering a competition today.When are you allowed to change tenses in your story?
Do these sentences use the same tense? If so, which tense do they use?
I went to school. I ate my lunch. I did my homework. I went to bed.