INSTALMENT 2
Pronouns and Tenses
Pronouns are words that stand in place of nouns such as he, she, it, they, them etc.
(The Woke fraternity doesn’t like pronouns, because they signify gender, and Woke-minded individuals don’t like to classify people in terms of gender; but for everyone else; referring to gender by using pronouns is fine and less cumbersome because he, she it etc. avoids having to refer to someone using their actual name such as John, George, Mr Brown or The President etc.) – enough said on that subject!)

Pronouns in academic writing
The jury is still out on the subject of whether a researcher should repeat the term the researcher several times in the same paragraph. This is because traditionally, it was considered that using pronouns instead of referring to the researcher did not preserve his/her objectivity towards the procedure that was being performed. Personally, I consider this practice to be archaic, and a clumsy use of language. However, it is up to you, the academic writer to decide which path to choose on that one.
Tenses
It is very important to understand how tenses work; particularly regarding students or graduates who are writing academic dissertations or theses, because tenses are a minefield.
What happens with a thesis or dissertation is that the writer has to decide whether an activity being described should be written in the present tense, past tense or future tense. If a survey or questionnaire has already been administered, then the writer must use past tense.
Writers usually uses present tense in the earlier sections of a thesis because the survey has not been done yet. Then, later on in the thesis, the writer should use past tense because the activity being described has already taken place. To complicate things even more; sometimes authors may use both present and future tense in the same paragraph.
Editors need to be very smart about tenses, but don’t worry – you will soon get the hang of it.
I, as a proofreader, usually jump forward to the last sections of the thesis such as methodology, results, discussion and future research – to determine whether the researcher has already performed the research because there, the proofreader will find tables showing results, socioeconomic data etc. the If the research has already been done, then the writer can use present tense for these sections.
When it comes to books, it is usually preferable to use past tense throughout because in most cases, the writer is telling a story; irrespective of whether the author is writing a family history, a science fiction novel or a fantasy. However, there are exceptions such as science-fiction, a car repair manual or a medical treatise.
In scientific writing, it is essential to check the references for statements made by the researcher or writer, as the date will indicate when the research took place; thus determining the tense that should be used.
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