Module 1

APA Verb Tenses

In APA writing, verb tense is a signal. It tells your reader whether you're describing what a researcher did, what the field has learned, or what your findings mean. Each section of a paper has a preferred tense — and once you choose one, stay in it.

The Tense Map

APA (Section 4.12) recommends a tense for each part of a paper:

Paper section	Recommended tense	Example
Literature review; describing others' work	Past or present perfect	Nguyen (2023) found... / Researchers have shown...
Method (what you did)	Past	Participants completed a survey.
Results (what you found)	Past	Stress scores decreased over time.
Discussion of implications	Present	These results suggest that routines matter.
Conclusions & future directions	Present	Future research is needed on younger children.

The logic: the research itself happened in the past, so you report it in past tense. But what the findings mean is true right now, so implications live in the present.

Past vs. Present Perfect in the Literature Review

Both are correct — they do different jobs.

Past: one specific study, one specific finding Delgado (2024) surveyed 412 families and found that shared routines predicted lower stress.

Present perfect: an ongoing pattern across many studies Researchers have documented this effect across multiple cultures (Chen, 2021; Delgado, 2024; Okafor, 2023).

Use the past for "this researcher did this thing." Use the present perfect for "the field, over time, has established this." What you should not do is describe a completed study in present tense:

Wrong: completed research in present tense Delgado (2024) surveys 412 families and finds that shared routines predict lower stress.

Don't Switch Mid-Stream

The most common tense error isn't picking the wrong tense — it's drifting between tenses inside a single paragraph for no reason. Watch the drift:

Tense drift Nguyen (2023) examined sleep in college students. The study uses a daily diary method, and participants reported their sleep each morning. Nguyen finds that irregular sleep predicted lower grades.

Consistent Nguyen (2023) examined sleep in college students. The study used a daily diary method, and participants reported their sleep each morning. Nguyen found that irregular sleep predicted lower grades.

Choose a tense for the passage and hold it. Change tense only when the job changes — for example, moving from reporting a finding (past) to stating its implication (present).

Practice

Question 1

You're describing your own method section. Which sentence uses the correct tense?

Question 2

Which sentence belongs in a discussion section, interpreting results?

Question 3

You want to summarize a pattern established across many studies over 20 years. Which is the best choice?

⏳ APA Verb Tenses