yqtianust
commented
2 years ago It is hard. I saw different options.
Usually I follow this https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~mernst/advice/write-technical-paper.html
When describing an experiment or some other event or action that occurred in the past, use past tense. For example, the methodology section might say “We ran the program”. It would be ungrammatical and confusing to use present tense, as in “We run the program”. Present tense is for ongoing events (“I write this letter to inform you...”) or regular events (“I brush my teeth each day”), but not past events (“Yesterday, I eat dinner with my family”). It is also correct to say “Our methodology was to run the program”, where you use past tense “was” and the infinitive “to run”.
When describing the paper itself, use present tense. “This paper shows that ...”. The reason for this is that the reader is experiencing the paper in real time.
Avoid gratuitous use of the future tense “will ...”, as in, “switching the red and green wires will cause the bomb to explode”. It is unclear when the action will occur. If it is an immediate effect, use the shorter and more direct “switching the red and green wires causes the bomb to explode”.
I feel we should make a consistent rule for tense. It is chaos in our drafts.