One’s tense will vary depending on what one is trying to convey within their paper or section of their paper. For example, the tense may change between the methods section and the discussion section.

There is a misconception that all verbs in a paragraph should be in the same tense. The choice of the appropriate verb tense depends on context and meaning.

The preterite tense is used if the past action had a definite beginning and definite end and is often used with phrases that give a specific time frame, eg: ...

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