Article Written by Mary Ehrenworth Presented by Jennifer Rose Cerdá

“ We search out those writers who manipulate and exploit grammatical structures in their writing. We imitate them, we pay attention, we play, we make sense of how we will use grammar in our own writing so that is becomes an expressive agent”. -Mary Ehrenworth

 Past Tense is used to create a sense of narrative history; to express activity, action, state, or being in the past.  Present Tense is used to create a sense of immediacy; to express action in the present time

Taken from The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

“…the wooden jail was already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front. The rust on the ponderous iron- work of its oaken door looked more antique than any thing else in the new world. Like all that pertains to crime, it seemed never to have known a youthful era” Directions: Choose a place, preferably somewhere you have actually been in, which you can explain in detailed sentences in the past tense.

“This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book” Directions: Think of the place you chose to write in using the past tense. Select a memory, something that happened in that place, and write the event in the present tense.

“The door of the jail being flung open from within, there appeared, in the first place, like a black shadow emerging into the sunshine, the grim and grisly presence of the town-beadle, with a sword by his side and his staff of office in his hand. This personage prefigured and represented in his aspect the whole dismal severity of the Puritanic code of law, which it was his business to administer in its final and closest application to the offender” Directions: Look back at your past and present tense content and sentences. Try combining the place with the event using both the past and present tense together.

 Which tense did you find to be the easier of the two; past or present? Why?  What difficulties, if any did you have when you were asked to combine both of the tense forms into one piece?  What is your overall feeling about writing in different tenses?