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Q&A Confusion on inconsistent verb tenses in a magazine article

The tenses are changing because there are two sets of past events and two sets of present events. In the first paragraph the action described occurred in the past: the anger was repressed, the yo...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:23Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12345
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:36:48Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12345
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T03:36:48Z (over 4 years ago)
The tenses _are_ changing because there are two sets of past events and two sets of present events.

- In the first paragraph the action described occurred in the past: the anger was repressed, the youths flooded the streets, the Islamists surged.
- The second paragraph says "Right now as you're sitting here reading this, that description sounds like the news." So the present tense is fine, because it is referring to the paragraph which you just read a moment ago (which is basically now, the present).
- The third paragraph's first sentence describes the past (the late 1980s) and the second sentence clearly refers to today, to an ongoing situation happening right now in the present.

There's nothing wrong with that piece; the tenses are correct for what is being discussed.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2014-07-06T22:36:42Z (almost 10 years ago)
Original score: 3