Report and the tense
If you have to write a report, you have to know the tense in which it is written. This applies to class work as well as to a report that is to appear in the school newspaper or in the local paper.
Things to know about the report
A report must meet precisely defined criteria.
- The report is a form of communication that must be formulated objectively, i.e. it does not contain thoughts and feelings, but rather objectively describes what happened, which also means that the author, unlike, for example, with a story, does not invent anything allowed.
- Reports can be found primarily in newspapers, providing information about a wide variety of events. In the local part, this can be general meetings of the associations, municipal council meetings, holiday camps for children or various church events. In the political section, especially in the large national newspapers, there are important political ones Events, from legislative proposals to meetings of EU politicians to elections in the Focus. Students are also often expected to report, for example about their experiences during the past summer vacation, about the school trip or about other school or extracurricular ones Events.
The structure and the correct tense
A report must meet specified requirements in terms of structure and tense.
- The text must be structured in such a way that the most important things are described at the beginning, the less important ones The more unimportant they are, the further down the details are; a report can also include the previous history include. When it comes to the information that must be included, the author must use the so-called W questions as a guide, i.e. he must provide information about what happened, when it took place, where it took place, who was involved, how the event in question came about and why it happened came.
- The author cannot freely choose the tense either. Since a report provides information about an event that has already occurred, it must be written in the past tense. The difference between the perfect and the past tense must be taken into account. Both tenses describe a closed event from the past, but the past tense is necessary for the report.
- The past tense, earlier it was called imperfect, is written in the language used to tell about the past, the perfect against it, is only used in spoken language. In contrast to the past tense, in which it says, for example, "Anna fell into the water", the perfect tense says "Anna fell into the water".
- In addition to the past tense, the past perfect tense, sometimes called the past, can also appear. It is used when reporting something that happened before the event described in the past tense, for example "Klaus had already left when Anna fell into the water".
Essay - tense
The question often arises when there is an essay in the house, which ...
If you pay attention to the tense and the structure, you have a good chance of writing a successful report.
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