Verb Tense

Verbs are direct, vigorous communicators. Use a chosen verb tense consistently throughout the same and adjacent paragraphs of a paper to ensure smooth expression.

Use the following verb tenses to report information in APA Style papers.

Paper section	Recommended tense	Example
Literature review (or whenever discussing other researchers’ work)	Past	Martin (2020) addressed
	Present perfect	Researchers have studied
Method Description of procedure	Past	Participants took a survey
Method Description of procedure	Present perfect	Others have used similar approaches
Reporting of your own or other researchers’ results	Past	Results showed Scores decreased Hypotheses were not supported
Personal reactions	Past	I felt surprised
	Present perfect	I have experienced
	Present	I believe
Discussion of implications of results or of previous statements	Present	The results indicate The findings mean that
Presentation of conclusions, limitations, future directions, and so forth	Present	We conclude Limitations of the study are Future research should explore

Learn more

Verb tense is covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Section 4.12 and the Concise Guide Section 2.12

This guidance has been expanded from the 6th edition.

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Last updated: July 2022Date created: 2019