Have followed past tense?

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Anonymous

#572329 Wed, 01 Oct 08 08:36 PM

Which is correct?

1.)You should have followed three steps: first, open the hood; second, check the level; then, add more oil.

2.)You should have followed three steps: first, opened the hood; second, checked the level; then, added more oil.

Anonymous

Mister Micawber

#572441 Thu, 02 Oct 08 11:09 AM

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Since you are listing a procedure which may be repeated at any time (and your reader may well want to try it again after reading it), use #1. I don't think #2 will work anyway; the right side of a colon does not need to agree grammatically with the left side, but it should make sense on its own.
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Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (22,612)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Tenses, Colons, Past Tenses