In Quoting^x, Tenses^x

The paper is in MLA format and I had some trouble keeping it in present tense, block quoting a speech from poetry, and siting the poetry inside the paragraphs themselves help would be very very appreciated. sorry its so long. also I dont know if i like my closing statement, should I add more or...

You can use either. The past indicates that you are thinking about the past event of writing or recording; the present indicates that you are thinking about the present existence of that writing or recording. In most cases, both will serve equally well.

Hello,Thanks in advance!What is the convention in using the present or past tense to quote a source? If the present tense must be used, then please explain the reason behind such a recommendation. By the way, I was told to use the present tense a long way back and did not have a sense to ask...

Yankee wrote:In Kooyeen's sentence "That was the first time I bought fish there", the simple past tense is just fine. I don't think even the most prescriptive grammarian would have a problem with that sentence. On the contrary, without some kind of clear justification for the past perfect...

CalifJim wrote:With one person having the preference (I'd rather) that another person (you, he, ...) do or not do something, both bare infinitive (do / not do) and simple past (did, didn't do) are used. Personally, I can't even decide which I use more. I'd rather you my research...

Kooyeen wrote:Hi Yoong,yeah, of course that's not a gerund, but does that present participle act as ad adjective or as a part of a present continuous?I saw him entering the building. ---> I saw him. He was entering the building. (present continuous, ongoing action)I saw him sitting on a...

Inchoateknowledge wrote:What does (simple) future tense mean in this sentence? The grammarian (it is a grammarian, isn't it?) you're quoting would probably tell you that there is no future tense. Many linguists claim English has only two tenses: Past and Non-past (sometimes called present)....

Mamger wrote:I think you were editing your message while I was quoting it. Yes. Although grammatically B would be fine, it would make the sentence sound nonsensical.

I think you were editing your message while I was quoting it.

While doing some reported/indirect speech stuff (again!) lots of questions has come to my mind. Here are some of them. 1/ 'I never eat meat', (Bill said/explained) -> turns into -> Bill said/explained (that) he never ate meat. - This is the normal way in which most of us would...