Getting tense?

Keep on the right track

I frequently get enquiries from foreign language students who wish to know what tense to use at various points within their work. This is more the case with longer pieces such as PhDs or Master's dissertations, but also applies to shorter essays and to points as straightforward as how to reference a source. In this post I will cover what tenses to use in which part of your work and why. This might seem like a very 'EFL' related post - but the truth is, even those whose first language is English find determining which tense to use to describe their methodology section in the introduction to their work once the research has been carried out a real problem.

I have divided this post according to parts of the work itself rather than to 'tenses' as this seems to be a more practical way to proceed:

Abstract: Abstracts should be written primarily in the present tense because they refer to a piece of work that exists [this work discusses the gap in the literature, focusing on . . .] - the exception to this is when describing the research methods employed which should be described in the past tense  [a random sampling method was employed to . . .].
Introduction: Largely written in the present simple for general truths [the research aims are . . .], in places you may decide to use the future [the following chapter reviews the existing literature in the field], but I would generally stick to the present. If you need to explain a turning point that altered the direction of the research the past tense would become appropriate [a key objective was . . . but it was not possible to test for this and so the objective was amended to . . .].
Literature Review: This involves careful use of two tenses. You should describe the data collection process in the past tense and when referring to something previously published you also use the past tense [Jones (2002) acknowledged that . . .]. However, you would use the present tense to refer an idea that exists within the text [As discovered by Jones (2002) the presence of . . . is crucial to this issue].
Methodology: Methodologies are typically written in the past tense because the decisions (and often the research too) are all set prior to writing the work. This does not exclusively apply as you may refer to your future research discussed later in the future tense or alternatively choose to refer to the findings in the present tense.
Data Analysis: This is normally written in the past tense when describing the collection of the data [10 postgraduates and 15 undergraduates were interviewed], or in the present tense when describing the data [Table 16 shows that . . .]. 
 Discussion/Conclusion/Reflections: These are all written in the past tense when referring to data and the experience of writing the work, and the future when describing intended future research.
I hope that helps to clarify the matter for you and if you need further help refer to your University guidelines - some of which can be comprehensive on this subject as preferences can vary across departments - or as always, feel free to contact me.