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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Essay & Composition Writing

The correct tense of comprehension questions

Hello there, I need to write a series of comprehension questions, and I'm a bit confused about what tense is considered standard. For a story about the Trojan war, for example, would it be correct to write, "Why did Odysseus finally decided to go to war?" or "Why does Odysseus decide to go to war?" - is there an accepted convention?

Also, for questions such as "Who is Zeus?"
a) The king of the gods.
b) The god of the sea
etc....

it sounds somehow incorrect to write "Who was Zeus?", though I'm not sure why it sounds incorrect,
Can anyone help me clarify some of these issues?
  

Top answer

The convention is ' be consistent '. Otherwise, you can pursue either tense ( present because the story exists now as a book. , or past because the story has finished—either for the characters or for the reader).

— Mister Micawber

  • The convention is ' be consistent '.
  • Otherwise, you can pursue either tense ( present because the story exists now as a book.
  • , or past because the story has finished—either for the characters or for the reader).
  • Who was Zeus sounds fine to me, since he is no longer among us.
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1 Answers
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The convention is 'be consistent'. Otherwise, you can pursue either tense (present because the story exists now as a book. etc., or past because the story has finished—either for the characters or for the reader).

Who was Zeus sounds fine to me, since he is no longer among us.
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