Tense with tenses

[Miss Mae]

This is one of the times when I wonder why my English teachers let me pass the subject.

Should I use has approved in the sentence The Commission on Elections __________ approved 205,321 OAV applications as of August 2? The "premier guardian of the Philippine ballot" still exists today...

Or had approved instead? The action in the sentence The Commission on Elections  __________ approved 205,321 OAV applications as of August 2? was already completed and done...

[Miss Mae]

Is this rule I read from your third book, Give Your English the Winning Edge, applies to more than one statement as well?

If the statement is about events or action happening at different times, a different tense with the appropriate verb form should be used for each event or action. (Jose Carillo, 2009, Chapter 46, "Tense in Cases of Clause Dependency").

[Joe Carillo]

Yes, definitely, that general rule in English grammar applies to both single statements and multiple statements. We must clearly distinguish, though, between a “statement” and a “sentence.”

By definition, a statement is a single declaration, remark, or assertion that could be simply a single word of warning like, say, “Fire!”, or a long speech or perhaps a press release consisting of so many sentences or paragraphs. Obviously, a statement could invoke or involve several events or actions at different times, so to put those events or actions in context, the sentences describing them would have to use the appropriate tense for each of them.

In contrast, a sentence by definition is “a word, clause, or phrase or a group of clauses or phrases forming a syntactic unit which expresses an assertion, a question, a command, a wish, an exclamation, or the performance of an action…” (This is from the definition by the Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary.) Within a sentence, there are specific grammatical rules for verbs that describe events or actions that happened at different times, so the verbs will need to use tenses that will clearly give a sense of when the events or actions happened in relation to one another. 

Take this sentence, for instance: “I’m telling you that when I met with my best friend yesterday, she claimed that she had seen your fiancée having dinner last Sunday with another man your age in that fancy bayside restaurant.”  Here, “am telling” is in the present progressive tense, “met” and “claimed” are both in the simple past tense, “had seen” is in the past perfect tense, and “having dinner last Sunday” is in the past progressive tense.

In a statement consisting of several such sentences describing events or actions happening at different times, each of the sentences could have different interplays of the various tenses. The task of the writer or speaker is to make sure that such interplays of the tenses will make the sequence or progression of the events and actions unmistakably clear to the reader or listener.

[Miss Mae]

Oh, my! Thank you, though 

[Miss Mae]

Reading through the winning entries in a writing competition, I had a feeling that there really is no "standard" tense in writing fiction (particularly, short stories). Am I right?

[Miss Mae]

Could you also please comment on the following statements? I may have a chance to understand tenses more thoroughly if you would be the one to explain them.

From http://www.bowdoin.edu/writing-guides/common%20mistakes.htm:
History should be written in the past tense. Use the present tense only when speaking of other historians, or (rarely) when your subject is a text itself. Avoid the subjunctive tense, as in "After serving as minister to France, Jefferson would go on to become the President of the United States." Instead, simply say: "After serving as minister to France, Jefferson became the President of the United States." The subjunctive tense often reveals an author who desires to anticipate something that will come later in the paper; avoid this.

From http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-write-a-short-story/:
Once you've decided on a point-of-view, you'll want to choose a tense to write in. If the story is happening now, you'll chose present tense. If the action happened yesterday, or when your character was five years old, you'll write in past tense. After you decide which tense you want to use, it is imperative that you don't switch back and forth between different tenses.6

From http://suite101.com/article/writing-a-novel-or-short-story-in-present-tense-a106644:
Many short stories and literary works are written in present tense. "Stream of consciousness" stories, which follow the narrator's thought pattern rather than a plot-driven sequence of events, are often written in present tense. Many, but not all, pieces written in present tense are also written in second person. Present tense combined with second person can heighten fine detail and personalize a scene.

[Joe Carillo]

Yes, absolutely, there's no standard tense for writing fiction. It all depends on the sensibility and intent of the writer.

As to the statements about tense usage that you presented in your posting, they are not prescriptive but simply recommendatory. In particular, that history should be written in the past tense sounds like a no-brainer, but who can prevent a certified, honest-to-goodness historian from writing history in the present tense if he feels like doing it in that tense--as in a movie where events are unfolding before your eyes at the very moment of viewing? So long as the historian declares his intention and justification for using the present tense at the beginning, and then is consistent in using that tense all throughout, who and what can justifiably prevent him from doing so?

Indeed, even in journalism, there's really no such thing as a standard tense. Notice that most English-language newspapers write headlines in the present tense (for immediacy) but render the main stories in the past tense (for factuality). For precisely the same reason, TV newscasts usually also use present-tense news headlines and past-tense main stories. The use of tenses in any kind of exposition is actually a matter of convention and communication style, not an inflexible rule carved on rock.

[Miss Mae]

Uh, okay. Thank you.