Developing Writing Skills

Tenses

Tense = the way we express time, such as present tense (now), past tense (time gone by) or future tense (time to come.)

It is a fairly common error to change tenses when writing and this can be confusing for your reader. When you are writing, you should establish firmly in your mind when the action is taking place and keep to that time zone throughout the piece of writing.

The verb to travel (simple regular verb)

‘To travel’ – this is called the infinitive part of the verb and = ‘to’ and the stem of the verb.

A verb, as used in a sentence, consists of the stem (main part) and a suffix (s, es, ed, ing)

Present tense of ‘to travel’

travels or

is travelling

e.g. He travels all over Scotland as part of his job.

She is travelling to New York even as we speak.

Tenses

Your teacher may decide to use the Knowledge about Language (pages 19-21) or Grammar to 14 (pages 18-19) to revise your knowledge of tenses.

The important thing is that you transfer what you learn in a lesson like this into your own writing.

This is a very simple introduction to tenses – the complete picture is much more complicated. Perhaps you will learn more of that later.

Look at the following examples:

To travel Past tense of

‘to travel’ travelled or

was travelling

e.g. She travelled with Ryan air.

He was travelling by train when the accident happened.

Future tense of ‘to travel’

will travel or will be travelling e.g. We will travel to

Alton Towers overnight.

They will be travelling to Tenerife on Friday.

Your turn - in pairs Take the verb ‘to speak’: Work out what the present tense is in its

two forms – remember ‘to travel’ - travels or is travelling

Work out the past tense of ‘to jump’Remember: travelled or she was

travelling Now work out the past tense of ‘to pick.’

Back to Titanic

Your teacher will probably allow you to watch up to the sequence where Jack saves Rose from jumping off the stern of the ship.

You need to watch this sequence at least twice again – it begins at 35 mins. The first time just familiarise yourself with what is happening, concentrating on Jack’s role.

The second time – your teacher will pause the film to help you do this and may switch on the subtitles – make brief notes of what Jack sees, does and says. Begin from the moment he first realises what Rose intends to do as she climbs over the stern of the ship and keep going up until he is invited to dinner by Cal, Rose’s fiancé.

Writing in the present tense

You are to imagine that you are writing the scene directions for this sequence, so that the actor who is going to play Jack knows what is required of him.The beginning will follow below – your task is to continue, remembering that the purpose of this piece of writing is to write only in the present tense.

Jack is lying on a bench on the deck looking at the stars when he hears the noise of running and begins walking towards the end of the ship to investigate. When he sees where Rose is, he tells her not to jump. Look at next slide before you begin.

Writing in the present tense You should plan to write between 120 and

150 words to complete this task. Therefore you will have to select from the information and give an overview of the incident.

Shortly you will describe the same incident from a different angle – and will have the opportunity to select other details then if you so wish.

Writing in the PastPast Tense Now you are to imagine that Jack is telling his Irish

friend (who came on board the ship with him) about the episode. As the events are now in the past he will tell the story in the past tense. This time you are to write in the first person, as Jack. You might begin like this:

I was gazing at the stars when I heard footsteps so I ran to investigate and found that girl I had been attracted to hanging over the stern of the ship.

Again limit yourself to 120-150 words – the emphasis is on the accuracy of your tenses rather than on the length of the piece.