Will or is?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Carol Rowles wonders: <<Originally the sentence read: "If selected, income
contained in Section V of the 1003 will not be included in the 833 request
file, and subsequently will not be returned in the credit report. This could
be desirable in no income verification loans." The QC department wants to
change will not to is not in both instances. Are they grammatically
correct?>>

Both are grammatically correct. Since this is clearly a "if... then"
construction, the "then" part is inherently future tense, and "will" is
correct. But on the other hand, because the item "is selected", the phrase
can also be seen as a present tense construction, and "is" would also be
correct. So you could make a case for both.

Unfortunately, focusing on the verb tense misses the real problem: this is
remarkably turgid sentence. Try turning it around, or focusing on the user.
As best I can understand: "If you select income..., this income will not be
included in. As a result, it will not appear in the report. Do this [why is
it desirable? say so here!] in loans that don't require income
verification."

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
(try ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca if you get no response)
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada 

Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur. (Oh! Was I
speaking Latin again? Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips
out.)--Anonymous