RE: future tense vs present tense

Subject: RE: future tense vs present tense
From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
To: "Harvey, Jon" <Jon -dot- Harvey -at- PERKINELMER -dot- COM>, "tech2wr-l (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:59:45 -0500



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Harvey, Jon
>
> I had an interesting conversation with one of my colleagues. The topic
> was when to use future tense in instructions versus present tense. Such
> as:
>
> "After you press ENTER, your changes will be saved." versus "After you
> press ENTER, your changes are saved."
>
> I have my own opinion but I thought I'd ask other people what they
> think.

I sometimes use future tense when there are options, or
the event is conditional. Otherwise, I use present tense,
exactly as you did in your second example.... that's
99.9% of my stuff.

Well.... almost exactly. These days, it would be:
"Press [ ENTER ] to save your changes."

-k


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References:
future tense vs present tense: From: Harvey, Jon

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