There is no single tense for a dissertation, and the UK guidance genuinely conflicts. The working rule is simple — the past for what you did and found, the present for what is still true — but four separate sections have named UK universities publishing opposite instructions. Here is the rule per chapter, where the disagreements are, and how to settle them for your own document.
Step 1: Learn the one rule that covers most of the dissertation
Before the chapter-by-chapter detail, there is a single question that resolves most sentences: is this something that happened, or something that is still true?
Things that happened take the past. You collected the data, you ran the analysis, Smith conducted a study in 2019. Things that are still true take the present. A theory holds, a table shows, a finding implies something for practice.
The University of Hull states the resulting default: “The majority of your dissertation or research report will be written in the past tense.” That is your baseline. Expected output of this step: you can classify any sentence in your draft in under two seconds.
Hull is also unusually candid about why the rest of this page is necessary at all: “Tenses can be tricky to master. Even well respected journals differ in the guidance they give their authors for their use.” That is a UK university telling you, in its own guidance, that no settled answer exists.
Step 2: Set the tense for your literature review — the section where guidance actually conflicts
This is the hardest section, and it is hard because two named UK universities give opposite instructions.
- The University of Warwick states that in a thesis “the literature review usually describes research in the present tense (unless it is based on historical information, which is usually recounted in the simple past).”
- The University of Suffolk publishes a per-section table that assigns the past simple to the literature review “To discuss the findings of earlier studies.”
Both are live guidance from UK universities. Neither is wrong. The way out is to stop asking “what tense does a literature review take?” and start asking a better question, which the University of Manchester’s Academic Phrasebank supplies:
“For general reference to the literature, the present perfect tense (have/has + verb participle) tends to be used. For reference to specific studies carried out in the past, the simple past tense is most commonly used. This is normally the case where a specific date or point in time in the past forms a part of the sentence.”
So the variable is not the chapter — it is the scope of the claim. Three tenses, three jobs:
- Present perfect for the state of a whole field. “Several studies have examined the relationship between commuting time and attendance.”
- Simple past for one study at one point in time. “Ahmed (2021) surveyed 340 first-year students at two post-1992 universities.”
- Present for what a writer argues, and for knowledge treated as current. The Phrasebank adds the rule that surprises most students: “When referring to the words or ideas of writers, the present tense is often used if the ideas are still relevant, even if the author is no longer alive.” “Durkheim argues” is correct.
Expected output: a literature review in which the tense changes with the scope of each sentence, deliberately, rather than drifting. Warwick’s warning applies: “Try not to flit back and forth between past and present tenses, however, and keep the tense used broadly consistent.” If you are still deciding what kind of review you are writing, our guide to literature reviews and systematic reviews settles that first.
Step 3: Put the methodology in the simple past
This is the easiest section and the one with the most agreement behind it.
Hull: the methodology “is one of the easiest sections when it comes to tenses as you are explaining to your reader what you did. This is therefore almost exclusively written in the past tense.” Leeds: “If you are writing about an experiment you carried out or a method you used then use the past tense.” Suffolk assigns the past simple “To detail your research”.
The Academic Phrasebank confirms it from the other direction, noting of its own methods material that “for most of the functional categories in this section, the verbs are written in the simple past tense” — and every model phrase it gives is a past-tense agentless passive: “Data were collected using semi-structured interviews in …”, “Ethical approval was obtained from …”.
Expected output: a methodology chapter with no present-tense verbs except where you are describing an instrument that still exists. Our methodology chapter guide covers the section’s content; this step covers only its tense.
Step 4: Report results in the past, and point at tables in the present
Your findings happened, so they take the past. But the table is on the page in front of the reader right now, so it takes the present. Hull captures both halves: results “should be written in the past tense”, and yet “you will occasionally switch to present tense to write things like ‘Table 3.4 shows that …’ but generally, stick to the past tense.”
Warwick puts the emphasis differently, calling analysis of results “a combination of past and present tenses”, and Suffolk assigns the present simple specifically “To refer to figures, charts, tables, or other sections of the paper”.
In practice the split runs along one line:
- Past — what the participants did and what you measured. “Attendance declined across all three conditions.”
- Present — what the document does. “Table 4 shows the distribution by year group.”
Our guide to the results chapter works through what goes in the chapter and in what order; the tense split above is the only grammatical rule it needs.
Step 5: Move to the present for the discussion
At the discussion the document changes job — from reporting what happened to arguing what it means — and the tense changes with it.
Hull: the discussion “will primarily be written in the present tense as you are generally discussing or making conclusions about the relevance of your findings at the present time.” Warwick agrees: the discussion chapter “adopts the present tense to talk about the significance of the findings.”
You will still reach back into the past to name a specific finding before interpreting it, and that is correct: “Attendance declined most sharply among commuting students. This suggests that timetabling, rather than motivation, drives the effect.” Past for the finding, present for the claim. Expected output: a discussion in which every interpretive sentence is present-tense.
Step 6: Decide the abstract and the conclusion, knowing that UK guidance disagrees
These are the two sections where you will find flatly contradictory instructions, so decide deliberately rather than by instinct.
The abstract. Hull: “Mostly use the present tense, i.e. ‘This is the current state of affairs and this is why this study is needed.’” Leeds Beckett, in its undergraduate dissertation guidance: “Write in the past tense.” Two UK universities, one short section, opposite instructions. The workable answer is a deliberate mixture rather than either extreme, and because the abstract has several other conventions attached to it, we treat it separately in how to write a dissertation abstract.
The conclusion. Hull groups it with the discussion in the present tense. Warwick states the opposite: “In the conclusion, the simple past tense is used to describe what was done in the essay.” Both defensible — a conclusion that summarises what the dissertation did leans past; a conclusion that states what the findings mean leans present. Pick according to which your conclusion actually is, and hold it.
Worth knowing before you go looking for a tie-breaker: the Academic Phrasebank’s pages on reporting results, discussing findings and writing conclusions name no tense at all. The most-recommended UK phrase resource declines to rule on the three sections where universities disagree most. That is a reasonable signal that no authority is going to settle it for you.
Step 7: Run a consistency pass, section by section
Markers rarely penalise a single tense slip. They do notice a chapter that drifts. Run this pass late, once the content is stable.
- Take one section at a time, not the whole document. The correct tense changes at chapter boundaries, so reading straight through hides the switch you are looking for.
- Ask the Step 1 question of every verb. Did it happen, or is it still true?
- Check your citing sentences separately. These drift most, because you wrote them over several months.
- Delete the rare tenses. Warwick: “The present perfect continuous, past perfect simple/continuous and future perfect tenses are very rarely used in academic writing.” If a sentence needs one, it is usually doing too much and should be split.
- Read the first sentence of every paragraph in one pass. If the tense jumps between neighbouring paragraphs without the topic changing, you have found the drift.
Expected output: each section holds one dominant tense, with deliberate exceptions you could justify aloud.
A worked paragraph, with the citation formatted correctly
All three literature-review tenses in one paragraph, with a Harvard in-text citation and its reference-list entry formatted to the version most UK departments mean:
“Research on commuting and attendance has developed considerably over the past decade (present perfect: the state of the field). Ahmed (2021) surveyed 340 first-year students across two post-1992 universities and found that journey time predicted seminar attendance more strongly than prior attainment (simple past: one study, one point in time). Ahmed argues that this reflects a structural constraint rather than a motivational one (present: the writer’s position, still current).”
The matching reference-list entry: Ahmed, S. (2021) ‘Commuting distance and seminar attendance in UK higher education’, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 45(3), pp. 312–328.
If your citations are not yet in this shape, fix that before the tense pass — our complete Harvard referencing guide covers the version UK departments actually ask for.
Holding it consistent across 10,000 words
Tense drift is not a knowledge problem. You know the rule by now. It is a problem of writing five chapters over four months and losing the thread of which decision you made in October.
Draft your dissertation in Tesify: keep the whole document in one workspace so a chapter written in March reads consistently with one written in December, run the consistency pass section by section, and let the bibliography format itself while you concentrate on the argument. The writing stays 100% yours — Tesify handles the clerical layer. There is a free tier, so you can run the pass on one chapter first.
Frequently asked questions
What tense should a dissertation be written in?
There is no single tense. The working default across UK guidance is the simple past for what you did and found, and the present for what is still true — established knowledge, what your tables show, and what your findings mean. Hull puts the default plainly: “The majority of your dissertation or research report will be written in the past tense.”
What tense should the literature review use?
This is the one section where UK guidance openly conflicts. Warwick says the literature review “usually describes research in the present tense”; Suffolk’s table assigns the past simple “To discuss the findings of earlier studies.” The Academic Phrasebank splits the difference by scope rather than by section, and that is the most useful rule of the three.
What is the present perfect for?
General reference to a body of work rather than to one study. The Academic Phrasebank states it directly: “For general reference to the literature, the present perfect tense (have/has + verb participle) tends to be used. For reference to specific studies carried out in the past, the simple past tense is most commonly used.”
What tense should the methodology chapter be in?
The simple past, with more agreement behind it than any other section. Hull calls it “almost exclusively written in the past tense”, Leeds says “If you are writing about an experiment you carried out or a method you used then use the past tense”, and the Academic Phrasebank notes of its own methods material that “the verbs are written in the simple past tense”.
What tense should the results chapter use?
Past tense for what you found, present tense for what the table does. Hull says the results section “should be written in the past tense”, while noting you “will occasionally switch to present tense to write things like ‘Table 3.4 shows that …’”. Warwick disagrees on emphasis, calling it “a combination of past and present tenses”.
What tense should the discussion chapter use?
Mostly the present. Hull explains why: the discussion “will primarily be written in the present tense as you are generally discussing or making conclusions about the relevance of your findings at the present time.” Warwick agrees that the discussion “adopts the present tense to talk about the significance of the findings.”
What tense should the conclusion use?
UK guidance contradicts itself here. Hull groups the conclusion with the discussion in the present tense. Warwick states the opposite: “In the conclusion, the simple past tense is used to describe what was done in the essay.” Follow your handbook, and if it is silent, pick one and stay consistent.
Can I write about a dead author in the present tense?
Yes, and it is the convention. The Academic Phrasebank: “When referring to the words or ideas of writers, the present tense is often used if the ideas are still relevant, even if the author is no longer alive.” “Durkheim argues” is correct in 2026.
Should I ever use the future tense?
Rarely, and mainly in a proposal rather than a dissertation. A proposal describes work not yet done; a dissertation reports work that is finished. Signposting is the common exception — “the following section will discuss …” is standard.
Which tenses should I simply avoid?
Warwick names them: “The present perfect continuous, past perfect simple/continuous and future perfect tenses are very rarely used in academic writing.” If a sentence needs one, it is usually a sign the sentence is doing too much and should be split.
Do markers actually penalise tense errors?
A single slip, almost never. Inconsistency across a chapter, yes — it reads as carelessness and it is exactly what a second marker notices. Marking criteria rarely name tense, but they routinely name fluency and accuracy of expression, which is where it lands.
How do I check tense consistency before submission?
Read one section at a time asking a single question of every verb: is this something that happened, or something that is still true? Do it section by section rather than page by page, because the correct answer changes at chapter boundaries and reading straight through hides the switch.