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In amongst this wealth of knowledge relating to ‘I’ and ‘we’. Kerstin takes up the issue of tense and writes: Can I use the past tense in papers/theses/dissertation/academic texts and switch between tenses, i.e. when introducing the method which usually has been done before the presentation of results and then go back to present tense when the actual results are presented? What would be an appropriate guideline? I seem to recall that this question (or a variety thereof) was taken up some 5-6 years ago. Let me present the problem as follows: Smith and Jones (1997) found that there was no association between X and Y. Brown and Green (1994) find that X and Y are highly correlated. I am sure that there is a rule determining the use of past or present tense, but whatever this, many authors are inconsistent. If the findings of S&J are still relevant, is the present tense more appropriate? If so, then the findings of B&G should employ the present tense. Of course, we can combine these sentences: Whereas S&J found no association between X and Y, B&G observe a strong correlation. Now we are mixing tenses. This is not quite the question posed by Kerstin, but covers the principle of changing tense, and the matter of past or present tense in referencing. Comments very welcome. John Taylor Freelance language consultant