Are You Shifting Your Tense and Person?

You must stop, please

This is the Duchess of Easton — I wore a tiara the first day of every class

There are so many things we don’t worry about when we’re talking that we have to worry about when we write. What’s the difference? If you “put it in writing,” it’s permanent. It lasts much longer than the air with which you speak. Your errors are forever.

Add clarity. If you are talking to someone, and he doesn’t understand what you mean, he can say, “What are you talking about?” or something less rude. Your readers, however, may not even bother to ask or try to understand. They may just stop reading. It’s much easier to just “walk away” when you can’t see your readers do it.

So let’s address a subject we never worry about when we’re talking: shifts in time and person.

Okay, hot shot, I hear you say, what the hell are you talking about? Allow me to give some examples.

“When I opened the door, you could hear the noisy party.”

“This morning as I drove in to work, this huge truck pulls in front of me, and I slam on the brakes.”

Does anything sound funny? One of the benefits of proofreading out loud is that you may hear something that just doesn’t sound right. You don’t need to know the technical term for what’s wrong. Just make it sound right, and nine out of ten times, you will have fixed…