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Verb Tense: Talking about Events in fictional work


I was referred to this sub-forum from English Language Learners Stack Exchange.


My question is why do some people on the comic message boards that I frequent use present + past tense to discuss about the current storyline or the actions leading up to it instead of the present tense + present prefect.


Summaries of the events:


Chapter 4, released last week:



Sara shaves her head after she breaks up with her boyfriend.



Chapter 5, released this week:



Sara grows her hair back.



I used the present tense (following Purdue grammar guide) to summarize the events in chapter 4 and 5 so you guys would have an idea of the storyline.


Purdue OWL recommends using "present tense to describe action in a literary work, movie, or other fictional narrative."


The 3 examples below are what they would post after knowing what happened in chapter 4 and 5 which I summarized above. They use present + past tense, or just past tense to talk about the events :



Sara is growing her hair back, after she foolishly shaved her head when her boyfriend broke up with her.


She grew her hair back.


I was not surprised that she grew her hair back.



Thank you for informing me that my question didn't make sense. Please let me know if there are further problems with my question =)




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