Learn English – Which one should I use, ‘are chosen’ or ‘have been chosen’ in academic writing

grammar

I was writing a report of my economic presentation. I had to mention that I chose three states for my studies in the introduction of the report. Since I can't use the active voice to mention this, which passive voice should I chose, passive of simple present or passive of present perfect? i.e 'are chosen' or 'have been chosen'?

Best Answer

Since I can't use the active voice to mention this

Well, "I chose" or "we chose" is perfectly good English. I do know that some college style-guides have a bizarre rule against this. Just remember that it's a bizarre rule of some college style-guides, rather than anything to worry about in the real world.

Aside from that, you should use whichever fits the rest of the description. The simple past "…were chosen…" seems to be the most obvious, but there are certainly reasonable sentences one could write with the other two tenses too.

"…are chosen…" would be referring the the general procedure, while "…have been chosen…" would refer to the specific case.

In conducting this sort of study, the states are chosen on the basis of…

In conducing this study, the states have been chosen on the basis of…

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