Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Creating synopses of fictional plots in works of literature

The present simple is used to summarise the plot/events in e.g. novels and plays:

Four men once close to Jack Dodds, a London butcher, 

meet to carry out his

peculiar last wish: to have his ashes scattered into the sea. For reasons best

known to herself, Jack’s widow, Amy, 

declines to join them.

The past simple  

144c

Referring to the procedures used in individual studies

The past simple form is common when academics refer to the procedures used in

their own and others’ individual experiments and studies:

[reporting one’s own experiment/study]

In two studies, 65 three-year-olds, 57 five-year-olds, and 74 adults 

viewed

video clips of animals or inanimate objects being transported by a person. For

each clip, the child 

was asked whether the animal or object was moving.

[reporting experiments/studies by others]

Bogren et al (2000) statistically 

modelled the magnitude of such temperature

deficits with respect to solar elevation.