Tense

[Laughing Heir]

Hello All.

I was scheduled to take a Residential Report Writing class through the AI last year for QE, but, it was canceled due to inclement weather and I ended up taking a course on mixed-use sales comparison in it's place.

Anyways. I will certainly take the CG version of the course as part of my curriculum but in the meantime I'd like to get other appraisers' opinions. Almost all of the reports I read feature mixed tenses and I often get aggravated while reading them. So my two part question is: which is the correct tense? Past or present and should the tense be carried throughout the entire report?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Paul Isolda]

I am probably guilty of mixing tenses at times. However, one thing I'm not guilty of is using anyways, which is not a proper word in the English language. Sorry, I had to take the stab since you were complaining about writing. I believe it would be correct to use a present tense throughout the report since it is supposed to describe the subject and market as of the date of valuation.

 

[Laughing Heir]

Ouch, Paul.

Just kidding. I'm from Scranton, home of the English language butchers - usually we do it by mouth not pen.

The present and past tense in the same sentence is the thing that was really getting to me. It's not that I was critiquing the style of the report, it's just that it made intolerably hard to read report after report.

 

[George Hatch]

Technical writing (which is the category under which appraisal reports fall) has somewhat different expectations than non-technical writing. Part of an appraisal report will relate to things that have already occurred, and part will provide a running commentary on what the appraiser is doing. Back in the day, most of us would do the mental aspect of appraising first and write the report after the fact, but that's no longer the case. Almost everyone does some development while they write. You will get mixed tenses that way.

 

[Paul Isolda]

You're a good sport and I love your avatar, I could go for one right now. It is annoying to read something where tenses are being mixed, especially in the same sentence. Unfortunately, many appraisers do not pay enough attention to these aspects of their writing and simply concern themselves with the nuts and bolts. We are not novelists but writing is an essential part of our work, we as a group should pay more attention to the details and we would come across better to the readers.

 

[Laughing Heir]

Technical writing (which is the category under which appraisal reports fall) has somewhat different expectations than non-technical writing. Part of an appraisal report will relate to things that have already occurred, and part will provide a running commentary on what the appraiser is doing. Back in the day, most of us would do the mental aspect of appraising first and write the report after the fact, but that's no longer the case. Almost everyone does some development while they write. You will get mixed tenses that way.

I laughed out loud while reading this part. About ten minutes ago I was trying to force a sentence using the past tense into a situation where it didn't apply, it obviously required the present tense. Your words rung very clearly with me while I read the post. The laugh out loud was the kind of laugh one might experience while listening to a comedian delivering a punchline that describes them to a tee.

 

[Laughing Heir]

Paul,

I had a few nukies earlier in the day. One funny note on Newcastle: it tastes much better in the U.S. than in Great Britain.

I bartended while I was in college, the place I worked at had 30-40 drafts on tap every night - mostly imports and micros. I tasted this, sampled that, but really only enjoyed three beers out of the hundreds that graced that wall. Obviously, my favorite was Newcastle Brown Ale ... but, if it's available, I'll take a Harpoon Winter Warmer. What a great beer for this time of year.

The old stand-by in PA is Yuengling. Yuengling is to lager in NEPA as Coca Cola is to soda throughout the industrialized world.

 

[Kali the Boston Terrier]

Buy Alan Blankenship book from the AI on report writing...if possible take the narrative course with him. He's not an appraiser but an english professor...all he deals with is mechanics of the language.

 

[PropertyEconomics]

I would believe it impossible to complete an appraisal correctly and not use past, present and future tense within the report. Its what appraisers do ... look back, current and forward when completing an assignment.

 

[Boonders]

Should be present tense.