- Joined
- Oct 24, 2011
- Messages
- 23,128
- Reaction score
- 10,900
- Location
- Where faults collide
- Website
- doggedlywriting.blogspot.com
Hi all, I thought I had a pretty good handle on this sort of thing, but recently got dinged by a reviewer for tense shifting during sentences. Now I thought there were instances when it was permissible, even appropriate. The examples he pointed out as incorrect were:
"Her breath gusted out, as if she had been holding it."
and
"He flopped down again, swallowing hard."
and
"He propped himself on one elbow, bracing himself against the violent rocking motion."
I did some sleuthing of grammar sites on the web, but ran into the issue of being absolutely horrible at remembering the names for various rules and sentence constructs. This site touched on the issue, though none of the examples I saw there were quite exactly like my own sentences.
Are my examples within the guidelines?
Thanks for your thoughts! And if there is a name for these types of complex sentences or a name for these kinds of tense shifts (if they are correct), I'd love for someone to tell me what they are.
and
"He flopped down again, swallowing hard."
and
"He propped himself on one elbow, bracing himself against the violent rocking motion."
I did some sleuthing of grammar sites on the web, but ran into the issue of being absolutely horrible at remembering the names for various rules and sentence constructs. This site touched on the issue, though none of the examples I saw there were quite exactly like my own sentences.
Are my examples within the guidelines?
Thanks for your thoughts! And if there is a name for these types of complex sentences or a name for these kinds of tense shifts (if they are correct), I'd love for someone to tell me what they are.