Grammatical Moods (and Tense) in
Technical Writing
What is This Topic About?
There are many grammatical moods in English, but for Tech Writing you only need to know about two:
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Second-person imperative mood (used to give instructions)
Third-person indicative mood (used in descriptions)
Also, always use present tense in technical writing by default. Only use past or future tenses when
you’re actually writing about something that happened in the past or will happen in the future.
Review of “Person”
When an author writes a sentence about himself or herself, that sentence is in first person. First person
uses the pronouns “I,” “me,” “we,” ”mine,” and “ours.”
First-Person Example: I go to the store.
Technical writers do not generally use first person singular “I.” Some technical documents, especially
Web sites, use first-person plural “we” when referring to the entity responsible for the document.
When an author writes a sentence that addresses the reader directly, that sentence is in second person.
Second person uses the pronouns “you” and “your,” or no pronoun at all if the sentence addresses the
reader directly.
Second-Person Example: You go to the store.
When an author writes a sentence about a person or object that is not the author and not the reader,
that sentence is in third person. Third person uses the pronouns “he,” “she,” “it,” “they,” and some
others.
Third-Person Example: They go to the store.
Second-Person Imperative Mood
In second-person imperative mood, the author tells the reader directly to do something as if giving an
order (in present tense).
Examples:
Insert the memory card into the card slot.
Click “submit” at the bottom of the page.
Eat your vegetables.
Why Do I Care about Second-Person Imperative Mood?
Technical writers use second-person imperative mood to write instructions. Use this mood whenever
you are telling a reader directly to do something.
Avoid cluttering up your instructions with extra, unnecessary words:
“You should insert the memory card into the card slot.”
“Go ahead and click “submit” at the bottom of the page.”
“You need to eat your vegetables.”
Just give instructions directly without using the pronoun “you” and without adding those words like
“should,” “could,” “might,” or “ought,” (called modal verbs) unless that’s what you actually mean.
Give instructions in present tense unless you have a reason not to. Don’t write that a user “will have to”
do something when you can just give the instruction directly.
Third-Person Indicative Mood
In third-person indicative mood, the author tells the reader about something that is not the author and
is not the reader (in present tense).
Examples:
A technician inserts the memory card into the card slot.
A user clicks “submit” at the bottom of the page.
Everyone eats their vegetables.
Note that in addition to being in present tense, these examples are also in active voice.
Why Do I Care about Third-Person Indicative Mood?
Technical writers use third-person indicative mood (and present tense) to write descriptions. Use this
mood whenever you are telling the reader about what happens, but not giving instructions.