But when you are interpreting the results or describing the significance of the findings, the present tense should be used. In the discussion section, the past tense is generally used to summarize the findings. However, you should use the present tense to refer to tables, figures, and graphs that you are using to present your results.Įxample: Table 4 shows the blood pressure levels of patients before and after administration of the recommended dose of the drug. Therefore, the simple past tense is the natural choice when describing the results obtained.Įxample: Overall, there was a significant reduction in the blood pressure of more than 60% of the patients. The results section describes experiments that were completed before the paper was written.
