What is the correct verb tense to use in reports?

• A. Present tense.
• B. Past perfect tense.
• C. Future tense.
• D. Past tense.

Answer: (D)

In reports, you describe what happened, so the narrative is written in past tense to show events that already occurred. This keeps the account clear and objective, with a straightforward timeline of who did what, when, and where. Past tense provides consistency across the incident narrative, preventing confusion about whether actions are still to come. You’ll use past perfect only when you need to indicate that one past action happened before another past action (for example, noting that something had occurred before a subsequent event). Future tense is generally avoided in the main report because it talks about what will happen, not what did happen. So, for documenting completed incidents, past tense is the standard choice.