WCS8: Managing Mood - myText CNM

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Understand imperative, indicative, and subjunctive verb moods.
Revise passages with inconsistent verb moods.
Write passages using uniform verb mood.

The mood of a verb can be imperative, indicative, or subjunctive. Although those three words might make mood sound somewhat complicated, in reality you are likely quite familiar with the different moods. Study this table for clarification.

Verb Moods	Explanations	Examples
Imperative	The subject is understood to be the reader and is not given in the sentence. Imperative sentences include the following: Commands Requests Advice	Control your partying when you are in college. Please keep your furniture in mind as you make choices Limit partying to the weekends so you will be more likely to find success as a college student
Indicative (or declarative)	Indicative sentences include the following: Statements Facts Opinions Questions	During my first year in college, I was more focused on having fun with my friends than on studying. About one-third of eighteen-year-old college freshmen drop out within their first year of college. Although some colleges try to control your behavior with rules, you need to figure out for yourself how to successfully balance your class work and your personal life. Do you think it helps to have midnight curfews for students who live in dormitories?
Subjunctive	Present-tense verbs remain in the base form rather than changing to match the number or person of the subject. Past-tense verbs are the same as simple past tense. Exception: The verb “to be” uses “were” in all situations. Subjunctive sentences include the following: Wishes Recommendations Doubts Contrary-to statements	[present tense] It is important that I be [NOT am] focused on doing homework before partying. [present tense] I suggest a student work [NOT student works] on assignments every Friday afternoon. [past tense] If I were [NOT was] him, I’d have stayed at the library with my laptop for a few hours. [past tense] If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Problems with mood occur when the mood shifts within a sentence, as shown in the following table. In the table, the revisions were all made to match the mood that the sentence initially used. You could also choose to make different revisions that are equally acceptable.

Verb Moods	Problem Shifts	Revisions
Started with imperative and switched to subjunctive	Control your schedule, and I’d choose the number of hours I need for homework before talking to anyone about weekend plans.	Control your schedule and choose the number of hours you need for homework before talking to anyone about weekend plans.
Started with indicative and switched to imperative	People don’t think for themselves and stop being so wishy-washy.	Think for yourself and stop being so wishy-washy.
Started with subjunctive and switched to imperative	It matters that you be in charge of your success and you should stop blaming others.	It matters that you be in charge of your success and stop blaming others.

The sentence style sections are all adapted from “Chapter Sixteen” of Writers’ Handbook, 2012, used according to creative commons 3.0 cc-by-nc-sa