[Grammar] I conducted a public survey.

[davidtrinh]

Every weekend, my friends and I have a meeting and learn English from one another. Last week, I showed them the following sentences I made up myself.

(ex) Over the last three weeks, I conducted a public survey about people's favorite sport in my city. When I analyzed the data two days ago, I realized that I had left out a very important question from the survey.

Most of my friends said that I used the wrong tense in the first sentence. They didn't know how to explain why the tense was wrong.

Could someone please explain what's wrong with it? Thanks a lot.

 

[Rover_KE]

It looks fine to me. I wouldn't change anything.

 

[emsr2d2]

My immediate reaction was that after "Over the last three weeks", you needed "I have conducted" or "I have been conducting". However, the more I read the original, the more I'm inclined to agree with Rover that there's nothing wrong with the past simple. It's just not what I would choose.

 

[jutfrank]

I think the sentence is much better with have been conducting.

The present perfect continuous matches with the time marker over the last three weeks. We understand that the verb is repeated (continuous) across a duration that started three weeks ago, leading to the present (present perfect).

It is also possible, but less likely I think, for the meaning to be that the action was a single event - that all the conducting was done on one occasion. In this case, the present perfect simple form would be more suitable.