it was(is) unclear...

[LQZ]

Final rates for this year’s count will not be posted until early May, so it was unclear whether this year’s unprecedented publicity and marketing campaigns had reversed a decades-long decline. ---taken from the NYT

Dear teacher,

I am wondering whether the tenses of red verbs are wrongly used. To me,
it should read "it is unclear .......have reversed a decades-long decline". Could you nicely tell me if my reworded and the original are both fine?
Thanks.


LQZ

 

[emsr2d2]

Final rates for this year’s count will not be posted until early May, so it was unclear whether this year’s unprecedented publicity and marketing campaigns had reversed a decades-long decline. ---taken from the NYT

Dear teacher,

I am wondering whether the tenses of red verbs are wrongly used. To me,
it should read "it is unclear .......have reversed a decades-long decline". Could you nicely tell me if my reworded and the original are both fine?
Thanks.


LQZ

In my opinion, your reworded version is much better! Unless there is something else in the rest of the article explaining why they would use the past tenses, I agree with you that "is" and "have" are much better choices. My only other suggestion is that they could say "it is unclear if....... will have reversed.......".

 

[LQZ]

In my opinion, your reworded version is much better! Unless there is something else in the rest of the article explaining why they would use the past tenses, I agree with you that "is" and "have" are much better choices. My only other suggestion is that they could say "it is unclear if....... will have reversed.......".

Thanks emsr2d2.