The general rule is to maintain consistency in the tenses used within each section of your paper. However, different tenses are traditionally used in different sections of a research report:

Methodology - past tense
Discussion/Analysis - present tense
Conclusion - present tense

These are general patterns only. For most writers, the choice of tense is second nature and may occasionally change even within these sections.

Exception: The Literature Review section may use a combination of past and present tense, since the purpose of a literature review is to both describe and discuss prior research.

View examples of past tense and present tense usage in context of a research report.

The general rule is to maintain consistency in the tenses used within each section of your proposal. However, for most writers, the choice of tense is second nature and may occasionally change even within sections.

Since the proposal is written before doing your research, your plans should be expressed in the future tense. In other words, the sections of the proposal that describe your Methodology and the Contents of the Project Report should be written mainly in the future tense. In other parts of your proposal, the past tense should be used for descriptions of past events, and the  present tense should be used for discussion. These are general patterns only.

Exception: The Rationale section should be written in a combination of present and past tense because it contains both description and discussion of prior research. The Abstract section of the proposal also uses a combination of tenses.

View examples of present, past and future tense usage in the context of a proposal.

According to the APA Manual, when describing past events, such as what happened during your research and what other researchers did before you, use the past tense. However, when discussing the research results, use the present tense (2001, pp. 33, 42).