What tense should I use when writing a diary? - Quora.
Choose the tense that suits the story you want to tell. Like you say, if you want to create the impression that the description of the journey is from a diary, then present tense could work. However, even here you could write as past tense because perhaps you wrote in your diary at the end of the day looking back over the day's activities.
When you say 'tense', do you mean 'person'? You're right that usually academic essays are in the third person - it's often discouraged to write in the first person, i.e. 'I think'. As for tense, that will depend on the type of essay - history essays are usually in the past tense, for instance. Hope that helps!
You may find it rewarding to help and encourage your child to keep a diary in English. This could be something private, or they could write a blog, and either make it public or make it only available to people they choose. You could use this procedure.
Diary definition, a daily record, usually private, especially of the writer's own experiences, observations, feelings, attitudes, etc. See more.
Existing facts and standard procedures are written in the simple present tense. e.g. Advanced software is now available to test the amount of radon emitted. Some disciplines prefer the use of the simple present tense to describe the methodology.
You don’t have to worry about a dead battery, and you can write even when the sun is bright or the airline makes you turn off your electronic devices. The disadvantage to a paper journal is if you lose the journal and you didn’t make a copy of it, you have lost all of the writing.
Tense — You should normally use the present tense when referring to previously published work, and you should use the past tense when referring to your present results.