When The author researches her subject before she wrote a first draft . Which revision corrects the underlined shift in sentences tense?

The underlined portion of the sentence, "The author researches her subject before she wrote a first draft," contains a shift in tense. The sentence starts in the present tense ("researches") but then switches to the past tense ("wrote").

Here are two ways to correct the tense shift:

Option 1: Keep both verbs in the present tense.

* The author researches her subject before she writes a first draft.

Option 2: Keep both verbs in the past tense.

* The author researched her subject before she wrote a first draft.

The best option will depend on the context of the larger piece of writing. If the sentence is part of a larger discussion about an author's general process, the present tense is likely more appropriate. If the sentence is describing a specific instance in the past, the past tense would be better.