[Grammar] I then made it a point of honor to have written something...

Hi,
I came across a sentence "I then made it a point of honor to have written something for each of the magazines I had listed to get that first job"

The context is that a writer wanted to apply for a job and lied to his employer by listing a bunch of magazines he hadn't really worked for so now he wanted to make up for it by writing for those magazines in the future.

I'm just wondering how you can use the Present perfect "Have written" in this sentence: I know that present perfect refers to some time between the past and the present or some past experience (no specific time given), so I was wondering Is this like saying "I would like to have done my homework by noon" So It's in the future, yet Present perfect? This part confuses me.

Re: A sentence with present perfect confuses me.

The verb is to have written, which is a perfect infinitive. It's not an example of the present perfect.

Re: A sentence with present perfect confuses me.

I think 'to have written something' denotes that the writing happened before 'made it a point of honor'.

Re: A sentence with present perfect confuses me.

They are not the same thing.

In your future posts, it will be very helpful if you would number your examples. I will do it for you this time.

Present Perfect is a form that talks about a past action with a present connection.

#1 talks about a past reality: "I made it a point..." It projects the effect into a present even though that 'present' is in our past.

#2 talks about a not yet realized future: "I would..." This statement hopes for a possibility which would be past in a hypothetical future. It is not (yet) real, but the writer hopes it will be so.

Re: A sentence with present perfect confuses me.

I'd use to write there.

Thank you for the feedback and corrections.
I will make sure to write a better thread title that included the phrase being discussed.


So let's see if i understand the perfect infinitive in the following sentences:

1. "I would like to have written something for the magazines I had listed" --> So It's something I would like (now) that I had done in the past.
2. "I then made it a point of honor to have written something for the magazines I had listed" --> So at a point in the past It was important for his honor to have written something for the magazines that he had not yet written for at that point in time (So from that point on he would probably do it) Is that correctly understood?

I think you do understand it correctly. Although he hadn't written for those magazines yet, he did his best to make sure he would write for them as soon as possible.

chr0710 said:

So at a point in the past It was important for his honor to have written something for the magazines that he had not yet written for at that point in time (So from that point on he would probably do it) Is that correctly understood?

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Then implies he hadn't written for them at that time, so the perfect infinitive doesn't make sense to me. The writing would come after the decision, so there is no reason to use the perfect infinitive, which implies completion. It is a straight future in the past for me. The word then cries out for to write IMO. You have the idea and the sense of time and sequence, but to have written does not fit with what you, and I, are seeing as the events/sequence.

1. 'I then made it a point of honor to write something' ── The speaker had not yet written something; that makes sense.
2. 'I then made it a point of honor to have written something' ── The speaker had already written something; that does not make sense.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

The author was thinking I made it a point of honor to eventually have written something, tripped over the split infinitive, and landed awkwardly.

GoesStation said:

tripped over the split infinitive, and landed awkwardly.

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An unnecessary slip in my book.

Tdol said:

An unnecessary slip in my book.

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Absolutely. Just look where it led him!

Was it he? ;-)