Q. What verb tense should I use in a construction such as “as of this writing”? “As of this writing, the full data from the 2014 survey were not available, so we use data from the 2011 survey,” or “As of this writing, the full data from the 2014 survey are not available, so we use data from the 2011 survey”? Were sounds better to me until I get to the use, which seems to conflict.
A. “As of this writing” may be taken from the viewpoint of the writer at the time of writing (present) or from the viewpoint of the reader at the time of reading (past). You only need to make up your mind which tense you like best and stick with it.