Hello! I’m a scientist and writer turned editor and swivel-chair linguist. Sentence first is my blog about the English language: its usage, grammar, styles, literature, history, and quirks. There will also be stories, photos, and miscellany. I live in the west of Ireland, but thanks to modern technology you can read my blog (almost) anywhere. Its title is from a line spoken by the Queen in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: “Sentence first – verdict afterwards.”
I am interested in how people communicate. Words are powerful tools and deserve careful use, but language usage changes constantly. For formal writing and editing I like the plain style, and I am contrarily fascinated by gobbledegook. But because I have had love affairs with various kinds of writing, from science writing and travel writing to fiction and poetry, I am interested in all styles and in the countless ways we express our ideas.
You can e-mail me at stan @ stancarey.com if you want something written, edited, or proofread, or if you want to say hello or share your thoughts. There is further information on my editing business website. I get a lot of questions about grammar – too many, unfortunately, to make a habit of answering them, though I do so when I can.
I write about language for Macmillan Dictionary Blog and the Visual Thesaurus, I write about film for Culch.ie, and I tweet about all sorts on Twitter. I’ve also written for ELT Journal and the Fortnightly Review. You can find me on Google+ and Tumblr (more profiles to come).
Blog comments are welcome, and are never judged according to their grammatical accuracy. (I’m in editor mode only when editing, and even then I’m not judgemental.) Unless otherwise stated, all writing and photography are © Stan Carey until I assign a Creative Commons licence. Thank you for visiting.
Stan
