Please meet Patricia T. O'Conner, author of the national bestseller, Woe Is I and writer of the very popular blog, Grammarphobia. Please introduce yourself and provide some background information. I’m an author and a blogger, but in my previous life I was a newspaper journalist. At the Wall Street Journal in the early 1980s, I was an editor on the national desk and also wrote the Page 1 “Worldwide” column. Later I moved to the New York Times, where I spent many years as a staff editor on the … [Read more...]
Interview with Lisa McLendon
Grammarist is pleased to introduce Lisa McLendon, aka "Madam Grammar." Please introduce yourself and provide some background information. I’m Lisa McLendon and I teach editing and writing in the journalism school at the University of Kansas. Before this job, I was a newspaper copy editor for 12 years, and before that, I completed a Ph.D. in Slavic linguistics. What inspired you to starting writing your blog, "Madam Grammar?" I wanted to demystify grammar and usage, bust a few … [Read more...]
Interview with Jonathon Owen
Grammarist is happy to introduce Jonathon Owen, editor, layout artist, T-shirt man and writer of the very popular blog, Arrant Pedantry. Please introduce yourself and provide some background information. My name is Jonathon Owen, and I’m an editor, layout artist, and freelance writer. I’ve been working in editing and layout for about thirteen years, and last year I finished a master’s degree in linguistics. I blog about grammar, usage, editing, and other popular language issues. I also … [Read more...]
Interview with Peter Harvey
Please meet Peter Harvey, EFL teacher, author and translator. Please introduce yourself and provide some background information. I am a qualified UK secondary-school teacher specialising in EFL, but I have never taught in the UK. After teaching English in Germany, Zambia and Saudi Arabia I came to live in Barcelona, Spain, in 1984. Now I teach adults on a freelance basis, translate and write books about English. I studied modern languages at Cambridge and I find that having studied … [Read more...]
Interview with Stan Carey
Grammarist is proud to feature an interview with Stan Carey, the Irishguistarian-er. Please introduce yourself and provide some background information. I’m Stan Carey, a freelance writer and editor from Ireland. I trained as a scientist, thought about becoming a musician, then got hooked on language. I write about it at Sentence first, Macmillan Dictionary Blog, and elsewhere. Most of my work is editing and proofreading reports, books, academic and business texts, advertising copy, and so … [Read more...]
Interview with Gretchen McCulloch
Please meet Gretchen McCulloch, linguist, editor and writer. Please introduce yourself and provide some background information. I’m a linguist and the editor of Slate's language blog, Lexicon Valley. I write linguistics-related articles for a general audience both on Lexicon Valley and elsewhere (The Toast, Grammar Girl), as well as slightly nerdier posts on my own blog, All Things Linguistic. Perhaps most notably, I've written about internet linguistics, including the grammar of doge, the … [Read more...]
Interview with James Harbeck
The Grammarist is proud to introduce, James Harbeck, author, speaker and taster of words. Please introduce yourself and provide some background information. I’m James Harbeck. I make my living as an editor, writer, and layout designer. I blog as a word taster and sentence sommelier. I have a BFA, MA, and PhD in drama (theory, history, criticism) and am working on an MA in linguistics. I run, I sing, I cook, I ski, I occasionally act, I love to travel, I take pictures. Your blog, … [Read more...]
Interview with Constance Hale
Please meet Constance Hale, writer, hula dancer and author of the very popular grammar and writing blog, Sin and Syntax. Please introduce yourself and provide some background information. I have written three books on writing: The first is Wired Style, the second is Sin and Syntax, and the third is Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch. The latter is intended as a romp through the history of language and, in particular, English. It is filled with ideas to play with in your writing. Sin and Syntax is a … [Read more...]
Interview with Craig Silverman
Grammarist is pleased to introduce, Craig Silverman, an award-winning journalist and the founder of Regret the Error, a blog that reports on media errors and corrections, and trends regarding accuracy and verification. The blog moved to The Poynter Institute in December 2011, and he joined as Adjunct Faculty. How did you first start blogging? I was reading a ton of blogs back in the early 2000s and wanted to start one of my own. I was a freelance journalist at the time, and wanted to do … [Read more...]
Interview with Blair Bolles
Please meet Blair Bolles, technical writer extraordinaire, author of numerous books and blogger for the popular site, Babel's Dawn. Please introduce yourself and provide some background information. I am a professional writer with over 15 published books on a variety of topics. My first book was a guide to Africa’s wildlife parks, but the first book that I proposed and got published was about the language of children from birth to age 5. It was titled So Much to Say! and boasted of a blurb … [Read more...]