• Who am I?

    I am Qrystal; or at least, that's my dot-name! Har har. (My name is really Crystal, but that's not as internet-searchable; hence, switching the C for the little-used letter Q.)

    I am here because I enjoy writing. I do this mostly for myself, but I also have a passion for helping others learn things from the things I write. Now that I am done my Ph.D. in Physics, I am stepping away from academic research so that I can indulge in some creative ways to share my knowledge and inspire the appreciation of scientific thinking in others. I am also working as a tutor, which is one of the jobs I've most enjoyed doing in my life so far.


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    • Passive Voice versus ‘We’ in my thesis

    Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

    I was contemplating the problem of the “royal we” versus the use of passive voice in my thesis, and it sparked the following ideastorm on twitter…

    Online Writing Resources

    Saturday, July 12th, 2008

    I hope to add to this list eventually, as I find more sites like the one below!  Suggestions are welcome! The Purdue University Online Writing Lab seems to have a lot of valuable resources, including a fantastic Verb Tense Chart to help distinguish between various verb tenses.  I had learned many of these terms in Latin [...]

    Let Language Evolve!

    Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

    Can we just clear this up now: the word `data’, in english, is a singular mass noun. It is thus a grammatical and stylistic error to use it as a plural. Plural use is barbaric: amongst other crimes, it is a deliberate archaism, and thus a symptom of bad writing. Data is a singular noun [...]