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Personal Data

I am a 22 year old male living in Texas, United States of America. Most of my life prior to age 21 was spent in Louisiana.

I am a graduate of LSU with a B.S. in physics. I am now pursuing Ph.D. studies in physics at Texas A&M University.

In my Wikipedia editing, I have neither the time nor inclination to create or greatly expand articles. This may change, but for now I'm primarily a user first, and editor second. Reasonably many edits do get done by me, mostly fixing grammar, editing, and vandalism. Occasionally I'll wade into something weightier, but rarely more than choosing a more judicious turn of phrase. Sometime soon I'd like to get more involved in one of the many interesting projects around here, like WP:PHYS (of which I'm a member now) and WP:WP1.

Whilst vs. While

Minor quixotic recommendation for writers: "whilst" is not a legitimate British English alternative to "while". British English deprecates "whilst" as well. Though it's more commonly used in the UK and Australia, in neither location is it considered standard by regional language authorities. As such, "whilst" is not protected by WP:ENGVAR. Please allow me to quote from its Wikipedia article (which is itself a redirect to "while", as it should be).

Whilst is synonymous with while in standard British English and Australian English; in American English, it can be considered pretentious or archaic. In their style guides, modern publications on both sides of the Atlantic deprecate its use (along with "amidst" and "amongst"), for example:

Times Online Style Guide: [1]: "while (not whilst)"

Guardian Style Guide: [2]: "while not whilst"

Hansard: [3] PDF, the Canadian Parliament record.

Fowler's Modern English Usage deprecates several uses of "while". At times it is inappropriately used as a conjunctive: actual conjunctions like "and" should be used instead. Its usage as "elegant variation" is also discouraged, as it is masquerading as a "formal word".^[1]

Sorry to go on about this, but since there's occasionally questions about it, I think it merits additional exposition. Does it really matter? Well, probably not that much. But there's my two cents for your consideration. ;)

^ "while": Fowler's Modern English Usage, Second Edition, ed. Sir Ernest Gowers 1965 and 1983, and Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage. Ed. Robert Allen. Oxford University Press, 1999

[1] "while": Fowler's Modern English Usage, Second Edition, ed. Sir Ernest Gowers 1965 and 1983, and Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage. Ed. Robert Allen. Oxford University Press, 1999

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