About the Author

Jose A. Carillo, who writes under a pen name, is a nationally awarded writer and editor and an internationally awarded corporate communicator. He won a National Book Award for linguistics from the Manila Critics Circle in 2005 for his first English-usage book, English Plain and Simple: No-Nonsense Ways to Learn Today's Global Language. Previously, he had won a total of nine major industry awards in the Philippines for his work as company editor and public affairs executive. He later gained international recognition for his work as a corporate communicator, winning the Gold Quill Award of the U.S.-based International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in 1989 and the Golden World Award of the U.K.-based International Public Relations Association (IPRA) in 1990.

A former college newspaper editor in chief, national newspaper reporter, company editor, and corporate communications executive, he ran a Metro Manila-based English-language services company as its general manager for nearly five years until mid-2005. He is now an independent editor and communication consultant based in Metro Manila in the Philippines, and can be reached at j8carillo@yahoo.com.

His weekly English-usage column in The Manila Times currently comes out Saturdays in both the print and Internet editions of the paper. In April 2008, he came up with his second English-usage book, The 10 Most Annoying English Grammar Errors.