What's in a Name?

[maxsims]

Joe,

We see that you write under a pen name.    What, then, does the A. stand for?

[Joe Carillo]

"A" stands for "Alpha," the first letter of the Greek alphabet.

[madgirl09]

Hmmn. "A" is in his given name, right? It was hard to surf the net looking of Sir Joe's real name. Finally, I found one cutey picture with a caption... ...where? secret 

[maxsims]

Next question"    Why the nom de plume?

[Joe Carillo]

Next question"    Why the nom de plume?

Every time I’m asked why I use a nom de plume, I’m tempted to invoke a reason like those invoked by or for the Philippine national hero Jose Rizal (a shield from political persecution), the British writer George Orwell (a less than splendid public service record in Burma for the British empire), the American short-story writer O. Henry (a prison record for embezzlement), the British novelist George Eliot (a woman who had to write as a man), and the American novelist Mark Twain (a tangled life as a journalist and businessman). I’d be dissembling, though, if I laid claim to a reason like any of those. My reason was actually a much more practical and unromantic one. When I was invited to write an English-usage column in The Manila Times in 2002, I was under a nondisclosure contract with a foreign-owned English-services company doing language-proficiency tests for foreign clients. That open-ended contract stipulated no media exposure for myself, so I was constrained to use a pen name to be able to write for the mass media during the next five years. By then, my pen name had become more widely known than my real one, so I decided for practical reasons to continue using the pen name Jose Carillo not only for my newspaper column but also for my books.

[madgirl09]

What? George Eliot a woman? Arrrgh! But thanks, Sir Joe for the info. I was thinking of using a pseudonym too, especially when writing some fiction, "my one and only effective craft" (it's a...er......never mind) I have, at least, a small following waiting for the next chapters. No, I am not going to use "Madman"  .

Now, I have three questions for you, Sir Joe:

1. Could you use the writings written under your name Jose Carillo as academic publications? I guess it would be laborious for writers to claim authorship or prove ownership of an article not written under their official name. Do we have to file an affidavit to credit those under other names to our official name? I had about three articles written under my "social name", but I'd often add these to my resume when our associations ask for my complete CV.

2. How do we deal with copyrights for short articles? Can you recommend a publisher that can accept copyright for short materials? fiction books? non-fiction books?

[Joe Carillo]

On your first question, I’m not aware of the rules of academe regarding academic papers written under a pen name. Perhaps we can ask Forum members who are active in academe to shed light on this question. At any rate, I would like to pose this very practical query: Why would someone ever write an academic paper under a pen name? I’m under the impression that under the “publish or perish” principle, an academic writes an academic paper as a means for validating his or her credential or status as an academic of caliber. Under this arrangement, there seems to be neither use nor place for pen names in academic writing.

On the copyright for literary works written under a pen name: When you write, say, a book under a pen name and you want it copyrighted, you simply invoke in the copyright application that you are the rightful owner of the pen name by whom the authorship of the book is credited. It’s really a very simple procedure. In the Philippines, you file copyrights with the copyrights office at the National Library on T. M. Kalaw Avenue in Manila. (By the way, under the law, you must arrange for the copyright notice to be placed in your book beforehand when it’s published, then submit two copies of the book along with your copyright application.)

On how to deal with copyrights for short articles: When a short article is published in a newspaper or magazine, the copyright automatically accrues to the publication unless the author has made arrangements otherwise prior to publication. As I understand it, under the law, it’s enough to invoke a copyright in writing for a particular work for the copyright to take effect. You need to formally file a copyright simply to ensure that the timeline for it is firmly established for the record. This is because unless renewed, a copyright expires after 50 years and becomes part of the public domain.

[madgirl09]

Nicknames, pen names...interesting!

Some articles you did not intend to submit on any academic journal, but just on your social circle publication, could eventually land in some academic media or online monographs. But, hmn...Why did I use a pen name in the first place  ? In a country where your Spanish-sounding name sounds Greek, some folks would suggest you use an easier-to-muster nickname. Now, I am more known in the teaching circle as this name (anyway supported by my parents' affidavit as I have been using it since childhood).

What is amazing in this cyber media teaming with millions of forums, is that, your comments/suggestions in some social chats would sometimes get the attention of a journal editor, and before long, such comments would metamorphose into an academic article  . You'd receive proposals to write an essay in that topic for a magazine, or so....I know, Sir Joe that you've experienced this hundred of times  . So, writing that requested format based on your comments as a lowly chatter using a posh nickname, would you shift back to being an unknown persona? And because many of your social acquaintances are members as well of the big academic groups, you'd stick to your more popular identity, right?

In my new resumes, when some groups ask for whatever I've have written, provided they have an ISBN number, I'd list as many as I could remember writing. And when I get so lazy writing a long article for a particular journal issue clamoring for submissions, I'd just rewrite or summarize my past school papers and then submit it for publication to the journal. Is that a bad habit?  Oh maybe, I am just so lucky that there are not so many people here willing to write in English. I wish Sir Joe's merry band of writers would contribute articles to the hungry teaching journals in Japan. Our journalists/writers in the Philippines are a lot better than so many foreign teachers here (many without any teaching background, nor English specializations)  .