Comments on: What Does [sic] Mean?

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:44:12 +0000

I think the author has made an incorrect connection with the “Sic” used by Booth and the [sic] used in written context. I was taught that [sic] is an acronym, much like the (sp) your English teacher used to put on your papers. It means “spelled in context”, which concords perfectly with one poster’s assertion that it is an acronym for “scriptum in corporum”, however I believe the Latin would have it “en corporum” rather than “in corporum”. I could be wrong.

The acronym [sic] is only properly used when quoting TEXT in written form, when the originator of the quoted text made an error. Such as if a bank robber presented a note to a bank teller that said, “Put the mony in the bag.” In order for an investigator to properly present the written text in his/her report, which would later become testimonial in court, he/she would write the message as, “Put the mony [sic] in the bag.”, so readers would know the originator misspelled the word and not the investigator. [sic] is not properly used for quoting spoken words.

For textual quoting of spoken words, when the writer is unsure of spelling, such as a person’s name, the abbreviation (ph), to indicate a phonetic spelling, is appropriate.

Brackets are used when inserting words into quoted text that are not part of the original quote. Parenthesis are used to make parenthetical comments in a sentence, which may be explanatory, but not contextually appropriate to include in the sentence. They are not interchangeable, as is commonly supposed.

Hope that long-winded explanation has some value for somebody.

By: danny

danny — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:24:04 +0000

The reason (sic) is seen a lot today is due to the amount of quotes in newspaper articles taken from the internet – and of course articles shown on the internet, which were taken from the internet!
Just shows how one advance in communication has been to the detriment of another.
What it also shows us is the literacy levels of the Worlds 16 -25 yr olds.

By: Rose

Rose — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:32:04 +0000

@ Mick
Funnily enough, that’s exactly the point – that is why you add the [sic], because as the person quoting, you recognise that the original writer is in error. If you thought “it’s” was correct, you wouldn’t have the [sic].

By: Mick

Mick — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:04:47 +0000

“Maple Leaf College is well-known for it’s [sic] high academic standards.”

This is either an excellent example of trolling or a rather funny mistake.

The college may be well known for “its” high academic standards, but certainly not for “it’s” standards. The latter doesn’t even make sense.

By: Maeve

Maeve — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:30:54 +0000

Michael,
Nothing like a typo to bring us down to earth!