IreneBad grammar makes me [sic]
May 6th 2008 16:22
Do you know what [sic] means? Most people glean its meaning from context, but they do not necessarily know the origin of the term. Sic is Latin for "thus" or "in this manner" (not "thus" in the sense of "consequently"). For example, "Sic transit gloria mundi" means "Thus passes the glory of the world".
When making direct quotations that contain errors, you don't want to make silent corrections to the text; nor do you want to simply reproduce the error without somehow indicating that the mistake is not yours. This is where sic comes in: insert it, italicised and in square brackets, after the error in the text you're quoting.
"A certain degree of miserey [sic] seems inseparable from a high degree of populousness." (James Madison)
Here, [sic] indicates that "misery" is misspelled. Fie, James Madison!
Use [sic] for errors in grammar, spelling, incorrect word choice, and other mistakes. It's not necessary when quoting dialect or alternative spelling and wording. As an example, don't do the following:
In The Color Purple, Nettie's ship "was sunk by German mines off the coast of...Gibralta [sic]."
The quote above is from The Color Purple by Alice Walker. "Gibralta" is how the narrator Celie writes "Gibraltar", but do not use [sic] even though it is a direct quote. Celie is uneducated and from the American South; she may well pronounce "Gibraltar" without the "r" sound, and thus write it that way too.
Also, do not write "color [sic]" if you spell it "colour". Differences between British English and American English are just that--neither is more correct than the other, despite what some pundits will have you believe.
When making direct quotations that contain errors, you don't want to make silent corrections to the text; nor do you want to simply reproduce the error without somehow indicating that the mistake is not yours. This is where sic comes in: insert it, italicised and in square brackets, after the error in the text you're quoting.
"A certain degree of miserey [sic] seems inseparable from a high degree of populousness." (James Madison)
Here, [sic] indicates that "misery" is misspelled. Fie, James Madison!
Use [sic] for errors in grammar, spelling, incorrect word choice, and other mistakes. It's not necessary when quoting dialect or alternative spelling and wording. As an example, don't do the following:
In The Color Purple, Nettie's ship "was sunk by German mines off the coast of...Gibralta [sic]."
The quote above is from The Color Purple by Alice Walker. "Gibralta" is how the narrator Celie writes "Gibraltar", but do not use [sic] even though it is a direct quote. Celie is uneducated and from the American South; she may well pronounce "Gibraltar" without the "r" sound, and thus write it that way too.
Also, do not write "color [sic]" if you spell it "colour". Differences between British English and American English are just that--neither is more correct than the other, despite what some pundits will have you believe.
This is a bookmark I stitched for a colleague last year. I didn't italicise because I was afraid it would look bad.
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the bookmark is very cute!
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Thanks re: the bookmark. I ended up making one for myself too.