The Word ‘Sic’ and How to Use it in Academic Writing If a quotation you have chosen to include in your essay contains an error which you want to leave in, you should always follow it with the Latin word ‘sic’. ‘Sic’, meaning ‘thus’, comes from the Latin phrase ‘sic eras scriptum’ meaning ‘thus it was written’. This demonstrates that you have reproduced the quotation exactly as it was originally written without correcting it. It also shows that your own writing is up to scratch and you haven’t made a typographical error. When to use ‘sic’ If possible, minor errors in quotations should be corrected and the corrections enclosed within square brackets. For example, you might change ‘Their is nothing left to be done’ to ‘[There] is nothing left to be done’. ‘[Sic]’ is to be used when you wish to reproduce the quotation verbatim. Situations when it would be appropriate to retain the error rather than correcting it within square brackets include: - an archaic spelling, e.g. ‘happyness’ instead of ‘happiness’; - an unusual spelling of a common name, e.g. ‘Kristoffer’ instead of ‘Christopher’; -whenever you feel you should be faithful to the original text. It is considered bad form to use ‘[sic]’ simply to highlight the minor spelling mistakes or poor grammar of the writer you are quoting. Inappropriate or overzealous use of ‘[sic]’ is something journalists sometimes do to imply a lack of intelligence, particularly when quoting tweets! How to use ‘sic’ It should be enclosed within square brackets and, as it is a word not an abbreviation, should not be followed by a full stop. It should be placed directly after the offending word or error rather than at the end of the sentence. For example, ‘It was Kristoffer’s [sic] belief that…’ If there are multiple errors in the same sentence, ‘[sic]’ can be placed at the end. Most Latin expressions used within writing are not italicised, but ‘sic’ can be. Different institutions have different rules about this and a few even stipulate that it should be underlined, so it’s a good idea to check your relevant style guide. One thing to bear in mind is that the square brackets are never italicised. The post The Word ‘Sic’ and How to Use it in Academic Writing appeared first on ProofreadMyEssays academic blog. ift.tt/1x5IYOP
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 11:07:43 +0000
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