How and When to Use Sic in a Quotation

When proofreading, you might see the term sic used in a quotation. However, many people misuse this term or use it when there is an alternative available. As such, proofreaders and editors should make sure they know how and when to use this term in a quotation. In this blog post, we explore:

• What sic means
• How and when to use it
• The alternatives to using sic
• How to proofread documents with quotations

Read on to learn more about using sic in quotations.

What Does Sic Mean?

Sic is short for the Latin phrase sic erat scriptum, which means thus it was written. As this suggests, people use sic to show that a quote has been reproduced exactly from the source – including any spelling and grammatical errors and non-standard spellings.

How and When to Use Sic (with Examples)

There are several ways that you can use sic in a quotation:

1. To show that you’ve copied an error in a quotation from the original text (rather than introducing it accidentally). 

This is the most commonly used version of sic. You simply put sic in square brackets after the word that is misspelled. For instance: 

They started there [sic] company in 1992.

Here, we have added sic in square brackets to show that we know there is incorrect. If we didn’t do this, a reader might think we’ve misquoted the source and introduced an error.

1. For archaic or dialect spellings that could be interpreted as errors.

UK and US English spell certain words differently, so you can use sic to indicate this. For example: 

The best flavour [sic] of ice cream is chocolate.

If you’re using an older text, some of the words may have older versions of spellings, and you can use sic to indicate this. For instance: 

Shakesper [sic] is the greatest playwright of all time.

1. To show irony or poke fun at the original writer.

Although this is less common, some writers use sic to indicate irony in a text or tease the original writer. This use is similar to using scare quotes. For example: 

The Titanic is unsinkable [sic].

Alternatives to Using Sic

Writers commonly use sic to show that they have reproduced the text as it was written in the original document. But sic isn’t the only way to do this. In fact, there are three other ways:

1. Paraphrase

Paraphrasing means to write the information in your own words. This means that you would remove the need for the word sic in your writing. Just be sure to properly reference the original text to avoid plagiarism. 

1. Replace

You can just replace the incorrectly written word with the correct spelling in square brackets:

Go over [there].

This is cleaner but not always appropriate. For instance, if you’re writing about how spelling has changed over time, it would be more appropriate to show the incorrect spelling and use sic.

1. Recte

Recte means rightly in Latin and can replace sic. Recte is usually used with the correctly spelled word: 

Go over their [recte there].

Proofreading Documents with Quotation

As a proofreader, you will not need to add sic to a quotation if you spot an error. After all, unless you have the quoted source to hand, you won’t know whether the error was in the original version. But you may need to:

• Make corrections or leave a comment if you see sic being misused.
• Suggest alternative ways to address errors in quotations.

This last point is key, as sic is most useful when an author needs to preserve an error in quoted text (e.g. if they’re analysing typos in a body of writing).

In other cases, it would be simpler for the author to correct the error. This may involve marking the correction with square brackets to indicate the change:

They started [their] company in 1992.

However, different style guides have different rules for how to treat typos in quotations, so you may also want to check your client’s chosen style guide on this matter.

Style Guides on Sic

As mentioned above, different style guides have different rules on how to approach errors in quotations. And this includes how they use the word sic. To help you out, then, we’ve compiled a list of what a few major style guides say:

• The AMA style guide suggests using sic in square brackets to indicate a spelling or grammar error in a quotation, but not typically for archaic or obsolete spellings.
• APA style involves using sic (italicised and in square brackets) to indicate a typo in a quotation, but it does not use it for archaic or regional spellings.
• The Associated Press Stylebook suggests paraphrasing text that contains spelling or grammar errors rather than quoting it exactly.
• The Chicago Manual of Style says to use sic (italicised and in square brackets) to draw attention to an error in a quotation. However, unless it is important to preserve the error, it is better to simply correct minor errors in quoted text.
• MLA style suggests using sic (italicised and in square brackets) to highlight spelling or grammar errors in quoted text.

For more information on how to proofread documents that contain quotations, see our Becoming A Proofreader course (in particular the academic proofreading module).

Becoming A Proofreader

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Related posts:

Editing Tips: How to Format Block Quotes A Guide to Secondary Citations (AMA, APA, Chicago and MLA) Proofreading Resources: Style Guides A Guide to Citing Shakespeare in Academic Writing