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.

What Does ‘Sic’ Mean? And When Is It Used?

‘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.

It is sometimes used for archaic or dialect spellings that could be interpreted as errors. Most of the time, though, people use it to show that they’ve copied an error in a quotation from the original text (rather than introducing it accidentally). 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.

Proofreading Documents with Quotations

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