Sic erat scriptum means so written, thus it had been written.

When quoting something, writers may use sic to indicate that a word or phrase that looks wrong is indeed an exact reproduction of the original—the mistake appears in the source. Quotations should always be in their original form.

Sic is usually written in square brackets: [sic]. The word sic is often seen as a loanword that does not require italics, but in the United States, sic is usually italicized.

Sic can be used to mark an actual error or misprint or a conspicuous detail in the text, a word that seems odd or erroneous.

Since sic is used to draw the reader’s attention to a mistake by the writer, it often indicates disapproval and may signal superciliousness or be condescending. You should use caution when writing [sic] in order not to sound haughty or malicious.

There [sic] son had graduated from Cambridge.
The correct spelling is, of course, their.

She carries out research at the John [sic] Hopkins University.
This is a common error. The correct name is Johns Hopkins University, named after the entrepreneur and benefactor Johns Hopkins. His great-grandmother’s name was Margaret Johns; she married Gerard Hopkins and they named their son, the benefactor’s grandfather, Johns Hopkins. His grandson had the same name.

You can find a number of Latin abbreviations used in English here.

The post [sic]—What’s that? appeared first on copyeditor.se.

When it comes to punctuation marks, they are placed differently in quotations in US English and UK English.

In US English, commas and periods at the end of a quote are placed within the quotation marks:

”My boyfriend gave me this beautiful necklace,” Susan said.
The reporter described the situation as ”chaotic.”

In UK English, all punctuation marks are placed outside the quotation marks (except when they are part of the quotation):

‘My boyfriend gave me this beautiful necklace’, Susan said.
The reporter described the situation as ‘chaotic’.

In both UK and US English, a question mark or an exclamation mark is placed inside the quotation when it is part of the quotation:

Looking at her calendar, she asked, ”How soon can you have it ready?”

In the following example, the question mark is not part of the quotation but of the whole sentence, which is a question:

How many of the students thought the lecture was ”very interesting”?

The post Punctuation marks and quotations appeared first on copyeditor.se.