ENGLISH PLAIN & SIMPLE
BY JOSE A. CARILLO

A week ago, a member of Jose Carillo’s English Forum made the following posting on the website:

“I’ve been reading your postings in this excellent website for more than a year now, reading everything, especially your English grammar lessons/corrections. I cannot lie to you sir, the moment I read your lessons and articles I became an instant fan of yours, and one of these days I’m going to buy one of your books. I would say that you’re doing a great job running this website especially for self-taught English learners and future call-center agents.

“My simple question to you now, sir, is—I’m not sure if this question has already been asked—what does it mean when we see the term ‘sic’ in brackets in articles we come across in our everyday readings?”

As some of you might have noticed, I occasionally use the bracketed “sic” myself in this column and in my English-usage books, and I’ve always assumed that it was obvious why it would pop up in my prose. I was therefore glad to have the opportunity to answer Forum member Ruelski’s question. Here’s my reply to Ruelski (I have dropped the formal quotes for the passage for stylistic simplicity):

The bracketed “sic” in quoted material is used to indicate the intentional verbatim reproduction of an incorrect or unusual word, spelling, phrasing, or grammatical construction. It highlights the fact that the material is not an error in transcription, typography, or proofreading. As to the brackets that set off “sic,” they indicate that the “sic” notation isn’t part of the quoted material. Usually, the bracketed “sic” is set in italic type, like this: [sic]

Here are the usual uses of the bracketed “sic”:

1. When quoting verbatim grammatically flawed material from a major government or legal document. Example: A passage in the Philippine Senate’s history on the web reads: “Long before the Spanish rulers came to the Philippines, the people in their barangays were already governed by a set of rules by their chief [sic].”

Here, the bracketed “sic” indicates the flawed and awkward grammatical construction of the phrase “were already governed by a set of rules by their chief.” It’s my way of saying that I’m not responsible for the bad grammar of the phrase.

If I were asked to correct that sentence, I probably would suggest the following rewrite: “Long before the Spanish rulers came to the Philippines, the people in their barangays were already governed by a chief who strictly enforced a set of communal rules.”

2. When faithfully reporting an uncommon or archaic usage. Example: The biographical movie starring Will Smith in the title role was entitled The Pursuit of Happyness [sic].

The bracketed “sic” here—I didn’t italicize it because the term being “sicced” is already in italics—indicates that I’m aware that the spelling of “happyness” departs stylistically from the standard “happiness,” and shouldn’t be construed as a spelling error. It’s also ameant to alert copyeditors, typesetters, and proofreaders that the unusual spelling should be left uncorrected.

3. When one would like to ridicule or question the judgment of the author or source of a doubtful or flawed quoted material. Example: Would you believe, that job applicant with a PhD in comparative literature wrote this sentence in his application letter: “After nine years of teaching the European literary classics at the Sorbonne, I quitted [sic] my tenured job to accept a professorial chair at Harvard University.”

That’s a way of indicating one’s misgivings or contempt for the doubtful English proficiency of that highly experienced professor, for the irregular, uninflected past-tense “quit” is actually more commonly used than the regular past-tense form “quitted.” This latter form isn’t grammatically wrong, but in academic and professional circles, the clause in question is normally written as “I quit my tenured job to accept a professorial chair at Oxford University.”

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