How do you quote a passage that has used '[sic]' mistakenly?

There are three authors involved here:

1. The author of the original quote
2. The author who quoted #1 and added the first "[sic]"
3. The author who is writing the final document (you)

Let's deal with the easy case: If your intent is to quote author #1, simply remove the offending '[sic]'. This omission does not change the meaning of the quoted phrase, and there is absolutely no reason to include it.

It gets more complicated if your intent is to quote author #2. I can think of five main options:

1. Ignore the offending '[sic]' entirely (this is the most sane option)

   "...suppose I write a letter from me to you."

2. Replace the offending '[sic]' with an ellipsis

   "...suppose I write a letter from me ... to you."

3. Add your own '[sic]' after the quoted sentence (as Serodis recommends)

   "...suppose I write a letter from me [sic] to you." [sic]

4. Add a footnote to clarify the situation. This can be used in several different ways. I prefer the first one, but it really comes down to a matter of style

   "...suppose I write a letter from me ¹ to you."
   "...suppose I write a letter from me to you." ¹
   "...suppose I write a letter from me ...¹ to you."
   "...suppose I write a letter from me [sic]¹ to you."
   "...suppose I write a letter from me [sic] to you." [sic]¹

   ¹: [Author #2] chose to add [sic] after the word me when quoting [Author #1]

5. Describe the offending '[sic]' in words.

   "...suppose I write a letter from me [sic] to you". [Author #2] thought that me was incorrect here.
   "...suppose I write a letter from me ([sic] in original) to you". (as proposed by Ariel)

The choice between these options depends on the purpose of your document. I feel that option 1 makes the most sense unless you are writing an academic or legal document that will be highly scrutinized. In those cases, I would prefer options 2 or 4, since they present much less of a mental speed-bump for the reader.

Options 3 and 5 really only make sense if you actually want to draw attention to the '[sic]' itself. This would be the case if you were critiquing author #2. Between these two, I prefer option 5 since it is the most explicit.

Note 1: Oswald points out that [sic] does not necessarily indicate an error in the quoted text, but rather that "the text appears in the source exactly as quoted".

Note 2: Both SLaks and chris propose creative solutions that use changes in typeface to differentiate between each author

Note 3: Rex Kerr has some good information regarding nested quotes

The usage of '[sic]' is well defined for quoting a passage that you believe has an error in it

This is not the actual meaning. The actual meaning is, that the text appears in the source exactly as quoted. It is used to draw attention to that fact, for whatever reason. An error on the side of the original author is a very common reason, but not the only one.

If I make the same error in every sentence, then a sentence where I do not make that error might just as well be worth a [sic].

If the author you quote from uses [sic] and you use it on his quote, it is not clear who introduced which [sic] (regardless of where you put yours). You cannot remove the [sic] of the original author, because that would distort the intent of the original author. I would therefore go for a footnote on the quoted [sic], that explains the details.

I don't think you can simultaneously make it clear that the [sic] was used under dubious circumstances and avoid distracting your reader at the same time. It's hard enough to indicate that you're quoting a quote rather than quoting directly--you skipped showing how you accomplished that, actually.

In programming languages, these sorts of nested and interjected formats are common. For example,

"Look at me now!"
"She said \"Look at me [sic] now!\""
"He said \"She said \\\"Look at me \[sic\][sic] now!\\\"\""

is perfectly interpretable to computers, and possibly programmers.

But the logic of what you're trying to convey is so unexpected for English that I don't think there's a compact way to do it that is not confusing.

Thus, I suggest that a footnote is the best way to deal with this situation, along with making it clear that you are quoting someone who is quoting someone else:

According to John, "Jane wrote, 'Look at me [sic]¹ now!'"
¹ [sic] inserted by John

Anyone skipping footnotes will still possibly be under an mistaken impression, but at least they were warned if it's clear it was a quoted quote.

What about playing with the typeface?

... suppose I write a letter from me [sic] [sic] to you.

In the example above, it's clear that italicised text is the original (2nd author) quote, and the non-italicised text is the 3rd author's addition.

Remove all [sic]'s

Quote what you need.

Add the [sic]'s you feel are needed. On the entirety of the quote.

Only a smart as# points out mistakes. [sic] is only needed if it's relevant. A good example is when quoting someone speaking and he used some spoken form thats acceptable, but completely wrong in writing.

Lastly, the convention says that [ ] are for writer comments. (or editor, translator when noted). So no point in moving them to your work.

I would go with:

"...suppose I write a letter from me [sic] to you." [sic]

Normally, '[sic]' would be placed after the word which was incorrectly spelled/used. However, since adding double '[sic]' would cause confusion and you do not really have reason to point directly at the mistake, it would be best-placed following the complete phrase.

For simple cases, I recommend a fourth option:

John wrote, "…suppose I write a letter from me [sic] to you.”

However, for more complicated cases, none of these methods are good enough.

If the quote with the incorrectly-inserted [sic] is nested three (or more!) deep, the inserters of the two [sic]s becomes ambiguous (unless all three quoters [including the outer document writer] [sic]'d the phrase)

Inserting [sic]s after the containing quotes becomes ambiguous if there are multiple [sic]s inside the quotes, especially if there are three [sic]s and two of them are incorrect.

When dealing with multiply-nested quotes, I would recommend using your third option, but attributing each [sic]:

In a famous essay on the topic, Edward wrote that

Dianne addressed this very well, writing, “I would like to quote John, who wrote,
“I [sic ^{- Dianne} [sic] ^{- SLaks}] believe that most people are wrong.” Me [sic ^{- Edward}] disagree with John, since…”

I don't believe that it's necessary to add a third [sic] lamenting Edward's failure to add [sic].

However, as others have mentioned, I strongly recommend dropping all incorrect [sic]s unless they're actually relevant to your writing.
(for example, if you use Edward's conspicuously absent [sic] as a reason to doubt his intelligence and disagree with him)

My suggestion is [geb] as a nod to Hofstadter's classic Gödel, Escher, Bach

"...suppose I write a letter from me [sic] to you." [geb]

Based on a parallel with my children's use of "jinx" I would propose:

...suppose I write a letter from me [sic][double sic] to you.

It might not be correct, but it is at least extensible :-)

...suppose I write a letter from I [sic][double sic][triple sic][quadruple sic] to you.

(NOTE: it has been pointed out below by Jim Balter that the following answer contains a number of incorrect assertions. I thank him for the corrections. I withdraw it as an answer, but for the present I am leaving the text in place, in the hope that the exchange might be useful to someone else.)

[[INCORRECT: This is a great example of what I call "the quoting problem." It seems that any quoting mechanism we can devise will encounter some situations in which it fails. The situations that cause problems always involve directly or indirectly trying to quote the quote-defining characters. The quoting problem is closely related to some famous paradoxes of self-reference which have been intensely studied in mathematical logic, including Godel's famous incompleteness theorem. The bottom line for everyday use of such notation, I think, is that no single uniform quoting scheme can succeed in every possible situation. That's why an individually composed footnote is a more reliable last resort than any fixed scheme, no matter how sophisticated.]]

How has every answer so far missed the fact that [sic][sic] is totally unambiguous anyway? There is absolutely no confusion in the meaning of "a letter from me[sic][sic] to you".

The only way to interpret that is:

1. A quoter disagreed with the usage of 'me' and added '[sic]' to call attention to it.
2. A quoter of the original quoter disagreed with the original quoter's use of '[sic]' and added '[sic]' (again) to draw attention to it.

Note that the alternative interpretation (a later editor added '[sic]' between 'me' and '[sic]') doesn't make any sense. Why try and contrive something more complicated when it is unnecessary!

This question misses the real issue entirely, namely that when you are requoting a quote, it is impossible for a reader to determine which editorial interjections were inserted by which quoter, and more broadly, it is difficult to indicate that you are quoting a quote in the first place.

You could add your own correction of the sic by using the word recte, which is used to show a correction. So:

"...suppose I write a letter from me [sic][recte] to you."

or

"...suppose I write a letter from me [sic][sic recte me] to you."

This is not the most common usage for recte, but I think it would convey the message. The conventional way is the following:

"...suppose I write a letter from I [sic recte me] to you."

It is used to not only point out the mistake, but also provide the correction.

answered May 11, 2011 at 11:20

Unreason

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Congratulations, you are now ready to leave linguistics and become a computer programmer.

My thoughts:

If you fix the error in the quote of the quote, you put [unsic]

Or. if you don't fix the error in the quote of the quote, nest the [sic] like this [[sic]]. That way if someone quotes you, you can tell the distance from the original quote.

Or. add a new symbol and switch to braces which could mark a quoted [sic], {sic}.

Bravo on a great question.

answered May 13, 2011 at 12:27

Shathur

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answered Jul 29, 2012 at 18:16

ashes

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answered Feb 11, 2018 at 18:52

boisvert

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