editing - Should I fix typos/grammatical errors in quotation?


When writing papers, I meet typos/grammatical errors in quotations now and then. Should I correct them, or leave them as they are?



Answer



When quoting, the convention is to quote the text exactly as it appears in the source. It is common to mark a misspelling (or other problematical word) that might be otherwise thought to be an error by you (the quoter) by following it with "[sic]". The word sic (which is from Latin) means "as such", that is, the apparent problem occurred in the original text. The square brackets indicate that the text was added by the quoter. For instance,



Our massage treatments help relive[sic] your pain.



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