To Stet Or Not To Stet, That Is the Question

theodp writes "The NY Times' Virginia Heffernan confesses to being stumped by how to excerpt the language on message boards and blogs. For example, Heffernan notes she could quote kavya on Yahoo Answers word for word ('How is babby formed? How girl get pragnent?'), but worries that doing so makes kavya look like an idiot rather that the sweetly earnest 7-year-old that he or she might be. Is it better to paraphrase or revise the question into 'How is a baby formed?' For now, Heffernan is going to let things stand (stet) and treat message boards like novels, preserving idiosyncrasies of language as far as possible and taking them as intentional — a 'wuz' on the Internet remains 'wuz' in the paper."

[sic]

[InterruptDescriptorT]

I always thought the marker for material being quoted as it was spoken or written was [sic].

For example,

'John be [sic] tripping. He always [sic] doin' shit like that.'

In this case, the [sic] denotes the use of the infinitive of the copula verb in African-American English Vernacular (AAEV) to mean a habitual action; the second is used to mark the elision of the copula verb in the sentence.

Just my two cents' worth (former English grad student and undergrad seminar leader/paper grader).

7-year-old?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I believe kavya's poor English is due to the fact that he/she seems to be in Pakistan, based on the other questions on the account. Also explains kavya's less-than-informed understanding of human reproduction.

Re:[sic]

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure that means "Spelling InCorrect"

You are wrong. [wikipedia.org]

Re:Well?

[Anonymous Coward]

Abode says it is possible [jamesward.com]

Re:[sic]

[yelvington]

I always thought the marker for material being quoted as it was spoken or written was [sic].

In printing, the word "stet" has, for generations, been used to indicate matter that should be allowed to stand in its original form, overriding any blue-pencil changes introduced by another editor.

Since hardly anybody actually edits on paper any more, I doubt that the term is taught these days. Similarly, there's no reason to teach copyfitting, headline counting, or strange marks added to penciled copy above the lower-case n and below the lower-case u.

Re:Well?

[strabes]

If you're in the United States [homestead.com] the period should go inside the quotation marks. In Britain, however, your sentence is correct. Also please take note of my signature for your own educational enhancement and to avoid future misuses.