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Sic and Tired.
Apr. 21st, 2006 02:33 amDear Television without Pity,
While I often enjoy the clever writing you employ while recapping various television shows, you are no longer allowed to use the word sic. I understand that not all of your writers use it, but too many of them do.
Now, as a site that spends a lot of time transcribing spoken dialogue, one might think that sic would be a useful tool. There could conceivably be times when what was said on air might not be what one would expect, and a sic could then be used to indicate, "Yes, that's actually what he said, even though you might be confused or expect it to be something else." However, because television producers don't generally like confusing their audience, in practice, this occurs extremely rarely.
And in practice, you use sic as a sledgehammer of snobbery to enforce a pedantic prescriptivism that has no place in the contexts you deal with. The phrases and usages for which you use sic are often perfectly acceptable even in edited and formal prose (like using "they" as a singular pronoun). Moreover, you're not even dealing with an edited or formal environment; you're dealing with dialogue which was either created on the spot and under pressure (in the case of a reality show) or was designed to duplicate that kind of speech.
The implication in the way you use sic is that someone (whether a writer or a reality-show contestant) doesn't know as much about language as they should. In fact, it is you who should learn more about language before you start making accusations about what is wrong.
Sincerely,
Tablesaw
FriNYTX: 12:30.
While I often enjoy the clever writing you employ while recapping various television shows, you are no longer allowed to use the word sic. I understand that not all of your writers use it, but too many of them do.
Now, as a site that spends a lot of time transcribing spoken dialogue, one might think that sic would be a useful tool. There could conceivably be times when what was said on air might not be what one would expect, and a sic could then be used to indicate, "Yes, that's actually what he said, even though you might be confused or expect it to be something else." However, because television producers don't generally like confusing their audience, in practice, this occurs extremely rarely.
And in practice, you use sic as a sledgehammer of snobbery to enforce a pedantic prescriptivism that has no place in the contexts you deal with. The phrases and usages for which you use sic are often perfectly acceptable even in edited and formal prose (like using "they" as a singular pronoun). Moreover, you're not even dealing with an edited or formal environment; you're dealing with dialogue which was either created on the spot and under pressure (in the case of a reality show) or was designed to duplicate that kind of speech.
The implication in the way you use sic is that someone (whether a writer or a reality-show contestant) doesn't know as much about language as they should. In fact, it is you who should learn more about language before you start making accusations about what is wrong.
Sincerely,
Tablesaw
FriNYTX: 12:30.