Editor's Corner

Good morning from Springfield, Missouri! Today I’m going to revisit a topic I covered many moons ago, before we were such good friends: three common Latin terms. Those terms are i.e., e.g., and sic.

i.e. – id est (“that is”). In normal prose and much of our documentation we use the terms “that is,” or “in other words” instead.

e.g. – exempli gratia (“for example”). Instead of using e.g., we use “for example.”

Notes:

The English equivalents of i.e. and e.g. are preferable in formal prose, though sometimes the quickness of these two-letter abbreviations makes them desirable. Always put a comma after either of them.

sic – sic (“thus,” in full: sic erat scriptum, "thus was it written") is added immediately after a quotation and indicates that the quote has been transcribed exactly as found in the original source, complete with any erroneous spelling or other nonstandard presentation.

Note: Sic should be italicized.

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