Mary,
Although I agree that the translation of the Latin 'sic' is 'thus', I
have never seen it used like this in publication. It is usually included
in a verbatim quote to indicate that there is a mistake in the original
rather than its reproduction.
Over the weekend, I have been reflecting on the use of cf. I've come to
the conclusion that I use it to indicate the following: 'The reviewers
have highlighted a paper that completely contradicts my argument and
proves what a fool I am, but I can't be bovvered to rewrite my entire
literature review.' So I just put (cf. Smith and Jones, 2001) to
highlight my awareness of contrary arguments.
Jon
-----Original Message-----
From: Management Education and Development Discussion
[mailto:
MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.pace.edu] On Behalf Of MC KINLEY Mary
Sent: 11 February 2008 07:26
To:
MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.pace.edu
Subject: Re: MG-ED-DV Digest - 9 Feb 2008 to 10 Feb 2008 (#2008-30)
Dear Colleagues:
I'm a little surprised that there has been so much confusion about this.
To be sure I've been doing it correctly all these years, I've just
checked 5 different reference books from my own shelf, including the MLA
Handbook, Fowler's, Harper's Dictionary of Foreign Terms and my First
Year Latin and they all agree that cf is the abbreviation for the Latin
verb "confer" meaning "to compare". It is quite standard usage along
with all of the other Latin abbreviations commonly used in academic
references and frequently placed within parentheses, e.g. (okay, that's
an exception)
q.v. = quod vide: which see
i.e. = id est: that is
et al. = et alii: and others
sic = thus
I hope this clears things up.
Mary McKinley, PhD
Professor of Marketing
ESCEM Tours-Poitiers
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Sent: Mon 2/11/2008 6:00 AM
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Subject: MG-ED-DV Digest - 9 Feb 2008 to 10 Feb 2008 (#2008-30)
There are 7 messages totalling 2745 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Exact meaning of citing (cf. X & Y, 2006) (7)
To be precise: cf is an abbreviation of conform, so cf.
X&Y, 2006 means in conformity with X&y, 2006=94.
cf. has always meant to me, compare with I think it's
an old stenographer's notation.