use of (verbatim)

[Dawn Henson]

I have an attorney who talks about a company as being named Clearwater one time and then refers to it as Clearview the rest of the time. I've looked up the case and I believe that Clearview is the correct reference, but I also don't want to make that assumption. Is it appropriate to put Clearwater (verbatim)? I realize that the whole transcript is verbatim. I was just wondering if there's a way to distinguish that that is in fact what he said and it is not an error on my part. Any help would be great. Thank you :D

[Phil Stillerman]

If you think the speaker misspoke when the attorney said "Clearwater" and you think it should be "Clearview" I would [sic] "Clearwater" (without the quotation marks); or in the alternative you could put Clearwater in quotation marks without the [sic]. I would tend to go with the [sic].

[Dawn Henson]

Thank you once again! :D

[Karen Goldenberg]

I agree with Phil.

Bubbie Karen

[Rosalie DeLeonardis]

I have always used "sic," although I have just recently read in Morson's English Guide, page 66, "...court reporters will rarely use "sic" because it is too likely to appear that the court reporter is judging what is of legal consequence (there is a system of appeal for that) and what is an error or misspoken word (there are lawyers for that)."

Having cited this, I'm confused on whether to use sic or not because if we don't then it will look like it is our error as opposed to the speaker's error.

Phil, what do you think?

[Phil Stillerman]

It seems to me that Morson is leaving it up to the individual. I prefer [sic] but I know a lot of reporters prefer to put the questionable word in quotation marks.

For long passages that are purported to be a quote but when compared with the original text don't agree I use the parenthetical [as read].