Take the tour ×

I’m　quoting a part of the article titled “Pakistan Sees Shared Intelligence Lapse” written by Alan Cowell in today’s (May 4) New York Time’s Asia Pacific section (online edition) simply by cut-and-pasting of the text:

“After the meeting, Mr. Gilani that he did not believe the United States Congress would show its displeasure with Pakistan by cutting aid to his nuclear-armed nation and he said the West would continue to support Pakistan as a “responsible nation.” “We are working together” against terrorism, he said.

Don’t we need ‘said’ or ‘told’ between Gilani and that in the first line, or omission of the verb permitted in press English, or it is simply erroneous drop of ‘said’?

share|improve this question
Since you are quoting it, I would suggest you simply write "...Mr. Gilani that [sic] he did not believe..." (you may have already known that, but I decided to open my fat mouth/fingers anyway) –  snumpy May 5 '11 at 23:32
＠Snumpy. I didn’t know the word and usage of sic. Per your advice, I consulted it for Wikipedia, which gave me the definition: Sic in square brackets is an editing term used with quotations or excerpts. It means that's really how it appears in the original. Actually I gave inconvenience to answerers recently a couple of times by posting quotes without making it clear whether they are [sic] or processed (Even I was careless). Indication of [sic] prevents such a problem. Great learning. Thank you very much. –  Yoichi Oishi May 6 '11 at 11:43
The writer accidentally a word out. –  upsidedowncreature May 6 '11 at 13:08
@snumpy: Are you sure that inserting '[sic]' is appropriate here? Isn't quoting enough? Or should one append "[sic]" after the entire quotation? –  Mitch May 6 '11 at 13:44
@Mitch [sic] is explicitly placed immediately after a mistake (whether misspelling, word omission or otherwise) to indicate to the reader that the mistake was in the original text/statement rather than a typo on your part. –  snumpy May 6 '11 at 13:47
show 5 more comments

3 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

You are right: it is a simple error. The writer forgot a verb like said or added or something similar.

share|improve this answer
add comment

Yeah, I definitely think this is a typo or a simple mistake, we need a verb there.




Something to that effect.

share|improve this answer
add comment

Indeed; a word is missing. The missing word may be completely intentional. Sometimes a writer will omit words in order to make identification of their own work simple in a situation where it is copied and pasted without attribution.

share|improve this answer
Interesting that they would do that! –  Mohit Nov 23 at 14:21
add comment

Your Answer


