“Sic” in brackets means “thus” or “so it appears in the original.” It is used after a quoted word or passage to signal that the text has been reproduced exactly as it appeared in the source, including any spelling, punctuation, or grammatical oddities, and that the writer is not correcting or editing it. The bracketed form [sic] indicates this is not a mistake in the quoting writer’s text but an intentional reproduction of the original material. This is commonly used to preserve accuracy and alert readers to unusual or error-prone wording in the source.