# Editing question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 11, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739 "2018-07-11T18:06:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Textual\_Assault](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@Textual\_Assault](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Textual_Assault)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/1 "2018-07-11T18:06:56Z")
What does “STET all changes” mean when it comes to editing a piece of writing? apparently Bill Simmons wrote that at the top of all his pieces for ESPN. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/2 "2018-07-11T18:09:38Z")
It’s an editing term to ignore an emendation. From the latin for ‘let it stand’. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/3 "2018-07-11T21:06:15Z")
[Moderating] A factual question, not an artistic one. Moved to GQ. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/4 "2018-07-11T21:26:35Z")
This recently tripped up a contestant on\*\*\* Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?\*\*\* His reasoning was, Why mark something STET when it doesn’t need to be changed? Because it might be a deliberate misspelling (for effect) or something nonstandard or unfamiliar, for starters. The editor has to know so that he/she doesn’t follow his/her instincts and change it. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/5 "2018-07-11T21:27:32Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > It’s an editing term to ignore an emendation. From the latin for ‘let it stand’. In other words, he was asking them to publish his errors, to leave everything exactly as he wrote it. I don’t know if they complied. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/6 "2018-07-12T05:05:41Z")
Or maybe that he didn’t trust them to know better than he what he meant to say and how he meant to say it? As in this example of why one shouldn’t type in fury: [https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/media/2008/jul/23/mediamonkey](https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/media/2008/jul/23/mediamonkey) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/7 "2018-07-12T05:25:26Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > This recently tripped up a contestant on\*\*\* Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?\*\*\* His reasoning was, Why mark something STET when it doesn’t need to be changed? > > Because it might be a deliberate misspelling (for effect) or something nonstandard or unfamiliar, for starters. The editor has to know so that he/she doesn’t follow his/her instincts and change it. When I worked at the newspapers in Bangkok, we proofread the pages at the end of the night, and each page went through multiple sets of eyes. You had to use it if you didn’t want to have to change it back after every single look-through. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/8 "2018-07-12T15:37:01Z")
I have seen quotations in text given ‘sic’. ‘Stet’ seems more like it would cancel out an editorial change. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/9 "2018-07-12T16:48:07Z")
Yeah, sic is usually for the benefit of the reader while stet wouldn’t end up being part of the final printed copy. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/10 "2018-07-12T16:49:56Z")
Stet is needed because half of all editors are below average. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/11 "2018-07-12T16:55:46Z")
Professional editor here. In some cases I would query the author or even another editor whether he meant what is described above or that, in a second pass, he changes his mind on changes in his previous emendations which should be revoked or, in fact, if someone has been editing the emendations themselves in a round two, that he really meant those changes and stop fucking with his decisions. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/12 "2018-07-12T17:07:51Z")
FTR, _stet_ is the Latin for “let it stand” and _sic_ the Latin, where it is an adjective for comparisons, for “thus” or “so.” ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/13 "2018-07-12T18:00:10Z")
I’m a sub-editor. If I get a page proof back from a writer or an editor with a correction that I don’t agree with, I will write “stet” next to it and ignore it. Likewise if I’m marking up a proof for somebody else and I mark a change incorrectly, or change my mind, I will write “stet” next to the change. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/14 "2018-07-12T19:14:56Z")
Bingo… Did you ever work for me? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-question/817739/15 "2018-07-12T19:20:06Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Professional editor here. > > In some cases I would query the author or even another editor whether he meant what is described above or that, in a second pass, he changes his mind on changes in his previous emendations which should be revoked or, in fact, if someone has been editing the emendations themselves in a round two, that he really meant those changes and stop fucking with his decisions. > [@Colophon](#): > > I’m a sub-editor. If I get a page proof back from a writer or an editor with a correction that I don’t agree with, I will write “stet” next to it and ignore it. Likewise if I’m marking up a proof for somebody else and I mark a change incorrectly, or change my mind, I will write “stet” next to the change. And so Bill Simmons, if he indeed did that, was trying to preempt any editing of his work whatsoever, rather ham-handedly saying, “Keep your mitts off.”