Do Signs Read?

Do you find it a little kooky as I do that we have expressions like “the sign said . . .” or “the notice read . . .”? I mean, signs can’t talk, and notices haven’t gone to school. But what’s implied by these expressions is something along the lines of “the person who wrote the sign said . . . ” Regardless, since signs aren’t people or talking animals, they don’t need speaker tags. If you remember the rule, whenever you use a speaker tag, you put a comma before the speech: George said, “Keep out.”

With something like a sign you don’t need the comma. Just say: The sign said “Keep Out.”

If you are referring to a type of sign or notice, just give it initial caps.

Examples:

  • Pay attention to the No Smoking sign
  • I ignored the Keep Out sign

The same principle applies to forms:

  • Fill out that Consent to Search form

In your spare time, if you’re bored, you could try to teach your signs to read. Good luck.

 

Search Posts Here

Subscribe to My Blog

Similar Posts

2 Comments

  1. I enjoyed reading this post and I think I need to go back through my manuscript to make sure my signs, forms, etc. don’t have a better voice than I do. You’ve never seen a literate sign before? It must be a Texas thing . . . and we’re always fixing things too. I’m fixin’ to do this, I’m fixin to do that. Have a merry Christmas, C.S.! 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

[related_books]