Location: Wellington Hotel; New York, NY
Picture taken: July 2007
Textual representation of image: “IN CASE OF FIRE USE STAIRS UNLESS OTHERWISE INSTRUCTED”
Waiting for the elevator in a high-rise hotel can give you lots of free time to scrutinize the nearby signs, like this one on the 19th floor of the (most excellent!) Wellington, on Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.
I really like this picture because of the reflections in the shiny sign. You can see the reversed floor number, which, incidentally, should really be 18, as there is no floor 13. (But lingering superstitious customs are really another matter entirely. . .) Oh, and if you look closely, you can see my honey’s back; I think he was fixing his shoe while I took the picture. :P
Although most, if not all, people wouldn’t have difficulty parsing the sign’s meaning, it really needs a comma following the prepositional phrase(s), “in case of fire,” especially considering the word use has different, erm, uses.
Rule: Use a comma after introductory words, phrases, or clauses.
Unless otherwise noted, all images and text are copyright © Viable Design. All rights reserved.
© 2008, mrshawke-dot-com.
Most of my teaching resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License, which means you can feel free to use them with attribution as long as you don’t use them commercially. If you’re not sure, don’t hesitate to ask me. Unfortunately, I am currently unable to send out my tests and quizzes, but I am hoping to establish a less time-consuming alternative for this in the near future. Sorry!!
