Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Criminal Sentence 664: Turn That Bad Grammar Off!

I was sitting in a movie theater and saw this message on the screen:

"Please turn off and refrain from cell phone use."

I am supposed to turn off my cell phone and refrain from cell phone use. I get it but this instruction doesn't quite work. I suppose it sort of makes sense to turn off cell phone use, but it's the cell phone, not the use, that I need to turn off. Plus, it's hard to use a cell phone when it's turned off!

It would be better to ask this:

"Please turn off your cell phone now."

What do you think?