Professional Interpretive Planners Provide Recommendations for Writing Engaging Text

Abstract

Interpretive signage is the dominant medium of education at most museums, zoos, and parks. While many studies examine how visitors read signage, none have looked at how professionals write them. Using existing literature as a framework, this study collects best practices from experts in the field on how to produce interpretive text. Through two online surveys to interpretive planners, this study collects the opinions on the use of questions, personal pronouns, figurative language, audience and more. The results from the two rounds of surveying produced 12 recommendations for interpretive writers to create signs like experts.