Definite article

[Ellroy]

Hello everyone,

Someone (guess it was the administrator) put a sign on a wall in my building saying "no smoking in common area", now I wonder if that is correct, shouldn't it be "no smoking in THE common area" or "no smoking in the building / no smoking in common area of the building"? I'm always struggling with articles...Thank you for your help in advance!

[Alan]

Yes, it should, in full form, be 'in THE common room', but in notices (and newspaper headlines) articles are frequently omitted for the sake of brevity.