764
Opinion of the Court
ent with technical standards, if any, that the Judicial Conference of the United States establishes. A paper filed by electronic means in compliance with a local rule constitutes a written paper for the purpose of applying these rules." Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 5(e).
See, e. g., Rule 5.1 (ND Ohio 2000) (permitting "papers filed, signed, or verified by electronic means"). The local rules on electronic filing provide some assurance, as does a handwritten signature, that the submission is authentic. See, e. g., United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Electronic Filing Policies and Procedures Manual 4 (Apr. 2, 2001) (available at http://www.ohnd.uscourts.gov/ Electronic Filing/user.pdf) (allowing only registered attorneys assigned identification names and passwords to file papers electronically). Without any rule change so ordering, however, we are not disposed to extend the meaning of the word "signed," as that word appears in Civil Rule 11(a), to permit typed names. As Rule 11(a) is now framed, we read the requirement of a signature to indicate, as a signature requirement commonly does, and as it did in John Hancock's day, a name handwritten (or a mark handplaced).
As plainly as Civil Rule 11(a) requires a signature on filed papers, however, so the rule goes on to provide in its final sentence that "omission of the signature" may be "corrected promptly after being called to the attention of the attorney or party." "Correction can be made," the Rules Advisory Committee noted, "by signing the paper on file or by submitting a duplicate that contains the signature." Advisory Committee's Notes on Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 11, 28 U. S. C. App., p. 666.
Amicus urges that only the first sentence of Civil Rule 11(a), containing the signature requirement—not Rule 11(a)'s final sentence, providing for correction of a signature omission—applies to appeal notices. Appellate Rule 1(a)(2)'s di-
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