We examine text following an action-analytical approach, using examples from public and institutional contexts. In our analyses we show that texts are embedded in socio-spatial and temporal-interactional contexts of action and that they carry out specific subactions in each of these contexts. We argue that texts are small whenever they perform only certain subactions within a context of action. Small texts therefore refer to preceding or following actions. We thus understand smallness as a relational phenomenon that is oriented to how much of the action context is contained in a text.