One of the surest ways to lose credibility with your audience is to pepper your PowerPoint slides with spelling and grammatical mistakes.
I am constantly amazed by presentations with such shortcomings, especially ones by native English speakers. If your own presentations are sloppy, why should I expect that you will handle my business any differently?
So today we start a new series about grammar and vocabulary. From time to time, I will post short articles highlighting some of the common mistakes that I have seen on presentation slides, and how to avoid them.Today I have some good advise – I mean “advice” – for you.
Too often, people confuse the words “advise” and “advice”. The former is the verb; the latter is the noun. Yet I have often seen sentences like this:
- We provide timely and quality advise.
- Let us advice you.
Of course, the sentences should be written as follows:
- We provide timely and quality advice.
- Let us advise you.
Remember this tip and leave your audiences impressed with your advice.
I am thrilled, finally someone says it out loud. Yes, please, let me hear more about grammar. I am looking forward to reading more about it.
Thanks, Gaby. And thanks for spotting that typo in the post. I should take my own “advice”!
Another big problem is affect and effect.
People must understand that the effect of poor grammar in a PowerPoint will affect the decisions others make about you.
Absolutely right, Pat. Those two words are on my list for a future post. John