Attention, Grammar Police

Perhaps you are aware that "less" is used when describing things that cannot be counted: water, dirt, sand, that sort of thing. "Fewer," on the other hand, is used to describe countable things: rocks, ice cubes, and so on. So in the grocery store line, "Ten Items or Less" is not technically correct. It really should read "Ten Items or Fewer." Still, at this point, I think most shoppers would find that a bit awkward. So the British grocery chain, Tesco, has decided to change the wording on its signs to read Up to 10 Items instead. Of course, that's brought on criticism that this wording is ambiguous: can a shopper use this lane with ten items, or only with nine? And if most stores and most shoppers are used to "Ten Items or Less" can it really be wrong to use this wording?

What does your audience need?

Stop what you are doing right now, and go read this interview about how to captivate your audience. The interviewee is Nancy Duarte, one of the principals of Duarte Design. Among their many clients was Al Gore when he prepared the slides for An Inconvenient Truth.

The interview is just full of good content. There are examples of good questions for how to figure out what your audience needs. (What keeps them up at night? How can you reach them? How can you solve their problems?) There are comments about why group presentations are hard, such as "The biggest danger in broad collaboration is that it dilutes a unique point of view." Think about that for a moment. Your unique point of view, your passion about your content, these are things that will make you a great speaker.