The "Please Advise" Habit

We all have unconscious habits. I learned about one of mine when I was visiting an elderly relative and she asked me, both of us standing in the kitchen, "Don't you ever close a drawer all the way?" I was confused--until I looked around the room and saw several drawers open about two inches. They were all drawers I had "closed."

That was last year. I still leave drawers open a bit sometimes, but now I notice them open, and then I close them all the way.

Do you have any unconscious habits in your business writing? Last week in a business writing seminar for people in the shipping industry, I noticed an unconscious habit among attendees: "Please advise."

They used "Please advise" in their opening sentences, their closing sentences, and sometimes in the middle, like this:

Please advise of shipping status.
Please advise what happened with the delivery.
If you have any questions or concerns, please advise.

This use of "please advise" is a habit. It's like my leaving the kitchen drawers open--not a terrible, serious problem. But it does get in the way of a clear, efficient message.

One of the problems with "Please advise" is that advise is a transitive verb, that is, it must have an object. Someone must be advised. For example, I can write, "The doctor advised me about taking supplements" or "I advised him to eliminate the angry tone in his writing."

Some usage experts accept advise in place of inform or tell. Others use advise only in situations that involve advice (as in the doctor's advice on supplements and my advice on eliminating the angry tone). I prefer that limited use.

Here are revisions of the "Please advise" examples above:

What is the shipping status? [or]
Please inform us of the shipping status.

Please tell me [us] what happened with the delivery. [or] Please let me know what happened with the delivery.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me [us] know.    

If using "Please advise" is a standard practice in your industry, then improve upon it. For example, "Please advise of shipping status" may seem perfect in your office, but it reads like an old telegram, in which each word cost money. These days, with no additional cost you can add us or me and have a clear, complete sentence: "Please advise us of the shipping status."

It's time to break those old, unconscious habits. Since my elderly relative "advised" me of my habit, I see those open drawers, and I close them. Look for your "Please advise" or other habitual expressions, and get rid of them.

Lynn
Syntax Training

Comments

[Clare Lynch]

Thanks for pointing this out to people!

Using the word "advise" for "tell" is one of my pet hates - it's just so pompous and pretentious! For me, the rule of thumb would be not to use any word or phrase that you wouldn't use outside of an office situation. For example, can you imagine saying to your spouse "please advise me what's for dinner tonight"?

I find that the misused "advise" is often to be found in emails alongside a misuse of the reflexive pronoun ("please advise myself").

And don't get me started on the utterly bizarre use of "revert" for "reply"...

[Lynn]

Hi, Clare. Your "Please advise me what's for dinner" is a perfect illustration of the stuffiness of "please advise." Thanks!

I am happy to say I have not seen "revert" for "reply"--and I hope I never do!

Lynn

[Steve]

That's funny. The reason i found this article is because today i thought about my abuse of "please advise". I use it in more and more emails every day as I deal with providers and customers. That's a good read, i'll take a few extra seconds to use proper words from now on.

[Lynn]

Steve, kudos on noticing your own writing habits--and deciding to change them!

[Wes]

I'm new to the corporate world and I keep running into this strange phrase, "please advise". I wondered if there might be some sort of hidden meaning to it. Its otherworldliness gives it an air of false sophistication that almost led me, against my better instincts, to start using it. I looked the phrase up on Google because I worried that I just wasn't getting it and found this site. Thank you for this post which has given me the perspective to use my normal vocabulary, and avoid the dark path into obscurantism (and douchebagetry).

[Pablo]

At my former job in IT, "please advise" became a bane of my existence. People would use it as a phony-polite way of saying "you do this for me now." Example: "My mouse is broken. Please advise."

I still cringe every time I see the phrase used.

[Lynn]

Pablo, thank you for your enlightening example. You have provided a great reason to avoid "Please advise." Sorry--don't cringe!

[R]

This is an awesome post. And the comments are funny. I found it through googling "please advise". I always knew the phrase felt wrong every time I read it in emails, but now it's good to know exactly why, grammatically. Out of curiosity, does anyone know where this phrase originated?

[Ryan]

I also just googled "please advise" because someone ended an e-mail with, "Please advise...." I had no idea what she was trying to tell me because I wasn’t sure what the “…” was supposed to mean. Was I supposed to advise other people about what she had told me? I think she was just telling me to "please consider this" information I just gave you. I'm not sure if I'm offended because of the redundancy or because I will of course consider the information you just gave me. I just asked for the information. Anyway, thanks for the info and the comments are funny. Unfortunately, I will not be helping your cause of stopping "please advise" because I do not know her well enough to send her the link.

[Sullivan Miles Lane]

My team constantly uses this phrase. It started innocuously enough with my boss, but then spread like a zombie invasion throughout the rest of my team, consuming the rational, coherent parts of their brains. I have put up with seeing the phrases 'Please advise the status of the servers' or 'Please advise the attached spreadsheet' for almost a year now hoping that it would gradually fade out (like signing emails with 'Cheers'). How can I gently break it to them that they are not making any sense? I am embarrassed for my entire team.

[moveonup]

Can someone please advise on some alternatives at your earliest convenience

[Elizabeth]

I must admit that I started using this phrase to replace "Please let me know," which I was abusing and overusing. What's a good alternative when you are confused about something, and need people to give you advice on how to handle it? I guess I could just say, "I could use your advice on this." Hmm. I'll definitely be more conscious of it going forward!

[Lynn]

Hi, Elizabeth. The problem with "Please advise" is using it on its own, without a direct object. It's fine to say "Please advise me about the software." You can also say "Please help me with the software" and "I would appreciate your advice on the software."

Use whatever sounds natural. Just avoid "Please advise" alone.

[Francisco Amat]

What about "please advice"?

[Lynn]

"Please advice" does not make sense because "advice" is a noun, a thing.

[Marco Rinaudo]

It looks like some people don’t realize that “I googled” is as inappropriate as “Please advise” at the bottom of an email without an object as you would expect for a transitive verb.
Google is not a verb, instead it is a noun, actually it is a company name and consequently you should not say “To google” or “I googled”.
Hey Lynn, please advise :-)

[Lynn]

Marco, I am all for googling, and I use google as a verb. It simply makes sense to me, despite any efforts by Google to control the use of its name. Sorry!

The only time this habit has gotten me in trouble is when I used it during a class I was teaching at Microsoft. There it is not a popular verb!

Lynn