Use of accent marks in power point?
A few months ago, I was preparing a presentation for a group of Salvadorians. This was an official presentation done on power point and I was working with a co-worker from Mexico. As we were building the power point, I began adding accent marks where they were supposed to go, and my co-worker recommended that I skip that phase. He said that based on the context, they would understand the tense of the words used, and that accent marks were not really necessary. I wanted to do it his way, because he is the native speaker, but my intuition said otherwise. In the end I added the accent marks, but it took longer. My question to any native speakers: was it worth it taking the extra time to put in the accent marks, or was it sufficient to leave them out? Any advice much is much appreciated; I'll probably have to do this again!
3 Answers
Accent marks are never a luxury because they take care of possible ambiguities and make the text more readable. It was a good call on your part!
I am not a native speaker, and am hardly a speaker at all, but I agree withVikingo, 100%. If you are going to do something, you should take the time to do it right. Native speakers might not think anything about it if the accents are there, but I bet they will sure notice if they are not there. I think you did good by adding the accent marks.
Not being a native speaker... Yes, it was worth the time!
Educated people everywhere notice when you're trying to be a perfectionist, and conclude (consciously or otherwise) that you're not feeding them anything that you haven't researched and thought long and hard about.
