By Alex Greenwood
Am I an Advisor or an Adviser? Well, usually I say consultant. As for the ‘A’ word, well, my clients don’t seem to care, but I prefer Advisor. Just seems to look better on the page.
However, we should be certain. I did a little digging and really like this answer from Bart Eden on Yahoo Answers:
Merriam Webster says the words are synonymous, as does the American Heritage Dictionary, the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Roget’s Thesaurus, and Princeton’s WordNet. [...] The Columbia Guide to Standard American English states that “both spellings are standard”. It does not appear that the agentive ending –er or –or has any semantic meaning in the case of either term.
He also did a Google search and found advisor had about a 4-to-1 majority in mentions over adviser. Thanks Bart.
So there you have it. If you have any doubt at this point, I suggest you take it under advisement.
About Alex
Alex has earned a reputation for success and ingenuity from his more than twenty years experience in public relations, journalism, marketing and broadcasting. His career has spanned several industries including healthcare, television, non-profit organizations and higher education. His work in the news media includes positions as an editor, journalist, host of a radio talk show and vice president of Kansas City Public Television. Alex left the television industry to create a communications division for one of Kansas City’s leading special events firms. He founded AlexanderG Public Relations, LLC in January 2010. Alex is also the author of the novel “Pilate’s Cross” available as a paperback on Lulu (and soon on Amazon.com). It’s also a popular ebook at the iPad iBook Store, BarnesandNoble.com, Smashwords.com, Sony Reader Store, Diesel Ebooks and Kobo.com. Visit the website www.PilatesCross.com.
Tags: ADVISER, ADVISOR, ADVISOR VERSUS ADVISER, ADVISOR VS ADVISER, ALEXANDERG PUBLIC RELATIONS, GRAMMAR, KANSAS CITY PUBLIC RELATIONS, SPELLING, USAGE
