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It should almost go without saying, but getting your facts right can make or break your presentation. You can present the most convincing case in the world for your position, product, or idea. If you get basic facts wrong, however, it hurts your legitimacy and your argument. Now, there will be those who will agree or disagree with you no matter what evidence you have or lack. They’re not my concern. My concern is for those whose minds can be changed, but will shut me out the moment it’s evident I didn’t do my homework.

I’ve written before about a guy who came to talk to our staff during one of my first few years teaching. One of the thrusts in his talk was the role of technology in education, and he spent a good amount of time convincing us that he knew more about technology than we did. There were a few things that bugged me about his talk, but he then put up a slide comparing a 60 GB iPod photo to the original 5 GB iPod. Under the 5 GB iPod, he had a price of $499, and he put a price of $99 under the 60 GB iPod photo. Short version: he got both wrong.

Um, no.

I think I made some audible noise of disbelief at the time. The price of the original, I had to double check later. It was $399 – the later-introduced 10 GB version was $499. As for the second price, $99 was the price for the 512 MB iPod shuffle introduced earlier that year. At that time, the 60 GB model was $399. A simple Wikipedia visit would have helped him with the price of the original, and simply going to Apple’s online store would have given him current prices. Instead, here he was trying to be an authority on technology, and he couldn’t get iPod prices right.

We see stuff like this all the time in political rhetoric, in science denial, in marketing spins. Some of it is even on purpose, people hoping their audience won’t double check their misreported facts. Again, some will take anything you say at face value. Some will accept nothing you say. But you score no points among those in the middle when you stubbornly get basic facts wrong. Sometimes you’ll make mistakes. I’ve made plenty. In the end, though, being detail-oriented will help prevent many problems, and being willing to be honest with ourselves about hard facts will help us make more informed pitches, arguments, and proposals.

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