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A piece of, a slice of, and other partitives for uncountables.
Why you specifically
The rule
Many uncountable nouns cannot be counted directly, so English often uses partitives such as a piece of, a slice of, a bit of, and some. The exact partitive depends on the noun and the meaning: piece of is common for advice, information, and paper; slice of is common for food; bit of is common for a small amount; and some or a lot of are also common with uncountables.
The trap
I bought an advice from my mentor.
I bought a piece of advice from my mentor.
Advice is uncountable, so we use a partitive phrase like a piece of advice. A sentence like this without the partitive is wrong because advice cannot normally be counted directly.
She gave me a slice cake after dinner.
She gave me a slice of cake after dinner.
Cake is usually an uncountable mass noun, so slice of is a natural partitive. The phrase a slice of cake is correct; cake alone would not fit in the same sentence if the meaning is one portion.
We need a patience in this job.
We need a bit of patience in this job.
Patience is uncountable, so it needs a partitive such as a bit of. Using a directly before patience is not grammatical.
He asked for an information at the office.
He asked for a piece of information at the office.
Information is uncountable in standard English, so piece of information is the correct partitive. It cannot normally take a direct singular count form here.
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