Affect And Effect

The (Ecstatic) Effect vs Affect Page:

Sigh.  This confusion shows up a lot on student papers and on the Internet. And probably in your dreams, baby!

The simplest way into the issue is, If you're going to do it, use "Affect."  If it's something already done, use "effect."

Hmmmm...that doesn't look too simple after all.

How about:

"I can affect the effect." repeated aloud seven thousand and twenty four times while standing in the shower listening to a repetitious hip-hop song.

That will solve most of the problem because, you see, most often, "affect" is a verb--doing it--, and "effect" is the noun--the thing that resulted.

Look here:

Drinking toxic, alcoholic drinks in excess the night before an exam is bound to AFFECT your grade.

One EFFECT of the chemicals Gerald 'accidentally' ingested was that his nose turned black and fell off of his face.

It is disheartening for a teacher to have to read, "Using calculus will effect the outcome of life as we know it."

Yuck!!! It took all I could muster to write that awful sentence!

Or, how about:

When Arthur smacked his sister Lucy with the family goldfish, the affect consisted of scaled cheeks.

Please, before you read on, re-read those sentences switching the "effect" and the "affect" so that they will be properly correct.

I don't want you moving on with those mistakes stuck in your unconscious.

It is also disheartening for a teacher, or anyone else who understands the difference, to see effect/affect used incorrectly on the Internet.

It makes us think we did not teach hard enough.

True story: The program author once wrote to the people who manufacture a wonderful web page editor, gently suggesting that they had misused affect/effect all over their help pages.

I got an email back, thanking me and saying that I had caused a heated discussion during their board of directors meeting, but that ultimately I and Standard English won out, and they had made the corrections.

I felt quietly proud.

One man could make a difference!

And then the next version of the program came out, and the mistakes were sadly still there. I now use a different webpage editor.

You just have to take a stand sometimes!

But I digress. Back to affect being a verb and effect being a noun, which they almost always are.

But I would not be completely honest with you if I didn't point out a couple of exceptions:

Exception #1: Sometimes effect can do the job of a verb. Aw, hell, sometimes it is a verb. Here's when:

Jonathan, please effect a total makeover of your essay.

In this sentence, "effect" has two special conditions:

1. there is a direct object ("makeover")

2. It means bring about, cause to happen.

I love how classy the use of "effect" this way sounds:

Yes, Marjorie, I will effect the changes you require in our relationship.

effect = bring about, ""changes"= direct object, so we know using effect this way is  OK.

It sounds so much more elegant (and manly) than, "Yes, Marjorie, I will do what you tell me to do."

In a very special condition, affect can be a noun: you wish to use affect to mean signs of emotion/feelings.

This most often seems to occur when you describe the lack of any emotional signs:

Herbert exhibited no affect when I gently explained how his pet frog ate his pet dragonfly.

You will find this use lots in the context of psychology.

To say:

Consuella had a completely flat affect.

 does not imply any sort of judgment, while saying:

Consuella didn't care.

implies that the speaker is interpreting/judging Consuella's behavior.

Hey, I just noticed an irony: using "affect" in this way keeps your statement free of affect. Cool!

I'd like to add an important point sent in by Michael Feeny:

In my experience (and according to www.dictionary.com) when "affect" is used as a noun (Consuella had a completely flat affect.), it is pronounced differently from when it is a verb. when used as a noun, the 1st syllable is accented, rather than the 2nd. Perhaps that will help people recognize that particular use of "affect".

So that's it.

Generally, affect is a verb (action) and effect is a noun (thing).