Thread: Affect or Effect ?

Gentlemen:

For what it's worth, today my shave was so effective that it affected my state of mind.

Regards,

Obie

The English language is very beautiful when used properly by one who commands it well. Read this:

What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

Winston Churchill June, 1940.


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Thomas Jefferson July, 1776

Thanks for reading. I hope the affect was effective.

I get bunched up all the time w/ proper usage, Jimmy. The explanations are such that I can't add anything, but very much want to chime in w/ AFD that education isn't everything, and would add - it's not what it used to be. It's not bad, but often over-rated.

I had a copy of a workbook from an 11 year old from 1913. I looked at it for some time, and on several occasions. It was humbling. This 11 y.o. would run circles around most undergrad college students in math, geography & other subjects. Not all, but in many areas.

Me - I'm still embarrassed by my confusion in grammar, math, etc (with an M.A. in business).

Originally Posted by pinklather

I get bunched up all the time w/ proper usage, Jimmy. The explanations are such that I can't add anything, but very much want to chime in w/ AFD that education isn't everything, and would add - it's not what it used to be. It's not bad, but often over-rated.

I agree that education isn't all that it was. We've become far to dependent on computers, spell-check, and that annoying paper clip on Word.

I wrote my wife a love letter for Valentines, and I was amazed, shocked, and humbled at how dependent I'd become. My handwriting was horrible, and my spelling worse. I resorted to writing it in Word, printing it, then writing it by hand.

Oh, how low we've sunk.

I teach English and the rules of grammar are just too confusing plus my students when they follow the grammar rules of written language exactly they sound terrible, far to formal and not the proper spoken structure

Brother John, a wonderful old gentleman who taught my Senior year English class, taught me this little trick which I have NEVA forgotten: Noun Effect, Verb Affect. This only fails in psychiatry where an individual's emotional expression is called affect and is therefore used here as a noun.

Originally Posted by leadduck

Brother John, a wonderful old gentleman who taught my Senior year English class, taught me this little trick which I have NEVA forgotten: Noun Effect, Verb Affect. This only fails in psychiatry where an individual's emotional expression is called affect and is therefore used here as a noun.

It also fails when one wants to effect a change in the way they remember the difference between the words - good mnemonic though