USAGE 101: Students of the English language abound in Era-land.
That’s a good thing because, honestly, there appears to be so few
of us left.

More today on our incorrect usage of “effect” and “affect.”

Pat Ryan writes, “The comments re: affect/effect caught my eye,
as I enjoy the English language. The rules for affect/effect are
not quite that simple. Below is an explanation from the Gregg
Reference Manual, 8th edition. It is a wonderful book for anyone
who writes or edits.”

“‘Affect/effect: “Affect” is normally used as a verb meaning “to
influence, change, assume.” “Effect” can be either a verb meaning
“to bring about” or a noun meaning “result, impression.”‘

“‘The court’s decision in this case will not affect (change) the
established legal precedent.’

“‘She affects (assumes) an unsophisticated manner.’

“‘It is essential that we effect (bring about) an immediate
improvement in sales.’

“‘It will be months before we can assess the full effect
(result) of the new law.’

“‘Note: In psychology, “affect” is used as a noun meaning
“feeling, emotion” and the related adjective “affective” means
“emotional.” Because of the limited context in which these terms
are likely to be used with these meanings, it should be easy to
distinguish them from “effect” as a noun and the related adjective
“effective.”

“‘We need to analyze the effects (results) of this new marketing
strategy.

“‘We need to analyze the affects (emotions) produced by this
conflict.

“‘Which technique is effective (capable of producing the desire
results)?

“‘Let’s deal with the affective (emotional) factors first.'”

Did you get all that?

Another reader wrote, ” … on the affect/effect issue, both words
can be either verbs or nouns. ‘When Jared discovered that his
attempt to effect change in eating habits had not affected obesity
rates, the effect of the news dramatically changed his affect,
according to his therapist.'”

AND ALSO: And this note, too, on a related subject: “I hope you
don’t follow the suggestion made in today’s paper to see the PC
doctor about your spellchecker. Chances are that it is doing its
job. The problem lies with usage which depends on the writer rather
than the computer.”

“How many spelling mistakes are there in the following sentence:
‘I’ll halve to clime the steppes wen the elevator brakes.’ None of
the words is misspelled but five of them are misused. Halve eye
maid my point?”