Misuse of the word affect vs. effect

Posted by admin on Apr 6th, 2010 | no comments

By:  Tameka Anderson of L.A. Say, Inc.

For some strange reason, there are certain words in the English language that are frequently misused. We are going to deal with just two of them today; affect versus effect.   It’s not difficult to see why these two are commonly misused because they have very similar meanings; this makes it really easy or difficult, whichever way you want to view it.  It makes it really easy to misuse them or really difficult to determine which way that you should use them.  Today’s mission is to show you how to properly use these two words so that we can minimize misuse as much as possible.

How many times have you seen these two words improperly used?  Would you even notice if they were misused?  How many times have you yourself been guilty of misusing them?  These like a lot of other common words have been misused for many, many years and most people probably do not understand why.  What is the source behind misuse of common words in the English vocabulary?  I would like to go on record to say that maybe if people would take more time and define the meaning of words, then the misuse would not happen as frequently.  Before we proceed, let’s define each individual word because in order to truly understand how to properly use a word in a sentence, you must first understand the concept of the word.

Webster defines effect as ‘something that is produced by an agency or cause; result; consequence.’ And affect is defined as, ‘to act on; produce an effect or change in.’ Now if you noticed, the word ‘affect’ is defined with the word ‘effect’ included!  There are a few common words that have their opposing words included in defining them.  That is something that has always seemed to amaze me, how can some words be defined by other words being included?  I have always tried to be very careful when using these two words in a sentence and more often than not, I myself have been guilty of misusing these two words.

So how do you get to a point that you are no longer misusing these two words in sentences?  Well when you figure this out, be sure to shoot me an email! (Smile and give your face a break) Seriously though, if you take your time, redefine the words, and really think about what it is that you are really trying to say, these words, like all of the others, will no longer be a problem for you.  Taking just the word ‘effect’ and dissecting it, it is defined as pretty much the result of something, so you know that whenever you use this word, you will be speaking of the result of something.

For example, you can use the word in this sentence, ‘the young boy began to walk very slowly from the apparent pain in his leg but the doctor assured him that this was the effect of the medicine that was injected into his hip.’  Now, let’s dissect the next word, ‘affect.’  Notice this definition deals with action.  So an example sentence using this word would be, ‘the woman behind the counter has no idea how much her smile has affected every patient not to notice how long they were waiting to see the doctor.’  When you understand the concept of a definition, then using the words in any sentence will no longer become a problem for you because you understand what needs to be expressed.

That was the crash course in conceptual understanding of commonly misused words so how will you approach all commonly misused words from this point forward?

About the Author:  Tameka (L.A.) Anderson,  owner of L.A. Say Inc., is a creative writer and interpersonal relations consultant.  She is a graduate of the University of Phoenix where she studied Criminal Justice and Communications. L.A. has been a writer since the age of 9.  Her writing background includes several copyright stage plays, published web content, articles, and published poems.  2010 will debut her first of many published books.  Contact L.A. at info@lasayinc.com or at www.LASayInc.com.