“Affect” vs. “Effect”

After publishing my “affect” vs. “impact” post, I received a few comments from people who weren’t sure when to use affect or effect. (I purposely avoided this before because it’s a widespread topic.) For the most part, it can be easy to determine.  Affect often functions as a verb and effect generally is used as a noun. If you’re not a doctor and tempted to write “the affect,” as an LOL cat would say, “Ur doin’ it wrong.”

Merriam-Webster defines affect as “to produce an effect upon.” Grammar Girl says affect “most commonly means something like ‘to influence’ or ‘to change.’” Merriam-Webster uses the following words to define effect: “intent,” “appearance,” or “accomplishment.” Effect can also be defined as a result of something.

To determine whether to use affect or effect, my trick is the same as Grammar Girl’s: remember to use effect with an e when using an article such as an or the. The ends in an e and effect begins with an e. Therefore, “the two e‘s butt up against each other.” Here’s Grammar Girl’s example: The effect was eye-popping. If the sentence still makes sense with the word result then the word is likely being used correctly, e.g., The result was eye-popping. If you were to write, “The affect of the situation is dire,” you would be wrong. However, “The raging blaze affected the house adversely” is correct. (Notice the is not used with affected.)

There are exceptions to many rules and affect and effect have them. (For example, if you’re a psychologist and use the word affect as a noun in reference to a patient’s demeanor, you’d be correct. Or sometimes effect can be used as a verb.) However, if you stick to the general guidelines above, you’ll be right most of the time.

Do you know of any other tips or tricks to differentiate when to use affect or effect?

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Notes:

1. Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2008), 8–11.

2. Merriam-Webster, s.v. “effect,” accessed February 16, 2012, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/effect.

4. Merriam-Webster, s.v. “affect,” accessed February 16, 2012, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affect.

“Affect” vs. “Impact”

Grammar Girl recently wrote about this, but it’s something I’ve been running into with my work so I thought I’d address it too.

The word impact has taken on the meaning of “to influence” in the way the verb affect often does. According to Grammar Girl, impact is often used this way in business jargon, but I contend that impact’s use to mean affect has grown beyond the business world.

Merriam-Webster defines impact as “to fix firmly,” “to strike forcefully,” or “to have a direct effect or impact on.” Affect as a verb can be defined as “to produce an effect upon.”

Grammar Girl advises using impact as a noun:

Quick and Dirty Tip: If you can put an article such as “an” or “the” in front of “impact,” you are using it in the most proper way—as a noun. He wondered what the impact of the changes would be.

I prefer to replace affect for impact when it functions as a verb, but not always. Sometimes when the writer wants to make a point about a forceful effect, I don’t edit the use of impact or impacted. It may not be what grammar sticklers like or wholly correct, but I allow for exceptions if the writer’s audience will understand its usage.

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Notes:

1. Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2008), 33–34.

2. “Is “Impact” a Verb?” Grammar Girl, last modified January 16, 2012, accessed January 17, 2012, http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/is-impact-a-verb.aspx.

3. Merriam-Webster, s.v. “impact,” accessed January 30, 2012, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impact.

4. Merriam-Webster, s.v. “affect,” accessed January 30, 2012, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affect.

Five Tips for Proofreading Your Electronic Document

Everyone’s got tips for better proofreading with electronic documents. Mine are probably no different from anyone else’s. However, these tips are good reminders. Here are the five that I offer.

“Loose” vs. “Lose”

I have been running into loose to mean lose a lot lately. But loose and lose are not the same thing. Loose often is used as an adjective to mean “not rigidly fastened” or “not tight-fitting.” Lose (when confused with loose) often is a verb meaning “to miss” or “to suffer deprivation.”

When determining which word to use, I start with lose then consider whether the word I want to use refers to “extra space.” If that’s the case, I add an extra O so the word is now loose.

Correct examples: I need loose-fitting pants because I have gained weight during the holiday season. My skirt is loose because I lost weight after joining Weight Watchers.

Neither of the following examples is correct: I don’t intend to loose this game. I did not mean to loose my earrings. Neither of these sentences refers to anything extra. Rather, these examples mean loss. Lose the extra O. (Starting out with lose would have made these sentences correct.)

Correct sentences: I don’t intend to lose this game. I did not mean to lose my earrings.

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Notes:

1. Merriam-Webster, s.v. “loose,” accessed January 17, 2012, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/loose.

2. Merriam-Webster, s.v. “lose,” accessed January 17, 2012, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lose.

“All Right” vs. “Alright”: Don’t Use “Alright” Regularly

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One of my favorite singers, Sara Groves, has a song titled “It’s Going to Be Alright.” This dynamic editor nearly had a conniption fit when she first saw it. The proper use of all right has been drilled into my head like I’ve been in an English language military.

Unfortunately, the use of alright has become so common that Merriam-Webster reluctantly accepts it as an alternate spelling of all right:

It is less frequent than all right but remains in common use especially in journalistic and business publications. It is quite common in fictional dialogue, and is used occasionally in other writing.

Does Merriam-Webster‘s acceptance of alright mean that the word is all right to use? In most cases, no. Alright is still widely seen by many people as incorrect and will consider such usage an error. Writing manual Edit Yourself doesn’t even consider alright to be a word, and Grammar Girl advises against the spelling while admitting that it may be “gaining a small footing.”

Spelling all right as alright may become popular in the future, but for now it’s still considered incorrect.

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Notes:

1. Merriam-Webster Online, s.v. “alright,” accessed December 31, 2011, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alright.

2. Bruce Ross-Larson, Edit Yourself, (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996), 48.

3. “’All Right’ Versus ‘Alright’,” Grammar Girl, last modified May 29, 2009, accessed December 31, 2011, http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/all-right-versus-alright.aspx.

Who and Whom

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Even though I’m an editor, I won’t pretend I don’t have my grammar troubles. Who and whom along with lay and lie are the two big pairs. They never cease to make me stumble each time I come across them. But I’ll tackle lay and lie another day.

Who and whom are pronouns. It’s important to know that who is used as the subject of a sentence and whom is used as the object of a sentence. In a previous post, I pointed out the difference between subjects, predicates, and objects. I love how Grammar Girl put the difference between subjects and objects in her podcast:

If we think about people, the subject of the sentence is the person doing something, and the object of the sentence is having something done to them. If I step on Squiggly, then I am the subject and Squiggly is the object.

According to Grammatically Correct, “Use the subjective who when the pronoun is associated with an action or a description. Use the objective whom when the pronoun is the target of someone else’s action.”

Rephrasing a sentence as a question helps differentiate between who and whom. In most instances, if the pronouns him or them can answer the question, whom is the appropriate choice to use. (Notice him, them, and whom end in m.) If the correct pronouns to use are he or they, then using who is most appropriate. McGraw-Hill suggests using who if the pronoun is immediately followed by a verb.

Who/Whom is going to the Halloween party? He is going. Therefore, who is the correct choice in this instance.

You need to determine the friend who/whom you can rely upon. Who/Whom can you rely upon? You can rely upon him. Whom is the proper choice in this sentence.

We wondered who/whom would be in attendance. Who/Whom would be in attendance? They would be in attendance. Who is the best choice here.

This differentiation can also apply to whoever and whomever. Grammar Girl says it can’t always be used, however, the basic grammar rule holds true: Whoever is always the subject of a sentence and whomever always functions as an object. Grammatically Correct notes people most commonly use whoever in speech and suggests that using whomever correctly depends upon formal or informal writing.

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Notes:

1. “Who Versus Whom,” Grammar Girl, last modified March 9, 2007, accessed December 31, 2011, http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-whom.aspx.

2. Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2008), 50–51.

3. Anne Stilman, Grammatically Correct, 2nd ed. (Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2010), 274–275.

4. Mark Lester and Larry Beason, The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005), 148–152.

Ending a Sentence with a Preposition

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In school, many of us were taught that ending a sentence with a preposition is wrong. However, many grammar sites, such as Grammar Girl, Oxford Dictionaries, and About.com’s Grammar section, have already debunked this persistent myth.

I believe English and Language Arts teachers have the best of intentions when administering this faulty rule. Children in elementary and middle school are still learning the proper way to construct their writing; hard-and-fast rules provide some structure for them. But habits during the course of 12 years are hard to break, which is why ending a sentence with a preposition is widely seen as incorrect.

The American English language, in some cases, tends to function on how natural things sound rather than adhering to a specific structure. We learned in the basics of American English grammar that a preposition is a word that connects to a noun or pronoun. According to Grammatically Correct, prepositions can identify time, space, or position. Which of the following sentences sounds most natural in speech?

What was that for?

For what was that?

In the United States, using the second sentence in speech sounds, quite frankly, snooty and pedantic. A person using proper English should not garner confused looks from other people. Use of the sentence “What was that for?” is perfectly acceptable in speech and in writing. And in many cases, so is ending a sentence with a preposition.

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Notes:

1. “Ending a Sentence with a Preposition,” Grammar Girl, last modified March 31, 2011, accessed December 12, 2011, http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/ending-prepositions.aspx.

2. Anne Stilman, Grammatically Correct, 2nd ed. (Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2010), 296–297.

Subjects, Predicates, and Objects

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Determining subjects, predicates, and objects are important for me as an editor. I need to make sure that authors consistently express complete thoughts so their readers aren’t left with any questions about what they’ve read. Let’s begin with subjects and predicates.

A subject is something (person, place, thing, idea, pronoun, or action) that functions as a noun. A predicate provides information about the subject, modifying the subject in some way or explaining its action. A complete sentence must have a subject and a predicate.

An example of a complete sentence: Betty ran.
“Betty” is the subject of the sentence, and “ran” provides information about Betty’s actions.

An object (also known as a direct object) is a word or phrase, functioning as a noun, that provides additional information about the predicate.

Examples of direct objects: Jerry saw John. Mary said hello.
In the first sentence, “John” explains who Jerry saw. In the second sentence, “hello” describes what Mary said.

Another kind of object exists: the indirect object. Indirect objects also provide additional information about the predicate and can answer a question about the direct object. The indirect object always precedes the direct object.

Examples of indirect objects:

1. Barbara brought home a cake.
   “Cake” is the direct object, and “home” tells us where Barbara brought the cake.
2. James wrote Jenna a song.
   “Song” is the direct object, and “Jenna” tells us for whom James wrote the song.

Diagramming, the act of drawing a diagram of a sentence to help distinguish the parts of speech, can be very helpful in determining subjects, predicates, and objects. However, I won’t get into that here. The Capital Community College (CCC) site on grammar provides helpful tips on diagramming (once you get past the fact that it looks like a site from 1998).

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Notes:

1. Mark Lester and Larry Beason, The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005), 33–34.

2. Anne Stilman, Grammatically Correct, 2nd ed. (Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2010), 72–74.

Grammar Quotation

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I never made a mistake in grammar but one in my life and as soon as I done it I seen it. —Carl Sandburg

Grammar Quotation

Grammar is the logic of speech, even as logic is the grammar of reason. —Richard Chenevix Trench