The Affect Effect and how to get it right.

I completely empathize with anyone who struggles over the uses of affect and effect – words that sound the same, but aren’t. I gained my empathy for the spelling confused by traveling to England for a couple of weeks. The weeks turned into months and the months eventually added up to nine years. This was long enough for me to marry a lovely English rose, begin my professional life as writer, and become nearly fluent in a second language (British English). But the experience completely wrecked my spelling.

On losing my ability to spell.

Working as an advertising copywriter in an English ad agency, I had to learn British spelling and grammar. When I finally moved back to the States with my lovely English rose, the spelling troubles began in earnest. Now I was an American, working for an American ad agency, but writing like an Englishman. I couldn’t remember which words and usages were British and which were American. Sure, the obvious ones were easy: center is American…centre is British. But to this day, I still get hopelessly confused over spellings such as traveling and travelling. (If you’re wondering, one “l” is American, and two are British – I just looked it up.)

All this transatlantic confusion has given me heartfelt compassion for anyone who struggles with words that sound the same, but mean different things. One of the most frustrating examples for most people is affect and effect. So, I thought I should give you an easy way to remember which is which.

Affect or effect? Which should it be?

To figure out when to use affect and when to use effect, all you have to do is remember these two phrases: “Affect acts,” and “Effect ends.”

Affect acts.
Affect is an action word…a verb. It does stuff. It makes an impact. It acts. Here’s an example: “The new hiring freeze affects every department in our company.”

Effect ends.
Effect is a thing…a noun. It usually means the end result. “We’re already seeing the effects of the new hiring freeze in our department?”

So, affect acts, and effect ends.
Make sense? Here’s another example:

The new design will affect production.
(The new design will do something…it will act.)

Faster production will be the effect of the new design.
(Faster production is the effect of the new design…it’s the end, the result.)

That’s it. Affect acts, and effect is the end result. The aa and ee make this easy to remember. Here’s one more example so you can make sure you’ve got it:

Your suggestion is affecting sales positively.
(The suggestion is acting…it’s doing something. It’s affecting sales.)

Your suggestion is having a positive effect on sales.
(What’s the end result of the suggestion? A good effect.)

Are there any exceptions to this rule?
Sadly, yes, there are exceptions to everything. However, with affect and effect, the exceptions are fairly rare. I’ll explain them here for those of you who really want to know. But if you have something more important to do, you can stop reading now. Thanks and goodbye.

Now, for anyone still reading, here are the two main exceptions:

1. Effect can sometimes be used as a verb. In business writing, the one example you run into most often is the phrase, to effect change. “The new manager effected major changes in our department.” In business writing, if effect is used as a verb, it’s almost always paired together with the word change.
2. And yes, affect can be used as a noun, but only if you’re a psychologist talking about your client’s display of emotions. “Her inappropriate affect worried the doctor.”

This is really is all you need to know about affect and effect for everyday business writing. I hope these tips will have a positive affect effect on your future writing.