Editor's Corner

Fill in the blank with either affect or effect. Select the answer that matches your choices by using the voting buttons (above). The correct answers will be revealed around noon today.

Note: I keep forgetting to mention, it is fine to refer to other resources to answer the quizzes. The idea is to learn the information or where to find the information when you need it.

1. Cartoons have a strong _______________ on children.

2. I see that you’re trying to _______________ apathy, but I know that you really do care.

3. The CEO’s new rules ____________ed the entire company.

4. What kind of _______________ does eating chocolate have on you?

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor

Symitar, A Jack Henry Company

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

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The differences between affect and effect can be among the tougher things to remember in English. They sound alike, they can both be used as nouns, they can both be used as verbs, and there are exceptions to the “rules.” There are many articles on the differences, none of them short, so I am picking the explanation from Mignon Fogarty (aka Grammar Girl) and the http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/ website.
What Is the Difference Between Affect and Effect?
Before we get to the memory trick, I want to explain the difference between the two words.
It’s actually pretty straightforward. The majority of the time you use affect with an a as a verb and effect with an e as a noun.
When Should You Use Affect?
Affect with an a means "to influence," as in, "The arrows affected Ardvark," or "The rain affected Amy’s hairdo." Affect can also mean, roughly, "to act in a way that you don’t feel," as in, "She affected an air of superiority."
When Should You Use Effect?
Effect with an e has a lot of subtle meanings as a noun, but to me the meaning "a result" seems to be at the core of all the definitions. For example, you can say, "The effect was eye-popping," or "The sound effects were amazing," or "The rain had no effect on Amy’s hairdo."
Common Uses of Affect and Effect
So most of the time affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun. There are rare instances where the roles are switched, and I’ll get to those later, but for now let’s focus on the common meanings. This is "Quick and Dirty" grammar, and my impression from your questions is that most people have trouble remembering the basic rules of when to use these words, so if you stick with those, you’ll be right 95% of the time.
So, most of the time, affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun; and now we can get to the mnemonics. First, the mnemonic involves a very easy noun to help you remember: aardvark. Yes, if you can remember aardvark — a very easy noun — you’ll always remember that affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun. Why? Because the first letters of "a very easy noun" are the same first letters as "affect verb effect noun!" That’s a very easy noun. Affect (with an a) verb effect (with an e) noun.
"But why Aardvark?" you ask. Because there’s also an example to help you remember. It’s "The arrows affected Aardvark. The effect was eye-popping." It should be easy to remember that affect with an a goes with the a-words, arrow and aardvark, and that effect with an e goes with the e-word, eye-popping. If you can visualize the sentences, "The arrows affected the aardvark. The effect was eye-popping," it’s pretty easy to see that affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun.
The illustration of the example is from my new book.

It’s Aardvark being affected by arrows, and I think looking at it will help you remember the example sentences; and it’s cute. You can print it out and hang it by your desk.
So avery easy noun will help you remember that affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun, and the example will help you see how to use both words in a sentence.
Rare Uses of Affect and Effect
So what about those rare meanings that don’t follow the rules I just gave you? Well, affect can be used as a noun when you’re talking about psychology–it means the mood that someone appears to have. For example, "She displayed a happy affect." Psychologists find it useful because they know that you can never really understand what someone else is feeling. You can only know how they appear to be feeling.
And, effect can be used as a verb that essentially means "to bring about," or "to accomplish." For example, you could say, "Aardvark hoped to effect change within the burrow."

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor
Symitar, A Jack Henry Company
8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123

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Today we have the remainder of the ten “tacky terms” from DailyWritingTips. While the history of these words is interesting, they seem less “tacky” and more “cheap” in meaning.

Purple
There’s an interesting line of connotation for this word: Because of the difficulty of obtaining purple dye from a certain shellfish in ancient times, it was reserved for royalty, and later was long limited to use by aristocratic classes. Thus, it came to be associated with those with very high social standing — and, naturally, their attendant sophistication. But the resulting association of the color with ostentatiousness led to a connotation of overbearing effort, especially in writing — hence, “purple prose.”

Sleazy
Two early meanings of this word are “hairy or fuzzy” and “flimsy,” but only the latter sense has survived, while still other connotations have come to dominate. The primary meanings now are “sexually provocative” or “of low quality,” the latter referring to both character and construction.

Tacky
This nineteenth-century slang term for a low-class person was extended to describe anything that is ill-bred, shabby, in poor taste, or cheaply constructed. It most often refers to a cheap taste in fashion or decor.

Tawdry
As is the case with purple, this term has made a downwardly mobile trajectory. According to tradition, Audrey, queen of a kingdom in what is now England, found religion late in life when she surmised that her vanity led to a deadly condition. The Catholic Church canonized her, and at an annual fair commemorating Saint Audry, cheap lace necklaces were sold in her honor. These came to be known as “’t Audrey’s lace,” later altered to “tawdry lace.” Now, tawdry is a synonym for cheap or showy. It has, however, also acquired a sense of “base, low, mean,” as in the cliché “a tawdry affair.”

Two-Bit
This adjective meaning “cheap” comes from the slang term for a twenty-five-cent piece. The reference originates with the real, a Spanish coin that could be divided into eight pieces (hence “pieces of eight” in pirate lore). Each bit was worth one-eighth of the coin’s value; transferred to American currency, two bits is worth a quarter. In either currency, two bits ain’t worth much.

Kara Church | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar, A Jack Henry Company
8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619-542-6773 | Extension: 766773

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Today’s request is another Latin term. Viewers would like to know the appropriate way to spell, say, and use the term vice versa. The following information is combined from Dictionary.com and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Spelling: vice versa (no hyphens)

Pronunciation: vsvrs, -s-, -si-, –vs, –vis, ()vs– [KC – Or in my version of linguistics, “vice-uh, verse-uh.” You can also go to this link (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vice+versa)
and click the speaker icon for a professional reading of the word.]

Function: adverb
Etymology: Latin
Definition: with the alternation or order changed: with the relations reversed; in reverse order from the way something has been stated; the other way around: She dislikes me, and vice versa. Copernicus was the first to suggest that the earth revolves around the sun, and not vice versa.

Synonyms: conversely, contrariwise, inversely.

Shawn Albert Shepard | EpisysTechnical Publications Manager | Symitar™

8985 Balboa Avenue | San Diego, CA 92123 | 619-278-3506 | or ext. 763506 | www.Symitar.com

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