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Effect vs Affect

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Well, here it is. The post that answers the big question. That’s right, when should you use effect and when should you use affect. I have turned to the fantastic Grammar Girl for a full and detailed response.

Grammar Girl here.

Today’s topic is when to use affect with an a and when to use effect with an e.

This question is from Eric on the voicemail line.

“I have a question for you regarding the “affect or effect” conundrum. Please shed some light on this for me. I’ve read style guides but I can never remember, so I’m looking for some kind of mnemonic or something that might help.”

This has been by far the most requested grammar topic. In addition to Eric, at least seven people have asked by e-mail, so I have a mnemonic and a matching cartoon to help you remember.

Before we get to the mnemonic though, 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.

Affect with an a means “to influence,” as in, “The arrows affected the aardvark,” 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.”

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,” or “The trick-or-treaters hid behind the bushes for 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, but this is “Quick and Dirty” grammar, not comprehensive grammar, and I don’t want to confuse you. My impression from your questions is that most people have trouble remembering just the basic rules of when to use these words, so we’re going to stick with those, and you’ll be right 95% of the time.

So, for our purposes, 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.

Go to Grammar Girl to read the rest.

Heroin for breakfast

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Those students who studied The Kite Runner will know of the heartbreaking poverty in Afghanistan. What they may not know is how many Afghan children are addicted to heroin as a way of escaping the pain and poverty in their lives. The Daily Mirror recently published the following article:

It is early morning in Kabul and two scrawny children sit hunched together on the mud floor of their shack, waiting for their mother to serve breakfast.

But here in the slums of the Afghan capital there is no choice of cereals or toast and marmalade.

There is only heroin.

Using hollow radio antennas as makeshift pipes, 11-year-old Golpari and her brother Zaher, 14, inhale the melted brown liquid from the bowl in front of them. Sitting in a corner their widowed mother Sabera inhales and also floats off into oblivion.

“Smoking heroin is no big thing,” says Golpari, who started when she was eight. “I was used to seeing my mum smoking heroin. I’d breathe in the smoke and it used to make me feel light-headed.

“The first time I had it I had pains in my legs. We didn’t have medicine and my mother and other people told me it would make me feel better.

“When I inhaled it I started to feel good. You don’t feel any pain when you are high until it wears off, so then you have to smoke more. At first I was smoking just a little, but each day I needed more.

When it was too late I realised I was addicted and it was all I cared about. Nobody told me it was bad.”

As soon as the heroin wears off, Golpari, who can’t read or write and barely eats, starts worrying how she will get the 50p she needs for her next hit.

Wearing her one ragged dress she “works” as a pickpocket in the bazaars of Kabul while her mother sits in a burqa begging at the roadside.

Golpari is just one of more than 60,000 children addicted to heroin in Afghanistan – victims of this year’s record opium crop and a telling indictment of Britain’s pledge to destroy the Taliban’s poppy fields. In fact, the street price has plunged by roughly half since 2001.

Frighteningly, there are now nearly one million addicts in Afghanistan – three per cent of the population. More and more are women, who blow opium smoke into their babies’ faces to stop them crying from hunger.

Another essay for your consideration

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Another essay on Wilfred Owen’s poetry completed in exam conditions. I am grateful for all contributions, however, I would welcome an essay on another topic for a bit of variety! Any comments?

Discuss ideas, opinions or information in your studied texts that caused a strong reaction in you as a reader.

Wilfred Owen was an anti-conflict poet of the World War One era, his poems are heavy with anger, cynicism and imagery from his front line experiences. As he stated “the poetry is in the pity”. He was desperately infuriated by the patriotism and myopia of the British public at the time, and he used his poetry like a weapon to end the needless deaths of millions during the war.

In his poem “Anthem for doomed youth”, Owen questions the sincerity of a formal Christian burial, and the justification for the deaths of countless soldiers on the battle field.

“What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the stuttering rifle’s rapid rattle”

The dead soldiers get no respect, nothing to mark their pointless deaths whereas at home a funeral is full of formality and tradition. This angered Owen, that a comfortable death at home is rewarded with useless formalities, he saw it as a “mockery” for dead soldiers. I agree, where is the use in acknowledging death with useless ceremony when the things that count go un-noticed?

His poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” describes a mustard gas attack on a group of fatigued soldiers. Since the people at home had no real idea of the horror of the front line, Owen in this poem is trying to sell the blind patriots some reality by describing events he witnessed. It is a shocking and powerful poem with lots of emotive language “Cursed, trudged, old beggars” and gruesome imagery of the attack.

“Floundering like a man in fire or time … blood come gurling from froth corrupted lungs

vile as … cancerous sores on innocent tongues”

Owen is educating people on the truths of war, and this poem taught me a lot. It taught me that war is not a camping trip with guns, as many unwitting war supporters of the time thought too.

This poem is also a intellectual attack on the patriots and war supporters, trying to convey the message that death in war is not honourable or glorious, contrary to the old ideals that were still held at the time. Owen writes “If you could see… my friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children desperate for some ardent glory, the old lie” Dulce et Decorum Est, Pro patria mori.”

Owen is stating his belief that if you knew what really went on, you would stop sending all these young men to their deaths.

Wilfred Owen had strong ideals (backed up by experience) that war was a waste and only the myopia and stupidity of people in power let it continue. It was up to the masses to end the conflict, so he used his poetry to convey his ideals in direct disagreement of the patriots and politicians.

Blog Comments

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It is great to see that there are more comments being made on the blog. I enjoy reading your thoughts and I know students like to get feedback on any of their work that is featured on the blog. Another site that has great student input is the Geography blog Creative Minds over on the Katikati College website. The blog is the work of TeamGeo aka The Cranstonator.

Remember the Wikis!

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Remember to use the wikis. For Year 12 we have two wikis loaded with notes, slideshows, videos and last but certainly not least your work. All your ideas and essays are there. Read ’em, watch ’em and learn from ’em. If you forget how to access them go through the English Resources section on moodle. While you are there check out all the interactive resources that have been added.

Revise online

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Really Useful Resources specialises in publishing NCEA revision guides and distributing many hundreds of other textbooks for the New Zealand secondary school market.

This website has recently been developed to make their NCEA revision guides available to you in online form. The guides are intended for students preparing for NCEA assessments. They include a large number of appropriate questions from previous assessments with suggested answers, as well as an indication of the probable assessment level of each question, i.e. Achievement, Merit, Excellence. The guides for English are available for Levels 1-3.

The company is offering you the opportunity to access these guides for free until the end of the year. If you are interested go here and register.

This is an ex-parrot!

The Dead Parrot sketch is one of the most famous in the history of British television and voted number one on the List Universe’s Top 25 Monty Python sketches.

It portrays a conflict between disgruntled customer Mr. Eric Praline (played by John Cleese), and a shopkeeper (Michael Palin), who hold contradictory positions on the vital state of a “Norwegian Blue” parrot.

The sketch was based off an acting exercise where, if one of the actors repeat a line, they automatically lose. It was inspired by a Car Salesman sketch that Palin and Graham Chapman had done in How to Irritate People. In it, Palin played a car salesman who refused to admit that there was anything wrong with his customer’s (Chapman) car, even as it fell apart in front of him. That sketch was based on an actual incident between Palin and a car salesman.

For a little bit of easy homework answer the questions below:

  1. How does Palin react to Cleese’s various claims that the parrot is dead?
  2. How does Cleese pretend to try to wake up the parrot?
  3. What trick does Palin use to get the parrot to move?
  4. Palin is very inventive. How does he explain the fact that the parrot fell flat on its back the moment the customer got it home?
  5. Why does Palin once again say, “It’s a beautiful bird – lovely plumage”?
  6. What reason is given by Palin for having the bird restrained on its perch in the cage?
  7. What exaggeration is used by Palin to argue that the bird couldn’t possibly ‘voom’?
  8. Explain how the humour in this sketch is mainly achieved.