“Affect” vs. “Effect”

Dear 1L,

Are you one of the billions who (according to Google) has searched “affect vs. effect”?

For most of my life, I avoided “affect” as a verb. I would use “impact,” or just change my sentence around to avoid the word somehow. 

But the verb “to impact” doesn’t really mean “to affect.” So my so-called solution didn’t really work.

Being me, I then read dozens of articles by grammar tipsters. They offered lots of definitions, explanations, examples, and memory devices. 

But nothing seemed to stick. I still had to double check Google.

For the legal writing presentation I gave yesterday, I suggested this:

✏️  “I must affect (influence) you to effect (bring about) change in you.”

And at that moment, a stray thought occurred, and I said it aloud:  

💡 The “a” comes before “e” in the alphabet, so “affect” comes before “effect” in the sentence.

This morning, I still remember!  Affect first, to effect change second.

Hoping it will stick.

Thought I would share, in case, you too have been a Googler like me.

But do you have a better memory device that works? The jury is still out for me as to whether I’ll remember my mini-lightbulb moment tomorrow.  Always looking for more ways to remember! 

Please do share yours.

Fondly,

Amanda

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