I have been a professional writer for more than 40 years and I still can’t figure out affect vs. effect. I have to look them up every single time I use one of those words. It’s affecting my mental health. Or effecting.

@mitch it's easy. Affect is a verb, except when it's a noun, and effect is a noun, except when it's a verb

@theTangentSpace Thank you for, um, clarifying.

@MitchWagner Tricky, especially because usage shifts with grammatical roles, as a noun affect is a psychological term, but as a verb it is less concrete than effect. Apple’s built in Dictionary app has a decent explainer.

@MitchWagner

Not wrong … confusing affect and effect affects credibility. The effect is immediate: readers sense something’s off and your rigor gets questioned. Doubt spreads. One small confusion cascades into a measurable effect on how seriously your work affects not just your credibility, but even ‘authority’.

Of course the effect of those words might also have you believe that I am ‘affected’.

@JohnPhilpin It’s worse than that: how will we ever effect changes in our affect?

@JohnPhilpin Ow my head.

@bkryer I’ll look for that thanks.

@MitchWagner I try 😉