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Subject:Re: Affect and Effect From:Christine -dot- Anameier -at- seagate -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 1 Feb 2001 12:12:05 -0600
effect: to make something happen -- a common usage is "to effect change."
affect: to have an impact on something -- e.g., "This drought is beginning
to affect the garden."
FWIW, "effect" as a verb is used much less than "affect," and generally
with abstract concepts. If in doubt, it's probably "affect."
In Matt Floyd's example, "Canceling an item in the box will affect block
utilization percentage" would be correct. However, I'd suggest making that
more specific. Does it increase the block utilization percentage, or
decrease it? The problem with the verb "affect" (and its unpleasant cousin,
the popular neo-verb "impact") is that it's vague.
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