The word impact as a verb comes up pretty often in the course of my work. I am not a fan (and neither is the AMA Manual of Style). I prefer to use affect instead, and when it comes to nouns I like effect better than impact, but I always had to stop and think about it and be sure that I was correctly using these words. I just could not remember. Then, a few weeks ago, I was poking around the internet and came across this useful mnemonic device, RAVEN.
“Remember: Affect is a Verb and Effect is a Noun.”
It’s not a new thing, but I hadn’t heard it before. It stuck in my mind because crows and ravens, those smart, handsome birds, are very interesting to me. Since then, I’ve noticed that the phrase popped into my head right away when I was confronted with the effect/affect question.
Happy Halloween!—Karen Boyd
Except that effect can also be a verb meaning to cause something to happen.
Yup! And affect can be a noun meaning someone’s emotional expression. Not bad for a quick-and-dirty bird-related mnemonic, though.
Thank you for sharing! I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who doesn’t like “impact” as a verb.
Would you also comment on the term “impactful” – it is popping up everywhere and I personally dislike this term immensely!