Facebook Grammar Debate: In the following sentence, would the proper word be affect or effect?

[mjr2013 --- Tigers in 2012!!]

"Over the course of the 30 second ad, as a voice over describes the ______ anabolic steroids have on teenagers, the statue of the Roman Athlete begins to crumble."

Currently the vote is 6-4 in favor of effect. I say affect though.

Please say what expirience you have in english and grammar too.

[Heybail]

Effect

Hope this helps!

[Entwined]

effect. Anybody who say otherwise is wrong! 'Affect' is a verb, 'effect' is a noun. The clause only makes sense with a noun in place.

[Michael]

affect is right -

Effect is traditionally used as the deliverable combined to create 2 or more actions will effect the out come.

Affect is an external influence that will affect the out come independently.

Maybe think this way your body is affected by roids, but the effect is muscles.

[O.bama M.ust G.o]

The right word is Effect.

When Should You Use Affect?

Affect means "to influence," as in, "The arrows affected 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."

When Should You Use Effect?

Effect 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."

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/aff...ffect.aspx


Wannbe writer. I have professionally designed and written flyers, posters, brochures, manuals and how-to's.

[Isobel]

Ill-educated Internet users have had a noticeable and negative effect on English. Their consistently poor grammar has affected and changed the language such a way that even those who do not spend their lives on-line are impacted.

Effect is generally, but not always, used as a noun.
Affect is generally, but not always, used as a verb.

Unless you are very confident with the specific instances where they are not used as listed, it's best to use them as shown above. The odds of you being incorrect are much smaller that way.

Try Strunk and White's 'Elements of Style' or the AP Stylebook for more information.

[Expertmoon096]

You're wrong. It's effect.

[GTAP!!]

effect

In English9