Don’t let these two commonly confused words negatively affect your writing.

Affect is a verb meaning to “to influence” “to impact”: The layoffs affect about a third of the company’s employees.

Effect is a noun meaning “the consequences of”: The effect of the layoffs was lower company morale.

Hopefully the effect of this little tip will be correct usage!

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.