Our friend and resident poet/language professor Phil Holland has composed a poem for me!
The other day, I commented here, in response to his last poem, that I have a hard time remembering when to use “affect” and when to use “effect.” In what seemed like a matter of minutes, the brilliant Mr. Holland had whipped up a very clever poem to help me. He emailed it to me straight away, but I begged him to recite it, because everybody loves his voice so much. I must say I was blushing and grinning maniacally when I heard him utter my name on YouTube. I think it’s my YouTube debut. Please, don’t try to prove me wrong by finding some embarrassing footage of me on YouTube, this would have a very negative effect on my self esteem, forcing me to affect a haughty and dismissive attitude toward you all, my dear blog friends. Let’s hope I got that right.
Here it is. I’m just blushing away.
I know some of you can’t view the videos on your computers, so here’s the poem:
One for Ann (Ann, for One)
Okay, does anybody know a clever trick to help me figure out
when to use “affect” and when to use “effect”?
Posted by Ann Leary | May 19, 2009 10:22 AM
It’s like a curse, this lesson,
Though it’s what I should expect
For deciding that I’d teach
You how “affect” is not “effect.”
They’re cousins in confusion,
And they’re both two parts of speech,
Though with pronunciation
That is different for each.
Effect (the noun) is easy,
It means “result produced,”
“The effect on home run hitting
When a batter’s, you know, ‘juiced.’”
Effect can also be a verb,
“To produce, to bring about,”
“To effect the needed changes,”
With both parties or without.
Affect (the verb) means “influence”
“To affect how someone swings,”
“To affect a mood or outcome –
Or the taste of chicken wings.”
I probably should mention
A secondary sense,
“To feign, to make a show of” –
“To affect indifference.”
That gives us “affectation”,
As when you put on airs
So the maitre d’ will seat you
With the other millionaires.
Lastly, affect (noun, and note the stress)
Is rather seldom heard,
It means a show of feeling,
Though it’s quite a formal word.
Now then, have I affected you,
And will you now retain
The effect of all this rhyming?
Say yes, because the pain
Of making these cursed verses
Better not have been in vain!
– Phil Holland
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Yes Ann, I use affect to describe someone’s emotional state, which I either observe or they describe in session. I came to my profession a bit late in life. After one broken heart too many, I entered therapy in my early 40s, and thought, “Hey, I think I could do this therapy stuff myself.” I had always been interested in psychology, so I looked into graduate programs. I continued to work full-time in another field, going to grad school part-time at night, and I had found my BLISS. I feel so honored and blessed to do what I do. I’m not surprised you have lots of folks in the caring fields reading your blog. Your writing is introspective, smart and funny, which helpers tend to be, I think. Well, we’re at least introspective.
Uh…Mr. Phil himself……GULP!
YES! A comment from Phil Holland himself.
Hey, Mary L, you kiddin me?
Just look at stanza three!
“Result produced” must be “effect,”
Replay repeatedly!
Phil H
Mary L.
Lets see if this is clearer.
Affect and mood
Mood, like emotion, is an affective state. However, an emotion tends to have a clear focus (i.e., its cause is self-evident), while mood tends to be more unfocused and diffused. Mood, according to Batson, Shaw, and Oleson (1992), involves tone and intensity and a structured set of beliefs about general expectations of a future experience of pleasure or pain, or of positive or negative affect in the future. Unlike instant reactions that produce affect or emotion, and that change with expectations of future pleasure or pain, moods, being diffused and unfocused, and thus harder to cope with, can last for days, weeks, months, or even years (Schucman, 1975). Moods are hypothetical constructs depicting an individual’s emotional state. Researchers typically infer the existence of moods from a variety of behavioral referents (Blechman, 1990).From Dickipedia..
If you REALLY want to get a good grasp about AFFECT, you could ask to visit any local mental facility, and observe the patients. Probably there will be folks suffering from autism, skitzophrenia, mental retardation, and some with a combination of all of the above at different times. It is a state of mind, a seemingly unfocused but very present.
The other two words that drive me NUTS are AFFERENT and EFFERENT, in the circulatory system and the excretory system (kidneys)… and in exams there would be this one PIN at this certain location in a nephron (sometimes UPSIDE down)(others cockeyed) and the questions was “is it going in or coming out” (you had 3 minutes) and I am still not sure.They would give no quadrant (body is split into understandable squares, nor spacial location). Unlike the digestive system, whereby it is easy to know that something comes in and ‘other’ comes out.
And happy Memorial Day to all. President Obama does NOT rest, and he should.
I always knew how to use the word effect but affect always stumped me – I resolved the issue in my high school years. I remember reading an article about Barbra Streisand. Part of the article was about her interviews with various talk show hosts on tv. I remember the writer saying something to the “effect” of; “with her heavy Brooklyn accent, cross-eyed look, nails flailing she would do better to tone down the dramatics with one on one interviews as she comes off so “affected”. I really understood what the word mean’t when I actually saw a few very early interviews of her in which she behaved horribly “affected”. For me, it was a visual thing to understand the word. No offense Babs – you’ll always be the greatest!
Ann, that truly had an effect on me.. or is it affect?
This is such a wonderful classroom, thank you Mr. Holland and Mrs. Leary!
Hope everyone here is having a great holiday weekend!
Welcome Sandra! So you use the word affect when describing a patient’s demeanor? Like he has a flat affect? Interesting. What made you go into psychotherapy if you don’t mind my asking. It seems that we have a lot of people here who are in the “caring” fields – nursing, fostering children, teaching, etc. Very nice.
First time to comment. I have been reading your blog for several months, and am a bit intimidated to post, but I shall give it a try since I just had a glass of wine, and have lots of confidence at the moment. I always got affect and effect confused, too, until I became a psychotherapist. Now I use the word affect every day, in the “formal” sense that Phil describes. How lucky you are that Phil has written a poem for you, and that he recited it. Love him.
WOW! That was so well written!! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and listening to Phil recite it on youtube for Ms. Ann. I had forgotten how “affect” can have several meanings depending on whether it’s being used as a noun or as a verb. Thankyou Phil for reciting it and to Ann for sharing this with us. The way that talented writers can put words together to create such enjoyable reading experiences always amazes me.
How truly wonderful.
I shall evermore be affected by the effect of this poem.
Now, is that right????
Oh well, I’m just affected in general!
Hi Wanda, no will not be attending Book Expo. The publishers have to send you. Maybe I can crash it.
HOW COOL! I loved that, and I understood every word!
I almost forgot to ask. Will you be attending Book Expo next week in NYC? I think Tracy asked a couple of weeks ago but I never heard the answer.
I absolutely love that! I have always had the hardest time remembering how to properly use those two words.
Who knew I’d learn something new on a Saturday!
Fabulous!!!
Oooooooh!! Thank you Phil Holland, and thank you Ann for convincing him to recite it! That was excellent.
English nerds, unite!
How wonderful I confuse these too
Sadly his poem confused me more lol
Senor Phil Holland:
That is wonderful….