Affect and effect are two words that easily get mixed up
AFFECT
Affect is mainly used as a verb. It means have an impact on, have an effect on. The bad weather affected our plans for the evening. The old man was visibly affected by the girl’s kind words. How will the strike affect your job?
Affect can also have the meaning pretend to be or have.
I don’t like how he affects a British accent.
The bad weather affected our plans for the evening
EFFECT
Effect is a noun. It denotesthe result of an action oran impression. The effect of his words was immediate. I liked the sound effects in the film. The law is still in effect.
To sum up, most often affect is a verb and effect is a noun.
That said, you may – on rare occasions – find affect used as a noun. Then it means something that acts on something else, usually in psychological jargon.
And effect can be used as a verb meaning to produce, bring about something new, often in phrases like ”to effect a change”
Have you ever thought about the difference between effective and efficient?
EFFECTIVE
Use effective when you want to say that something gives the result that was intended. Effective tells us whether something has been done, not how it was done. The focus is on the result.
Those pills are really effective – my headache disappeared in less than twenty minutes. The manager’s speech was short but remarkably effective.
Being effective can also mean officially start.
The new regulation is effective from 1 October.
EFFICIENT
Use efficient to say that somebody or something works well without wasting time, money or energy. Efficient tells us how something was achieved. The focus is on the process, on minimising cost or waste.
We are installing a much more efficient cooling system. She is a very efficient salesperson.
To sum up, effective is goal-oriented and focuses on the ability to produce a wanted result; efficient focuses on how little was wasted to produce the result. Or, to quote Peter Drucker, being effective means doing the right things, being efficient means doing things right.
An efficient company will do things at a lower cost (with higher profit), but it must also meet the customers’ requirements by being effective.
The corresponding nouns are effectiveness and efficiency.
If you have seven minutes to spare, here is a video explaining the difference between effective and efficient. And here you can read about affect and effect.
As a non-native writer of English you are naturally influenced by your own language and culture. When you write in English for an academic or scientific journal, you should bear in mind the Anglo-American style. It is especially important how you structure your text.
The text should have a clear structure with a linear presentation of the main idea and sub-ideas. Scientific journal articles are usually structured according to what is abbreviated as IMRAD, referring to Introduction, Material and Methods, Results and Discussion. To facilitate understanding, each paragraph deals with one issue, and a set of paragraphs form a logical unit.
Sentences, too, must be clearly structured. The subject comes before the verb, and adverbs and adverb phrases begin or end a sentence.
Structure
Writers from other cultures may be used to a different way of expanding on an idea; they may deviate from the topic, giving further examples and explanations, often in complicated sentences.
In some languages, adverb phrases can be inserted in the middle of a sentence, often breaking up verb forms or a verb and its object. This is not done in English, where the adverb phrase instead is put at the beginning or the end of the sentence.
Don’t write: *The company has in Sweden 600 employees. (For the use of the asterisk * read at the end of this page.) Write instead: In Sweden the company has 600 employees. Or: The company has 600 employees in Sweden.
Don’t write: *The technology is by some manufacturers expected to be dominant on the market within five years. Write instead: Some manufacturers expect the technology to be dominant on the market within five years. This example also shows that it is better to change passive voice to active.
There are many abbreviations of Latin words in English, but most of the words behind those abbreviations are not used in English in their full form.
The following are some Latin abbreviations used in English:
a.m.
ante meridiem
before noon
ca.
circa
about
cf.
confer
(bring together) compare
c.p.
caeteris paribus
other things being equal
e.g.
exempli gratia
for example
et al.
et alia, et aliae, et alii
and others
etc.
et caetera
and so on
f., ff.
folium, folia
page(s)
i.a.
inter alia
among other things
ibid.
ibidem
in the same place
i.e.
id est
that is
lb.
libra
pound (weight)
nem.con.
nemine contradicente
no one dissenting
op.cit.
opera citato
the work cited
p.a.
per annum
per year
p.m.
post meridiem
after noon
p.p.
per procurationem
through the agency of
q.v.
quod vide
on this matter see
re
in re
in the matter of
sic
sic erat scriptum
thus it was written
vs. (in legal text v.)
versus
against
viz.
videlicet
namely, that is to say
You can use sic to indicate a mistake in a cited text to show that the mistake was in the original text and is not yours. It is usually put inside square brackets: [sic]
The following are capitalised:
AD
anno Domini
in the year of the Lord
C.V.
curriculum vitae
course of life
M.O.
modus operandi
method of operating
N.B.
nota bene
note well
P.S.
post scriptum
after what has been written
Even if Latin words often are italicised in English text, you should write their abbreviations in normal font.
The Latin abbreviation et al. is short for et alia (et aliae, et alii), meaning and others (alia is masculine plural, aliae is feminine plural and alii neuter plural).
When referring to literature, the abbreviation is used to replace author or editor names when there are more than two (in some cases more than three) authors or editors:
Simon et al. (2000) showed the importance of R&D for production. This has been pointed out in previous research (e.g., Eriksson et al., 2016; Palm et al., 2016; Platts et al., 1996).
Make sure you put the full stop in the right place! The word et is not abbreviated but alia is, so the full stop must be after al.
When you write et al., the verb must of course have its plural form: Simon et al. (2000) have pointed out that …
In the possessive form, et al. is followed by an apostrophe and an s: Simon et al.’s (2000) contribution to research …
Latin words are sometimes italicised in English text, but abbreviations should not be in italics, unless the publisher requires it.
You will find some common Latin abbreviations in English here.
e.g. stands for exempli gratia, which means for example. Use e.g. when you want to list one or more examples of something you have mentioned.
Our products are sold in several European countries, e.g. France, Germany, Italy and Greece.
Since you want to give examples, don’t write a complete list.
i.e. stands for id est, which is Latin for that is or in other words. Use i.e. to clarify or explain something.
I am a linguist, i.e. I study languages.
In writing, e.g. and i.e. are lowercase. There should be a full stop after each letter, and the abbreviations should be preceded by a comma. In American English there should also be a comma after the abbreviation; British English usually does not have this comma. Instead of a comma before the abbreviation you can have a dash.
Latin words are often italicized in English texts, but when abbreviated they should be written in normal font.
The two abbreviations can, of course, be written out in full: for example and that is or that is to say. You should avoid beginning a sentence with an abbreviation.
To sum up, e.g. opens up some possibilities, i.e. narrows them down.
You will find more Latin abbreviations in English here.
Continual and continuous (and the adverbs continually and continuously) come from the verb continue but there is a difference between them.
CONTINUOUS
Continuous means that something is going on without interruption, non-stop. The continuous humming from the fridge made me crazy. (A continual humming would be worrying: Why does it stop, start again, stop, then start again …?)
CONTINUAL
Continual implies that something often happens with intervals, comes and goes. Being a typical teenager she had continual quarrels with her parents about homecoming rules. (Both she and her parents should be happy that the quarrels were not continuous.)
As with many other word pairs you may find that some writers don’t make a distinction between these two words. As a good English writer you know the difference, of course.
The two words later and latter look similar but there is an important difference that you should know.
LATER
Later modifies a verb, which is why we language nerds call it an adverb. It refers to something happening after a certain time. Let’s go to the cinema and then we can go to the pub later. Their best known product was introduced much later.
Later is also an adjective; it modifies a noun: I prefer his later work, especially the large paintings. Can we discuss this at a later date?
There are a few collocations with later: Sooner or later they will succeed. See you later! Later on in the film, they get married.
LATTER
Latter usually refers to the second of two persons or things. We can talk about the former and the latter. I have listened a lot to I’m Your Man and Tower of Song and I must say I prefer the latter. Would you like red or white wine? – The latter, please.
Latter can also refer to something being nearer the end. The company went global in the latter part of the 1990s. The full name of the Mormon Church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Writers sometimes do not distinguish between an accent and an apostrophe.
ACCENT
Acute accent
An accent is a diacritic, a sign added to a letter. When you type a diacritic on the keyboard, the cursor does not move on and so the diacritic is added above (or in other cases below, by the side of or even inside) the letter. Examples of other diacritics are the circumflex ( ^ ), the umlaut ( ¨ ) and the tilde ( ~ ).
(Some Swedish words with diacritics have come into the English language, such as ångström, glögg, smörgåsbord and surströmming.)
English has two two accents, the acute accent ( ´ ) and the grave accent ( ` ).
The acute accent in English is used in loanwords such as apéritif, café, cliché, décor, fiancé and fiancée. In some very rare cases an acute accent is added to a loanword that lacks the accent to show that the last vowel of the word is pronounced: The Italian word latte (milk) is sometimes written latté (or lattè) in English. This can be misleading, since it suggests that the stress is on the last syllable, while the Italian word has the stress on the first syllable and has no accent.
The grave accent is rare in English and – like the acute accent – mainly used in foreign words: vis-à-vis, à la carte, ampère, manège, première.
Generally, English writers do not use diacritics even in loanwords – in fact, English keyboards do not have any accent marks. The Swedish words mentioned above are usually written as angstrom, smorgasbord, etc. There are, however, a few words in which the accent marks a difference between an English word and a loanword:
exposé (film or newspaper article revealing shocking facts about somebody) – expose (show, reveal, give experience)
résumé (short text giving the main points) – resume (start doing something again)
rosé (pink wine) – rose (a flower; pink colour)
APOSTROPHE
The apostrophe is a punctuation mark. In English it has several uses:
It marks omission of one or more letters: Don’t be late (Do not)! I’d prefer a smaller one (I would).
It marks the possessive case: Have you seen my brother’s car? There is no apostrophe in his, hers, its, ours, yours and theirs.
In the plural there is no s after the apostrophe: Have you seen my brothers’ cars?
It marks plurals of single letters Mind your p’s and q’s (Mind your manners; be careful about what you say or do).
In plurals of abbreviations and acronyms there is usually no apostrophe: PCs, DVDs, MBAs, URLs, FAQs, UFOs, JPEGs. If there are full stops in an abbreviation, you can include the apostrophe for clarity: Ph.D.’s.
Most style guides leave out the apostrophe in the plural form of decades: They made their first record in the 1960s. You can write an apostrophe before the decade when it is abbreviated: Those born in the ’90s.
The apostrophe represents thousand: 30’ (= 30 000)
The apostrophe is also used as a quotation mark. British English prefers single quotation marks, while American English has double quotation marks ( ” ).
To sum up, you can do very well without the accent in English and only need to worry about the apostrophe. Remember to mind your p’s and q’s; skip the accent and put the apostrophe in the right place!
A dictionary of synonyms suggests alternative words:
Collins English Thesaurus
You can find more about dictionaries of synonyms here.
A dictionary of collocations shows how a word can be combined with other words and parts of speech:
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
Read more about dictionaries of collocations here.
Finally, a thesaurus builds on concepts and ideas and will give you lots and lots of closely and more remotely related words and expressions:
Roget’s Thesaurus
A thesaurus gives you ample opportunity to vary your text, but you need to understand nuances in meaning. Under Vb. (Verb) we find neutral phrases such as be in charge and have overall responsibility but also expressions from working life such as take the helm (of a ship), take the chair (lead a meeting) and hold the reins (of a horse). We also find more informal phrases such as wear the trousers, which implies someone who is in control and makes decisions. You would not use that expression in a serious text about the CEO of a company!
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