• @[email protected]
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          136 months ago

          To “affect” a change would be to alter the change itself, for example if the university had already been reviewing its portfolio then the protesters might be affecting the change by making it happen more quickly.

          To “effect” a change would be to cause the change in the first place.

        • prole
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          36 months ago

          This is one of the few oddities of the English language that I struggle with constantly. It seems like, as a native speaker, most of the other ones just “feel” or “sound” right, but I haven’t been able to nail that down with effect/affect for some reason

          • Jojo, Lady of the West
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            26 months ago

            The trouble is that both words have a verb sense and a noun sense.

            The noun sense of affect is something like “mood” or “emotion” and isn’t used often, while the noun sense of effect is “thing that happened (because of some cause)” and is a rather common word.

            The verb sense of affect is “to cause something to happen (to something)” and is a pretty common word, while the verb sense of effect is more like “to make something be true” as in “effecting change” above.

            The mnemonic I use is from dungeons and dragons, some spells are “mind-affecting effects” meaning they change minds and they’re caused by the spell being cast.

            • @[email protected]
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              46 months ago

              If I use my Persuasion skill to help someone think their way through a problem, is that a “mind-effecting affect”?

              • Jojo, Lady of the West
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                16 months ago

                I don’t know that I’d say persuasion skills are an affect, but if your mood gives people ideas, that’d work.

    • Flying Squid
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      146 months ago

      In this case, no change happened because the university didn’t invest in Israel in the first place.

      • @[email protected]
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        226 months ago

        The students being allowed to peacefully protest at all is a nice change, and hearing about it could encourage other peaceful protesters, who could enact more direct change