RECENTLY DISCOVERED!

So, it is official: I am a nerd. Tasha has been saying it since high school due to my intense desire to take every AP class available and to probably being the only graduate on the planet with perfect attendance (that's embarrassing). It continued in college when I still didn't feel good about missing a class and I would sweat and slave and spend Friday nights in the library (oh how I miss the HBLL!) working on yet another paper (or sneaking up to the fourth or fifth floor and reading books when I should have been studying).

And here I am, a college graduate, out in the "real world," getting excited because I finally found out how to remember the difference between effect and affect. If you, like me, get frustrated because you can't remember which of these commonly confused words to use in your sentence... I have discovered the answer (curtesy of "Grammar Girl"--quickandirtytips.com).

Basically (not counting exceptions):
Affect (with an A) is a VERB meaning to influence. (i.e. the arrow affected the aardvark)
Effect (with an E) is a NOUN meaning a result (i.e. the effect was eye-popping)

(Reminder: you can identify a NOUN because it will make sense with "a" or "the" in front of it. You can identify a verb because it can be conjugated--made into past or present tense)

I thought her picture was a good helpful reminder.

You would think I would be embarrassed to have not realized the NOUN/VERB difference before... but no. I am only embarrassed by how thrilled I am to have made this connection. See what becoming an English teacher does to you? Beware...