#6, I'm the worst

Being a native English speaker, you would think that I have got all of the rules down to be grammatically savvy. I don’t, however, have the skill of grammar. I of course understand the basics and know how to hold an intelligent conversation, but when it comes to writing, I struggle, like many others.

I was thinking about some of the words that I struggle with, and the two words that I have always had a problem with are the words effect, and affect. I literally have to look up the words on the internet or dictionary and figure out what the differences are.

Looking on the web I have found that the differences are as follows; the “affect” is a word that should be used as a verb meaning to influence something. The word “effect” is a word that should be used for something that was influenced.

So one is the influencer, and the other is the influenced. Those definitions are opposites almost, yet I still get them mixed up. I can never remember which one to use, and I have to think about the situation I’m using the word in, to figure out which one fits. From there, I have to figure out if it’s the one that starts with “A” or the one that starts with “E.” Its mind boggling, yet, I still pull through somehow.

An editing mistake that I wanted to point out isn’t something public. There is a instant messaging program that I use at work and I have a friend that has the most awful spelling/grammar mistakes I’ve ever seen. We could sure make a spectacle and a good lesson out of his writings of what not to do.

This is a screen shot

Obviously this is not supposed to be overly professional, but he could try a little harder to be better. See how many mistakes you can find!