Using the verb effect for affect is surely one of the most common of all linguistic errors. And it gets even trickier, because the words have various meanings as nouns as well as verbs.

Let’s try to sort this out:

• The verb affect means to influence or change. "Jim wondered if reading a review would affect his judgment of the book."

• The verb effect means to cause, bring about, or execute. "The manager was certain that his plan would effect a solution." Or "The treatment effected a cure."

• The noun effect means result. "Martha’s speech had a powerful effect on the audience."

• The noun affect is rarely used outside of psychology and psychiatry. It means a feeling or emotion. The emphasis is on the first syllable.

As if all that isn’t enough, another sense of affect as a verb is to pretend or show off. "Charlotte affects a French accent, but she was born and raised in Kansas." The faux accent would be criticized as an affectation.

The distinctions above may be a bit complicated, but understanding them will affect your language skills positively, and the effect will be an improvement in your communication skills.

[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book forthcoming from AWAI, that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into critiquing, consulting, training, and speaking.]

Gary Marcus used the word in the title of his recent book Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind.

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]

Okay - so inter-office bickering isn’t news. What was so weird about this "fight" was that I didn’t know about it. Until, that is, I got a phone call from "Sam" saying, "I can’t believe how nasty you are being about this." Then I got an earful.

We’ve talked before in ETR about how important it is to be clear and specific in your writing. And that means your e-mails, too.

Sam had sent me an article he’d written. I made a few suggestions, and he didn’t agree with one of them. "I want to keep this the way I had it," he wrote in his e-mail to me. I could see his point, so I wrote back, "Sure. I don’t really care."

What I meant was that it was a small point, and nothing he had to anguish over. Had I been speaking to him on the phone or in person, he’d have known from my tone that I wasn’t upset in the least.

But what I meant doesn’t matter … because Sam interpreted my e-mail to mean that I thought he was wasting my time. That my way was right - and if he didn’t think so, I’d get in a snit about it.

The situation degenerated from there. He didn’t send me the final article. So a few days later, I asked for it.

He sent it over, and I noticed that he’d implemented the change I’d suggested. Curious about why he’d changed his mind, I e-mailed, "I thought you were going to keep this the way you originally had it?" That’s when I got the frustrated phone call.

We’ve since worked things out. But that little experience reminded me just how important it is to be crystal clear in your e-mails. Spell out exactly what you want. Don’t leave anything to interpretation. And - even though it may not always be professional - the occasional smiley face or exclamation point can soften an otherwise cold, impersonal e-mail … and help convey the friendly tone you are going for.

[Ed. Note: The business world isn’t always easy to navigate. That’s why it helps to have an insider’s guidance - someone to show you shortcuts and potential landmines. Let one multimillionaire business builder lead you, step by step, from starting a brand-new business to growing it to $10 million and then to $100 million or more.]

Though the original purpose of Dr. Marlatt’s technique was to help people struggling with drug and alcohol problems, it is now employed to manage any destructive behavior. Smoking. Gambling. Compulsive shopping. Inappropriate sex. Compulsive eating. And you can apply the concept to not-so-serious urges too - without the meditation and breathing.

Try it next time you feel the need for a little extra self-control. If, for instance, you get the urge to take a second helping of dessert… or pick at that "thing" on your nose… or tell off your mother-in-law. Just surf the urge for 10 or 20 minutes, and it will go away. Well… usually. I’ve been surfing the urge to buy a new car for three days now. I think the urge is winning.

Example (as used in the San Jose Mercury News): "If you want to grok the language, get your mitts on the new Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang."

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]

The best way to "seal the deal" with potential clients is to have a question and answer (Q&A) session after your speech. And that’s where you have to be firing on all eight cylinders.

Your prospects will have questions - and you’d better have the answers. Here’s how to prepare for it:

1. Set guidelines before launching into the Q&A. Tell your audience that you have time for few questions - but set a time limit. And keep to it. Make your answers as succinct as possible so you can answer as many of their questions as possible.

2. Learn to paraphrase rather than repeat a question before answering it. Paraphrasing allows you to remove any skepticism or hostility from a question.

Here’s an example. Say an audience member says something like, "I’m in customer service… and I tell you, it’s tough. We already sell a product similar to the one your company has, and we seem to get a lot of irate customers who want to return it and get their money back, even if they bought it more than 10 years ago. How would you handle this?"

In that case, you might paraphrase the question this way: "Okay, a customer bought that widget way back when Clinton was in office and NOW wants a refund. Here’s what you do…"

3. Listen carefully to the entire question. Never interrupt people before they are finished speaking (even if you know where the question is going). Maintain eye contact to show you’re focused on the question. And when the person is done speaking, address your response to the whole room.

With these three techniques, you can make your Q&A sessions more valuable to everyone in your audience.

[Ed. Note: You don’t have to be a professional speaker to benefit from public speaking techniques. They can help you convey your message to colleagues, employers, and clients. Get public speaking expert Peter Fogel’s guide to speaking like a pro right here.]

Example (as used in a review of Claim of Privilege by Barry Siegel in The Atlantic Monthly): "[Siegel] turns his gimlet eye on a 60-year-old imbroglio."

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]

(Source: National Geographic)