This Post Should Have An Impact On Your Writing

Im ashamed to say I forgot one of my favorite books on writing innbsp;this post.nbsp;Patricia T. OConner, former editor ofnbsp;The New York Times Book Review wrote a superb book callednbsp;Woe Is I. She and I share many of the same pet peeves, and using the word impact as a verb is one thats at the top of my list. It grates on my nerves that what started as a lazy way for TV sportscasters to pretend they were smarter than they were has become acceptable in everyday speech. Impact isnbsp;not a verb. Impact is a noun (no matter what Merriam-Webster tries to tell you — shame on you, formerly venerable M-W). The wisdom teeth above are impacted. Impacted wisdom teeth willnbsp;have an impact onnbsp;the jaw shape of the poor unfortunate adolescent who allowed his X-rays to be used on Wikipedia under wisdom teeth. Merriam-Webster compounds its error with this nonsense: None of those are words, either. Every time I hear someone use impactful, it makes me want to scream. Ive never heard anyone use impactive, but it makes my eyes bug out just reading it. In casual writing, you should use the word affect (notnbsp;effect, which is also a noun. My first editor told me I might get tonbsp;The Newnbsp;York Times, someday, but not until I learned the difference between the two. Ill address the difference in another post.). But if affect doesnt meet your needs, try any of these on for size:nbsp; Or these: Or even these:nbsp; Just dont use impact. As the incomparable OConner, in her own brilliant way, described it: The kind of person who uses language as a sledgehammer is likely to use impact as a verb meaning affect. ... If you don't want to give the rest of the world a headache, use impact only as a noun.