Paul,
 
This threat got me curious as well, so I just tried googling "effect a
cure" to see what would happen, and got over 900 hits. Now, one cannot,
of course, say that the fact that a lot of people use an expression
guarantees acceptance by editors - I would guess that googling "alot" as
one word (spell-check keeps trying to fix that) would produce a large
number of hits as well. However, the documents using the expression
include a court case from 1995
(http://www.law.cornell.edu/nyctap/I95_0112.htm) , a university database
page on Renaissance figures
(http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/cardano.html) and quite a few
others that no one would class in the category of non-standard  or
colloquial writing, or deliberate "h4xx0rzsp34k." 
 
The phrase "effect an escape" produced over 16,000 hits - the usage is
apparently extremely common in law enforcement, and shows up in
documents produced by the Attorney General in 1995, among others
("Examples of this type of situation include using explosives in order
to effect an escape from prison or attempting to disable a fire truck
during a fire within an institution";
http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/readingroom/resolution14d.htm). Even Attorneys
General make mistakes, of course, but this was from 1995, when the
individual in question was still expected to know and even abide by
established precedents (sorry, simply could not resist that).
 
Judgment of a usage as "valid" or not is complex, and sensitive to a
wide range of sociopolitical factors, but its occurrence in a large
number of edited publications is at least relevant, if not conclusive.
There does seem to be a trend, though: "effect a cure" seemed to
generate more hits in documents related to earlier medical practices,
and "effect an escape" in legal contexts - which are notorious for
preserving archaisms. This may be a good example of a "Zombie
construction" - it's undead. It keeps staggering about in restricted
locations, even if people try to put it down for good, but it isn't what
anyone would call lively. Of course, tomorrow may bring us the "Clear
Welkin Initiative" from the EPA......
 
 
Bill Spruiell
Dept. of English
Central Michigan University
________________________________

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul E. Doniger
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 7:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Comments?
 
Bill, et all,
 
Of course, we can also make the welkin dance (indeed), Thy hounds can
make the welkin anwer them / And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow
earth, and sometimes hideous echoes make the welkin howl. I suppose this
thread has effected a response from me among others, but whether that
usage of 'effect' as a verb is acceptable by all is out of my welkin
entirely!
 
);--}
 
Paul D.
----- Original Message ----
From: "Spruiell, William C" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 7:12:29 PM
Subject: Re: Comments?
Peter, 
 
I have seen the expression "effect a cure" in connection to medicine
before, and I'm fairly sure I've seen "effect an escape" in regards to a
jailbreak. The verb is of quite limited usage, but it's not quite as set
a collocation as things like "wreak havoc" or "make the welkin ring."
 
-- Bill Spruiell
 
________________________________

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Adams
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 6:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Comments?
 
Am I right that "effect" as a verb almost always takes "change" as an
object?  Other than a change, what else can one effect?



Peter Adams



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