I haven't used this, but it might be helpful to equate 'affect' with 
'have an impact on'. If a mnemonic is needed, 'impact' does have an 'a' ...

I don't see 'effect' as an exception. It has a completely different 
meaning: to bring into being. It is also a pretty rare word. Students 
will be safe 99% of the time if they go for 'affect' as the first choice 
for verb.

'Affect' as a noun is also quite rare outside of texts with 
psychological topics. It's a safe rule of thumb that students should 
choose 'effect' when they need a noun.

Of course, all that is assuming that they know the difference between 
noun and verb and take the time to think about it when writing or 
editing. My students are getting better at this, but only because I come 
  down on them really hard about it and have a web page that covers many 
of the most common problems. I think this is lowering my student 
evaluation scores, but I'm getting a few better papers!!!

Unfortunately, when something affects something else, we also say that 
that something has an effect on the something else. I don't know if this 
would confuse students or help them, but usually my students appreciate 
it when I give explanation like this. It helps  them understand where 
the confusion comes from, apart from the pronunciation. I say it's crazy 
that the language does this, but that's just the way it is. I think they 
forgive themselves a bit for the confusion when they get these explanations.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Associate Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-2596
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •      Home page: 
http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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