Proofreading a School Noticeboard Announcement
A student editor, Nilar, is preparing this notice for the principal's approval. She has one afternoon to fix it. The notice must be clear because it affects all classes and the sports day.
Read this draft announcement for a school noticeboard and the editor's notes.
Draft: 'The principle wishes to inform all students that the stationary shop will be closed on Friday. This will effect all classes. Students should compliment the new timetable with their own schedule. The weather may affect the sports day, so listen to announcements. The school hopes to adopt to the new system soon. Please bring you're own pens.'
Editor's notes: (1) Check four commonly confused word pairs. (2) There is one pronoun error. (3) There is one wrong preposition after a verb.
1. Correct the four confused words and explain each choice.
Read the worked answer
'principle' should be 'principal' - the head of a school. 'stationary' should be 'stationery' - school supplies. 'effect' in 'will effect all classes' should be 'affect' - to influence. 'compliment' should be 'complement' - to go well with or match. Corrected sentence: 'The principal wishes to inform all students that the stationery shop will be closed on Friday. This will affect all classes. Students should complement the new timetable with their own schedule.' Reasoning: principal/principle = person versus rule; stationary/stationery = not moving versus paper goods; affect/effect = verb influence versus noun result; complement/compliment = complete or match versus praise.
2. Correct 'adopt to' and 'you're own pens' and explain each correction.
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'adopt to' should be 'adapt to' - to adjust to a new system. 'Adopt' means to take as one's own, for example adopt a policy. Corrected: 'The school hopes to adapt to the new system soon.' 'you're' is a contraction of 'you are'; the possessive is 'your'. Corrected: 'Please bring your own pens.' In a formal notice, contractions are usually avoided anyway, so 'you're' is doubly inappropriate.
3. Why is 'affect' correct in 'The weather may affect the sports day' while 'effect' is wrong in 'This will effect all classes'?
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'Affect' is usually a verb meaning to influence. The weather influences the sports day, so 'affect' is correct. 'Effect' is usually a noun meaning a result. In 'This will effect all classes', the word is in the verb slot, so 'effect' would mean 'to bring about' - but the intended meaning is 'influence', not 'cause'. Therefore 'affect' is needed. The test is the grammatical slot: after 'will', a verb is required; if the meaning is influence, use 'affect'. If the sentence were 'This will have an effect on all classes', 'effect' would be correct as a noun.