I am taking an online class. I submitted a paper that I just received back from the professor. She deducted 1/10 of a point because I used the word impact as a verb.
The paper was, apparently, otherwise perfect. My grade is a 99.9%.
I posted a message back to the instructor stating that the word impact may be used as a noun or a transitive verb. I included two online dictionary references to back me up, plus an example from both CNN and the New York Times.
Obviously the tenth of a percentage is not a huge deal, but I did want to state my case.
Here’s the topper: She wrote a scenario as a weekly question that we have to respond to. This is the last sentence of her scenario: “What advise would you give him?”
mmm
This is a matter of some controversy: Impact - definition of impact by The Free Dictionary
Usage Note: The use of impact as a verb meaning “to have an effect” often has a big impact on readers. In our 2001 survey, 85 percent of the Usage Panel disapproved of the construction to impact on, as in the sentence These policies are impacting on our ability to achieve success; fully 80 percent disapproved of the use of impact as a transitive verb in the sentence The court ruling will impact the education of minority students. · It is unclear why this usage provokes such a strong response, but it cannot be because of novelty. Impact has been used as a verb since 1601, when it meant “to fix or pack in,” and its modern, figurative use dates from 1935. It may be that its frequent appearance in the jargon-riddled remarks of politicians, military officials, and financial analysts continues to make people suspicious. Nevertheless, the verbal use of impact has become so common in the working language of corporations and institutions that many speakers have begun to regard it as standard. It seems likely, then, that the verb will eventually become as unobjectionable as contact is now, since it will no longer betray any particular pretentiousness on the part of those who use it. See Usage Note at contact.
Send your resume to the educational facility that is hosting these classes. Any instructor who doesn’t know that impact can be used as a verb, and who believes that advise is a noun needs to be outed. You might have yer’self a new job Mean Mister!!
Twenty or twenty-five years ago I HATED “impact” as a verb outside the field of astronomy. But I have become quite accustomed to it, and even use it myself. “The policy will impact school children” sounds fine to me, and subtly different from, “The policy will affect school children.”
Language changes. Once upon a time people were outraged by the use of the word “handbook”, or so I recall from my reading of historical linguistics.
Hijack: there’s a Henry Fonda film called Advise & Consent, based on a novel of the same name. I always assumed “advise” in this case was merely an alternative Amercian English spelling of “advice”. It seems unlikely that the verb “advise” was intended. So it was just a spelling mistake?
I don’t see much wrong with “impact” as a verb. English has always been open to using nouns or verbs, verbs as nouns, nouns as adjectives, and so on. Part-of-speech categorisation is hazy. You want to talk about a man made of snow, you just say “snow man”, not “snowly man” or anything like that.
No - the verb was intended. The title is a phrase from the Rules of the Senate: "1. When nominations shall be made by the President of the United States to the Senate, they shall, unless otherwise ordered, be referred to appropriate committees; and the final question on every nomination shall be, “Will the Senate advise and consent to this nomination?” which question shall not be put on the same day on which the nomination is received, nor on the day on which it may be reported by a committee, unless by unanimous consent.
I see, thanks. I did check the Wikipedia entry for the film, but it quotes an excerpt from the US constitution instead - "“shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint […] Officers of the United States”.
Tell her she’s fifty years behind the time. “Impact” has been used as a verb since 1601, and in the sense of “affect” since the 1930s. The OED doesn’t even call it slang or make any warnings whatsoever about its usage. According to Dictionary.com:
(bolding mine)
As is typical for this sort of grammatical nitpicking, the person calling it incorrect never bothered to look the word up in the dictionary.
I fail to see why this is controversial. Who on earth is confused by the use of impact as a verb? People can’t follow directions, don’t bother to vote, and buy houses they can’t afford, but this is supposed to be some kind of educational concern? I feel really sorry for my grandchildren (which luckily I don’t have yet).
