Randomly I managed to create a document for work which contained multiple references to things 'affecting' other things and the 'effect' of that.

Now everybody in the company seems to be chiming in about what the difference is. This one document has gone back and forth a gazillion times.

I am deciding whether to commit ritual suicide on top of the photocopier or go on a homocidal rampage with a staple gun.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/affect.html
Does this explain it? I'm not sure... I have a feeling that confusion in recent years is a result of that technical term used by psychiatrists and social scientists that the writer refers to.

People are stoopid, either accept it or commit suicide.

Roland, I 'm suprised such a small thing could have such an affect on your coworkers

In my opinion affect is how it impacts something, and effect is the thing causing the impact. It's hard to put into words as I am no writer!

So lets say immigration has an effect on the economy, how that affects you is not clear.

Just ask them how an apostrophe should be used and deflect the debate from your document to something else. It will also be good for a laugh!

That would be interesting in my office because the apostrophe is used differently in the Dutch language (I work for a Dutch bank), so a lot of them do use it 'incorrectly'.

That's exactly right. I was wondering how to word it, but you said it beautifully

Only took me about 3 hours to write it though!

But you got there!!! That's the main thing!

Here's another one for you (if you really want to confuse them next time you write a report...)

Enquire
Inquire

I don't think I've ever seen the words 'enquire' or 'enquiry' in the States....I think they only tend to use 'inquire' or 'inquiry' here.

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexper.../usage/enquire

Ooooh, here's another one:

Unorganized
Disorganized

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexper...anized?view=uk

Have fun!

The first one requires more thought than a Friday allows.

But disorganised means it was organised but badly. Unorganised means not organised at all.

Don't agree. The thing doing something to "something else", is having an affect on it; the resulting change to the "something else", is the effect.

Isn't that what I wrote? That the effect of an event is what affects you?

I would say you have an effect on something, not an affect, except in the psychological usage mentioned above.