Altogether Effective

Grammar. In some classrooms, it’s the dirty scourge of the writing world. For many teachers, it’s one of the most important, yet challenging parts of the writing process. For others, it’s one factor among many, but one that still deserves much more attention. And for many students, it remains an oftentimes tricky part of learning how to write well. In fact, it seems like for every rule in English, there’s a counter rule that completely negates it.

Still, whenever we can find little tricks that clarify grammar, we’re helping our students master it. Case in point: affective vs effective and altogether vs all together. These two pairs are often super confusing for young writers, but they don’t have to be when we design some simple reminders to jog their memory about the rules. And yes, of course you can design unique reminders for your classroom! Whatever helps your students is what works…. Or you could say, whatever’s altogether effective!

Altogether vs All Together: There’s an easy way to keep these two straight. Altogether is completely one word, so it means completely. All together, on the other hand, consists of two words working together, united to mean being united!   

Affective vs Effective: This one is a little more tricky. But we can easily craft a reminder with a little creativity. Effective starts with “E,” so it’s something that causes effects, while affective starts with “A,” so it’s is something that results from anger, affection or any other emotion.

“Still, whenever we can find little tricks that clarify grammar, we’re helping our students master it.”

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