While "impacted" has become generally accepted as both a noun and a verb, propagated by CEOs who at one time in the past decade decided it was compelling to use as a verb and not just as a noun, the traditional use of "impact" is as a noun. The simple way to know you're using "impacted" as a verb and shouldn't is if you can change the word to "affected" and it works correctly. CORRECT: The balance sheet was affected by a write-off of subsidiary losses. The impact of the subsidary losses was a poorer balance-sheet performance. CORRECT: The credit-quality forecast was affected by higher estimates of 2008 oil prices. The impact of higher 2007 oil prices resulted in a stronger credit-quality forecast. WRONG: The balance sheet was impacted by a write-off of subsidiary losses. The forecast was impacted by higher estimates of 2008 oil prices. (Note: This is a series of blog reports about editing styles and rules as applied by Oil and Gas Investor magazine. The styles and rules do not always necessarily suggest using another style nor rule is grammatically incorrect.) Questions? Comments? I'm always glad to hear from you! –Nissa Darbonne, Executive Editor, Oil and Gas Investor, A&D Watch, Oil and Gas Investor This Week, www.OilandGasInvestor.com; ndarbonne@hartenergy.com
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