Word versus writer

[audrabianca]

Which sounds more correct:

employees affect the brand of your company through daily interactions with customers

or

employees affect the brand of your company through daily interaction with customers

I believe the first, but MS Word says the second.

[Celeste Stewart]

I think that technically either sentence is okay as you could be talking about interaction as broad collection of actions or interactions as individual actions each employee does such as greeting customers, helping them find merchandise, solving problems etc. I am leaning toward the first sentence.

[Lysis]

Oh man, I must just suck. I said the 2nd then I read the reply. LOL

I said second, because "interaction" to me is a single component. Whether I interact through speaking or email, it's still one big ball of interaction. I get overly critical with myself though in the proofing process when I write here since the rules are tough. Thinking about it though, I suppose like Celeste said, they are both correct.

[Celeste Stewart]

Grammar is tough enough as it is and then you have nuance and context to worry about.

Employees affect your company's brand through their daily interactions with customers. With every smile, greeting, and problem-solving gesture, employees are . . .

Employees affect the brand of your company through daily interaction with customers. This give and take between your team and your customer base . . .

[Phil]

I guess I am just silly. But, FWIIW, I was taught that if the subject or subject helper is plural then the verb and or verb helpers should be plural. So I would think that numero uno would be correct. But, since the verb helper (employees) is already plural there may be a loophole that allows interaction to be singular. I dunno for sure but number two sounds better to my untrained ear. And, is there a chance that 'affect' is supposed to be 'effect'? I always mess that up and my dictionary is too far to reach.

employees affect the brand of your company through daily interactions with customers

or

employees affect the brand of your company through daily interaction with customers

[Celeste Stewart]

Still thinking about this one. In a way, it's kind of like the word "interaction" brings up a noun/verb type of thing. What is it? A noun or a verb? If refering to the individual interactions such as a greeting or smile, it seems like each individual action becomes its own thing. A greeting is a noun but "to greet" is a verb. So perhaps it depends on what we're talking about here - the action of interacting with customers such as smiling at customers and saying hello (verbs) or the acts themselves such as a greeting or a smile (nouns)? If the collection of interactions is meant as a collection, like a group of acts, then you have specific singular/plural rules you would use. The "group (of interactions)" affects this, not the "interactions" affect this. I guess it still comes down to whether we are talking about a group of interactions or the interaction itself as its own thing. Singular vs. plural; verb vs. noun.

This is an interesting one that I can't quite get my head around (of course it's late on a Sunday night and here I am puzzling grammar. Sheesh!) I still think it's okay both ways, but am wondering what you guys think. I think that I am overthinking this one myself but, then hmmn?

Phil, "affect" is correct in this case. Affect is the verb, effect is the noun. The director wanted to affect the audience and bring us to tears with his special effects. The effect was lost on us all because the movie stunk.

[Debbi]

re: effect and affect

Affect is correct in this case, but effect can be a verb and affect can be a noun, though in both cases they are specialized words not used by ordinary people.

Affect is a noun psychologists use when talking about someone's emotional demeanor. "The mother's flat affect when presented with her new baby suggested a lack of bonding." In this case, the first syllable of affect is stressed.

Effect is often used as a verb by bureaucrats, lawyers, and historians when talking about "bringing about" something. "Obama plans to effect sweeping changes in the healthcare system."

But generally, affect is a verb and effect is a noun for us regular folks

[Phil]

girls, gurls, and girlz... puh-leese. My head is hurting. I vow to never use affect in another sentence no matter the effect on said sentence......

[audrabianca]

I appreciate all of the feedback. I still hope Ed can chime in here when he gets a chance.

[Ed]

For this particular phrase, either appears to work, but I think Celeste's discussion about the context of the sentence is worth considering.

As has been indicated elsewhere, word processors cannot cope with the nuances of written language, so debating the merits of what it "thinks" may not the most useful way to solve this problem. A better way to solve the problem is to rewrite the sentence in various ways to find an alternative solution to convey the intended meaning in a clear manner. I don't know in what context this sentence will appear, but we could come up with endless variations that either solve the original problem or make it moot.

Employees affect the brand of your company through daily interactions with customers. --->Interaction between customers and employees affects your company's brand. (Interaction as a whole affects the brand.)

Positive interaction between customers and employees positively affects your company's brand. (Positive interaction as a whole affects the brand.)

Interaction between customers and employees affects your company's brand negatively or positively depending upon how the customers view that interaction. (Interaction as a whole).

---

Employees affect the brand of your company through daily interactions with customers. --->Interactions between customers and employees affect your company's brand. (Each individual interaction affects the brand.)

Positive interactions between customers and employees positively affect your company's brand. (Each individual positive interaction affects the brand.)

Interactions between customers and employees affect your company's brand positively or negatively. The quality of each interaction upon completion of a transaction will determine how the customer views your brand until she has another opportunity to interact with one of your employees.

---

When employees interact with customers on a daily basis, they affect the brand's reputation.

[audrabianca]

Cool. Thanks, Ed. You made me think about this situation differently. Once approved, you will see how it is used in my article about marketing and social media website usage for small businesses.