Is there a stronger alternative to “impact” as a verb?
“Impact” as a verb . . . go ahead, roll your eyes accordingly.
Last week, we had a request to change the verb “affects” to “impacts” in a headline. The requestor thought “impact” was the better choice because it was a stronger verb.
Original headline: Recent court decision affects physicians.
Requested headline: Recent court decision impacts physicians.
Once we explained that using “impact” as a verb is not proper usage, we were asked if there was stronger verb than “affects.”
The alternatives were:
Recent court decision concerns physicians.
Recent court decision involves physicians.
Recent court decision upsets physicians.
But we also could have rewritten the sentence as:
Recent court decision has an impact on physicians.
None of these choices were compelling.
So readers, is there a better alternative to “impacts” than the word “affects”?
Please share.
