Grammatical Mistakes in College Essays

Grammatical Mistakes in College Essays August 22, 2012 Avoid spelling errors and grammatical mistakes in college essays. Too many college applicants make these very errors. Grammatical mistakes in college essays are not alright. The number of  grammatical mistakes in the vast majority of college essays never ceases to amaze us. Its a rarity when we read through a college essay and dont find a ton of mistakes. And were talking about major mistakes. Is it okay for college applicants to write fragments? Certainly. Fragments can, at times, be quite powerful. If used appropriately! Notice the previous phrase was a fragment. If an English teacher is proofing your college essays and getting rid of anything that is not perfectly grammatically correct according to her rules of the English language, you might want to seek help elsewhere. Its totally fine to write in a colloquial tone. Its totally fine to put a fragment here or there. But whats not okay are grammatical mistakes. Whats an example of a grammatical mistake? An example would be writing its when its is the proper word to use. The alligator nibbled at its own tail. Writing its own tail would be grammatically incorrect. Its not a mistake you want to make in your college essays. Whats another common grammatical mistake in college essays, you ask? How about starting a sentence with and or but now thats a mistake, right? Wrong! Your English teacher may have taught you never to do this, but theres absolutely nothing wrong with it. Starting a sentence with and or but (sparingly) can often be very powerful. So dont be afraid one bit to do it. Ignore your English teacher! And one last thing. Dont start sentences with however or nevertheless all of the time. Maybe your English teacher taught you to do this, too. (Note: Many students write to when it should be too or too when it should be to). Its verbose. Its awkward. Its unoriginal. No need to start sentences with such formal words that arent used in everyday conversation. So take the following words out of your vocabularies as you apply to college: nevertheless, however, thus, nonetheless, by and largeyou get the idea. While youre here, check out this post on Grammar and College Essays.