Five big-time grammatical offenders on college application essays

If there were an AP English-theme America's Most Wanted, these five errors would have high prices on their heads. While many high school students have mastered the art of writing grammatical sentences, a number of mistakes often slip through and end up right under admissions counselors' noses.

While it's true that a grammar error isn't a deal-breaker with a college, it can certainly misrepresent you to a reader. No matter how insightful or poignant your essay, if you're constantly mixing up they're, there and their, your reader might become exhausted by the distraction.

Don't let your college application essays fall prey to easily navigated grammatical errors. Let your words speak for themselves, and speak clearly. If you're looking for tips for getting into college, start with this list of major grammar errors, and comb through your essays for them.

1. Vague pronoun reference. When you have more than one plural noun in a sentence, don't use a pronoun like "they" unless it's very clear who or what it refers to. For instance: "Rob and Jane met her parents before they left." Who left?

2. It's/Its. "It's" is short for the pronoun-verb combo "It is," while "Its" is a possessive pronoun. Train yourself to pause over each and double-check that it's being used right.

3. Compound sentence comma. A compound sentence is made up of two complete sentences (full thoughts, able to stand on their own as sentences) joined by a conjunction. A comma must always appear before that conjunction that joins the two complete thoughts. When a conjunction combines a complete sentence with an incomplete clause, no comma is necessary.

4. Malapropisms. These occur when you use a wrong - but similar-sounding - word instead of the one you intend. Some examples include "epitaph" when you mean "epithet" or "illusions" when you intend "allusions."

5. Subject verb agreement. This is one of the building blocks of grammar, but in complicated sentences it can get scrambled and lost. Your subject and verb must always agree in number. A performance is tested. But performances are tested. Similarly, the performance of a brand new team of cars is tested. Despite all the words in between, "Performance" remains your noun and "is tested" remains your verb phrase.
 

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