You don’t have to care. So we’ll take it back and not say you “should” care. But you might want to care – at least in the context of writing the best essays you can, which means clearly saying what you mean to say and not saying something ridicjulous.
Like this:
Good news everyone! Though shockingly deeply lodged in my ear canal, my trauma-nurse sister was able to extract the loose silicon earbud cover!
Wait hang on, let me back up. So it turns out that earbuds can break in your ear on the train.
Or so I’ve heard.
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) September 13, 2018
That particular thread is pretty funny because that guy is pretty funny, but if you didn’t notice, what he wrote in the second sentence is actually nonsensical.
Here’s the reply-tweet that pointed it out:
Was she a trauma nurse before she got lodged in the ear canal, or because she got lodged in the ear canal?
— Glenn Hansen (@HansenHouse) September 13, 2018
These are the types of writing errors that not everyone will notice. Usually, the thing-you’re-saying can still be figured out from context. It’s probably true that most all of you reading today knew that the ear bud is what was stuck in the guy’s ear, and that the sister only helped to extract it. But technically that’s not what he wrote.
Being precise with language is more important in some contexts, or with some statements — such as the classic Eats Shoots and Leaves from the wonderful book by the same name.
Getting this wrong in an MBA essay won’t be the end of the world, or the end of your chances of an admit.
But sometimes these errors are funny, which actually is funny/not-funny because what’s funny to the adcom is decidedly not-funny to you when you realize the error happened on an app that’s already been submitted.
So just a reminder today — AGAIN — that grammar counts! And your fifth grade teacher Ms. Henderson is now smiling that FINALLY you see the value in all that she tried to cram down your throat.
And the other reminder that EssaySnark is available this weekend!! In case you have dangling modifiers that you need pointed out.
Tell us what you think.