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The Arizona Republic reported today that two self-professed “grammar vigilantes” have been fined $3,035 and banned from entering any national park from one year. It seems that Jeff Michael Deck, 28, of Somerville, MA and Benjamin Douglas Herson, also 28, of Virginia Beach, VA toured the country last spring, searching out and correcting grammatical errors on signs.

So why are they banned from national parks? On March 28, the duo was caught “fixing” a sign with correction fluid and a permanent marker. The sign just happened to be a rare, hand-painted sign displayed in Grand Canyon National Park.

While I do not support the destruction of government property—or anyone else’s, for that matter—I do wholly support the sentiments of Deck and Herson. These twenty-something grammarphiles prove that grammar is not an old-fashioned convention.

You know who also believes grammar is important? Your admissions counselor, a.k.a., the person reading your college essay.

Deck and Herson took their respect of the written word to the extreme. But all you have to do is proofread your college essay before submitting it. This is the very least you can do, and even spell check can help you with that. A cleanly edited paper shows that you put time and energy into writing something for someone else will read. You wouldn’t show up to an admissions interview in dirty clothing, right? Think of a poorly edited paper as dirty clothing and clean up your act!

Once you have come up with a  college application essay topic, make sure it has staying power by asking yourself the following questions:

• Have you selected a topic that describes something of personal importance in your life, with which you can use vivid personal experiences as supporting details?
• Does your topic go beyond what you listed elsewhere on your application? It should move beyond your GPA, standardized test scores, and your extra curricular activities.
• Does your topic have supporting arguments? Can your paragraphs be fleshed out with evidence and concrete examples?
• Can you fully answer the question? Can you address and elaborate on all points within the specific word limit or will you end up writing a poor  summary that sounds more like a research paper than a personal statement? ? If you plan on writing something technical for college admissions, make sure you truly can back up your interest in a topic and are not merely throwing around big scientific words. Unless you convince the reader that you actually have the life experiences to back up your interest in neurobiology, the reader will assume you are trying to impress him/her with manipulative tactics.
• Can you keep the reader’s interest from the first word? They have so many applications to read and skim them pretty quickly, so you want to make sure you draw them in right away.
• Is your topic overdone? Check with old sample essays to make sure yours is more original and unique. Even if your topic is generic, can your writing add a new twist to make it stand out?
• Will your topic turn off a large number of people? If you write on how everyone should worship your God, how wrong or right abortion is, or how you think the Republican or Democratic Party is evil, it might be too racy. The only thing worse than not writing a memorable essay is writing an essay that will be remembered negatively. Stay away from specific religions, political doctrines, or controversial opinions. If you think you can pull off a controversial topic, acknowledge counter arguments so the admissions officers know that you have thought the topic through.
• Will an admissions officer remember your topic after a day of reading hundreds of essays? What will the officer remember about your topic? What will the officer remember about you? What will your lasting impression be?
• Lastly, is your college application essay topic tailor made for the particular college and major you are applying to? Colleges like when you have researched the one you want to attend and show that you have written a unique admissions essay specifically for them.

After reading these questions and you still think your college application topic is good to go, then congratulations, you’ve got the green light to take it to the next stay: the writing.