College Admission Essays: Getting the Grammar Right the Second Time Around - Verbs

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No one writes a perfectly grammatical first draft. Not even me . . . er, I. See what I mean? While you’re creating the rough draft, you’re concentrating on content and, to a lesser extent, style. The picky stuff — commas, spelling, the selection of “is” or “are” — doesn’t flow from anyone’s pen in an uninterrupted stream of correctness. Not in this universe, anyway.

Nevertheless, you can’t leave those errors in your admission essay. The admissions committee (or the scholarship committee, if you’re begging for bucks) is judging your level of education. Rightly or wrongly, they will see the quality of your grammar as an indication of academic accomplishment. And if you’re writing an essay as part of a job application and your grammar is faulty . . . well, as we say in New York City, the job “ain’t gonna happen.” Employers generally hold applicants for professional positions to strict standards of written and verbal expression.

Memorizing grammar rules is a waste of time. If you’re normal (that is, not an English teacher), all you want to do is to correct any errors in your essay as quickly as possible and then move on to bigger and better things.  A good strategy is to go over your essay four times. With each rereading, check for one type of problem, consulting the rules and examples as necessary. After four check-ups, take up the issue of spelling. 

Verbs

Every grammar check should start with verbs, because they’re “where the action is,” as we used to say in the sixties. Here’s the definition, so you know what you’re checking: A verb is a word that expresses action or state of being. In a sentence, the verb may be one word or a couple of words. Note the verbs, which are in italics, in these sentences:

I would like to attend Silly Nutty University because of my interest in humor. (would like = verb expressing action)

For the past two years I have been an active member of my school’s Class Clown Appreciation Society. (have been = verb expressing being)

Your major in Farcical Face Painting attracts me because I love disguises. (attracts, love = verbs expressing action)

I will be the Picasso of farcical face painting one day. (will be = verb expressing being)

Verbs have three characteristics that may cause problems: tense, number, and voice.

Tense

No, I’m not talking about the sort of mood that calls for scented candles and a massage. I’m talking about time. The past, present, and future are indicated in an English sentence by the tense of the verb. Even if you don’t know one iota of fancy grammar terminology, you use verb tenses with every statement you make, and most of the time you’re probably correct. If you hang out with reasonably fluent speakers of English or if you watch a moderate amount of television, the proper tenses seep into your brain without any conscious effort at all. Unfortunately, even the best students of English sometimes trip over a small number of tense rules — but you won’t, if you follow these guidelines. (Note: In the following examples I’ve placed all verbs in italics so you can zero in on them easily. Don’t italicize anything in your essay unless you’re emphasizing a particular word or idea or indicating a title.)

•  Don’t change tenses without a reason for doing so. If you’re discussing the effect on your worldview of your Uncle Elmer’s invention of a special toupee glue, you probably want past tense:

Elmer spent the rest of his life attached to the living room couch, but his discovery eased the life of millions. . . .

Or, if you love drama, you may choose present tense:

Elmer stares into the pot of sticky white liquid. “This revolutionizes the world of baldness,’ he thinks. ‘Now I have no fear of the wind whipping off my toupee!”

What you can’t do is hop frivolously from one to the other. Surprisingly, this practice is quite common, especially over the course of a three-page essay. Here’s an example of an invalid switch from present to past:

Elmer patents his discovery, but he never used it. He died in 1983.

Just to show you the difference, here is a paragraph with valid tense switches:

I think about Elmer every time I count the few remaining hairs on my head. I will never forget what he said the last time I saw him. “My boy,” he declared, ‘Forget the toupee tape and dump the implants. Glue will be our family’s choice forever.” Because of my uncle’s experience, I want to major in chemistry. (think, count, forget, dump, want = present; will forget, will be = future; said, saw, declared = past)

• Add “had” to a verb to indicate that one event in the past took place before another past event. Suppose that you’re writing about the experiences that prompted you to apply to the Institute for Advanced Jailhouse Studies. You’re describing the profound impression made by your childhood visits to Aunt Cleo’s cell. Check out this excerpt, noting the verbs that I’ve placed in italics:

I will use my degree from the Institute for Advanced Jailhouse Studies for the betterment of the human race. My determination to do so stems from my visits to Aunt Cleo’s cell. Every Saturday we visited her, often toting a cake I had baked the night before. Aunt Cleo was not particularly fond of cake, but she always thanked me politely before asking if I had inserted a file.

Notice that in the third sentence, the cake baking precedes the visiting, so the proper verb is had baked, not baked. In the fourth sentence, the insertion takes place before the thanking, as indicated by the verb hadinserted.

The most common mistake with “had” is to place it everywhere, as in this paragraph:

When she had asked me about the file, I had replied that I didn’t believe in jail breaks. I had told her that she had done the crime and must now do the time.

Too many had’s. Here’s the correct version:

When she asked me about the file, I replied that I didn’t believe in jail breaks. I told her that she had done the crime and must now do the time.

Now you’ve got one had, to show that the crime took place before the conversation.

• Add “has” or “have” to a verb to show a link between past and present. If you’re writing about your most bizarre hobby, this sentence is correct:

I have devoted the past five summers to collecting cat hats.

The have, added to the verb devoted, shows that you are still a collector. Contrast the preceding example with this one:

I devoted five summers to collecting cat hats. Since 2002, my cousin Aphra has been studying dog earmuffs, and I plan to join her next expedition.

The plain verb, devoted, indicates that the cat-hat hobby is over. (What a relief!) In the second sentence, has been studying shows that the dog hobby is on-going.

• If you’re writing about a work of literature, use present tense. Some colleges ask you to discuss “a poem or novel that affected you.” Because events in literature never took place, they can’t be in the past. They begin again every time a reader opens the book. Hence, present tense is appropriate when you talk about events in a literary work, and past tense is best when you talk about the experience of reading it. (Note: The verbs are italicized here to make them easier to find. A play title is also italicized. Don’t italicize anything in your essay unless you want to add special emphasis or indicate the title of a full-length creative work.)

My junior English class studied Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I was profoundly impressed by Lady Macbeth’s manipulation of her husband. She tells him that he is not manly, and he immediately gives in to her requests.

Notice that the first two sentences have past-tense verbs because they describe the act of reading, which took place in the past. The last sentence has present-tense verbs because it discusses Shakespeare’s play.

Number

Number is the English-teachers’ term for singular (one) or plural (more than one). To choose the number of the verb, check out the subject — generally who or what is doing the action or is in the state of being expressed by the verb. (Don’t worry about the small number of sentences in which the subject receives the action. They’re unlikely to cause number problems.) Singular subjects are paired with singular verbs, and plural subjects with plural verbs. Most English verbs (thank goodness!) have the same form for both singular and plural, with one important exception. If you’re talking about someone or something, the present-tense form changes, as in these examples: