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janalsncmtoday at 6:57 PM2 repliesview on HN

> But in another instance, Epstein was critical of misspelling. A contact forwarded the sex offender his daughter’s college application in 2013. “I wish you had let me review before sending…the grammatical errors and spelling mistakes will make it at least harder for early admission,” Epstein wrote.

It is funny that spelling and grammar matter more when writing to an admissions officer than to a potential business partner. But it’s also funny to imagine a world where you could send in an essay with a bunch of typos and grammar mistakes and expect it not to influence your application.

Spelling and grammar matter in the sense that they are a signal that you know a complicated and somewhat arbitrary set of rules and have agreed to follow them.


Replies

gwerntoday at 7:59 PM

Also just differing levels of relevance. You don't talk with a businessman or investor or famous people in general because of their writing; if you made a list of relevant skills, 'proper spelling when quickly texting from a phone' surely doesn't crack even the top ten thousand skills. In academia, on the other hand, writing a formal application properly is a core skill.

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whywhywhywhytoday at 7:09 PM

>It is funny that spelling and grammar matter more when writing to an admissions officer than to a potential business partner

Things that matter in academia world don't always matter in the real world and vice versa.

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