111 boy - I understand your sarcasm but as someone who also runs a small business and regulary reads CV's from prospective employers, grammar and spelling is absolutely a requirement in my view. Any cv's I receive with spelling or obvious gramatical mistakes go straight in the bin. If people haven't got the attention to detail to get that right I sure as hell don't want to employ them. I susupect 99% of all employers are the same.
Of course you don't need grammar and spelling to fly a plane well, but getting it wrong on an application demonstrates a lack of care or attention to detail, which are crucial attributes in our job.
Also before anyone cries discrimination, I can't spell and am slightly dyslexic, stuff that doesn't really matter like this I'm typing now i don't care about - stuff that does I have coping strategies and attention to detail that makes sure it is right.There really is no excuse.
I had a cv from someone last week who had a math's A level. (yes, with the apostrophe there!).Its filed in the plastic bucket marked paper recycling right now.
Anyhoo back on topic - the essay questions are pretty key I think - I did them in a word processor over a few days, edited, cut and paste, rewrote, re edited etc. I got someone else to read through them to give a 'fresh-eyes' perspective on what I wrote. (and I did a word count in microsoft word!) if they ask for 200 words, don't write 250! Only when I was happy did I copy and paste the answers into the application form.