Essay Length

Published by Charlie Davidson on

Essay Length

How to stick to the essay length given in the guidelines

Out of the many aspects which form the criteria of the evaluation of an essay assignment is its length. Many students tend to ignore this particular aspect as they don’t understand the significance of the instructions on essay length. But since most assignments require complete adherence to the guidelines, they end up losing marks because their essay is either too long or too short.

If you ever feel tempted to ignore the instructions on the length, remember that:

  • Each of the assignment guidelines has a purpose. So does the page limit. The restrictions on the essay length will test your precise writing skills as well as your skills in elaborating points to suit the page limit. Precise writing skills involve compressing matter into shorter sentences using lesser words, without losing the meaning or essence of the actual sentence. And elaboration requires the ability to stretch sentences without using irrelevant words or insignificant usages. And neither precise writing nor elaboration can be called easy tasks.
  • Your professors will have numerous assignments to evaluate. And the guideline instructions are the common platform for judgment of the essay submissions. If each essay is of a different length, it will not be possible to make a fair judgment of the submissions. Containing the necessary matter in the given space is the criteria and to meet that, your essay must be within the permitted length.
  • Presentation skills involve preparing the presentation which can be done effectively within a limited space. Hence the restrictions on the essay length are also meant to test your presentation skills.

Considering the significance of the page limit, it is ideal to stick to it than ignore it. There are many ways on ensuring that your writing is well within the permitted length.

  • Study the guidelines as soon as you get the assignment in hand and plan the project well. Stick to your schedule. Avoid last minute essay writing because then you will not have time to edit it to fit into the right length.
  • Use an essay outline. If you develop your essay from an outline, you will be able to limit the elaboration to just the necessary amount. It will also avoid wastage of time as if you exceed the length you will anyway have to cut it short.
  • Do not skip the editing part of your project. If you do not have time to do the editing yourself, get it done by professionals. But editing your essay assignment before submitting it is very important to ensure that your essay is just the right length; neither too short, nor too long.

Writing an essay is an art and writing it effectively within the permitted length is a skill. This is nothing that can be mastered over-night. It will take a lot of practice to learn how to compress or elaborate matter for the purpose of fitting it into the preferred essay length. If you are not sure of being able to manage it yourself, or if you are short of time to do it, we can do it for you. We not only offer custom essay writing services but we also undertake editing and proof reading jobs. Our professional writers will be able to edit your essay into the right length as is asked for in your guidelines.

Categories: Helpful tips