how to stay within the word limit in in class essays

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darkfuji
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21 Mar 2012, 4:34 pm

can someone help me whenever i do an essay i go over the word limit.



Alexender
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21 Mar 2012, 4:35 pm

Lol I have the opposite problem, whenever I wrote it was under


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pete_dystopia
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21 Mar 2012, 5:26 pm

I am usually 50 words or so over. I go through very carefully, cutting out padding words that aren't really necessary and trying to identify places where I could explain things more concisely. If I am way over it may be that I have gone off on a tangent somewhere, so I will go back to the question and see if all the arguments are apposite.



RarePegs
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21 Mar 2012, 5:30 pm

Use the word counter on your word processor



Teredia
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21 Mar 2012, 7:51 pm

okay firstly plan out with dot points, just the facts and main points in each section of the essay and then expand on that. your intro should be 200 - 300 words long if you qre writing a approx 1500 words etc.
intro should introduce the topic arguement, give scope (what your aim is and how you're going to answere your topic arguement).

remember dont blabber on on sthings that are not important or unrelated to your arguement.

your conclusion needs to be bfrief paragraph and a sum up of the body and main topic points.

i hope these pointers can help you stay in teh word count.
also little words like 'a' a lot of teachers dont count them.



ebec11
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21 Mar 2012, 7:55 pm

Usually teachers don't mind over as much as under, just keep it around 200-300 words max over if you do.



Mirror21
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25 Mar 2012, 7:50 pm

I think the easiest way to downsize is to dummy your paper or find phrases that correlate but may not be needed and delete them from the essay. =)



Piedmont
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27 Mar 2012, 1:21 pm

I teach college, and something I see is that students who write too much sometimes pack too many ideas into each paragraph. Non-NTs seem to do this more than NTs, but NTs do it too, particularly if they're engineers.

A paragraph really should have only one topic. So once you know what a particular paragraph is about, stick to the subject. Then make sure that your paragraphs all line up to make your argument. Faulkner said that we must "murder our darlings," which many writers take to mean we have to cut stuff that would be really cool to include, but that detracts from the overall arc (or argument) of the piece.

Finally, your paragraphs should all line up to make a coherent argument, a bit like a mathematical theorem. The easiest way to cut is to compress your argument, but sometimes it's hard to see this until you've played with your paragraphs a bit.

Good luck!



Stefan10
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27 Mar 2012, 3:57 pm

When I had to write college application essays this was horrible. I wrote twice the word limit for one essay and had to spend days shortening it to the suitable word count.


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