I have this economics essay and the max words in 1 intro, 3 - 4 body and conclusion are 1200 altogether. The problem is I'm at 1500 words and don't know what to do!? I could get at 1350 at the lowest, will this be fine!???!!
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Don't know what to do after going WAY over the world limit in essay. (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Jigmey
- Start date
I would get it to at the most 1300 words because I think most schools have a 100 word extra limit. Best idea is to ask your teacher if it is acceptable...
hschelper01
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2020
- Messages
- 168
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- Male
- HSC
- 2019
Hi! I hope it's not too late - here's what I did when my essays were over the word limit last year:
Rank Your Arguments
If you find you’re well above your word count maximum, the first step is to rank the points you use to substantiate your argument. By ranking the importance of the arguments you make in the essay, you can eliminate ones which aren’t as important as others, keeping the essay strong while removing large portions of writing. If you don’t want to eliminate any of the points, you can still reduce the word count by mentioning all the arguments, but not writing as much detail about those not as strong as the more important points.
Focus on the Main Point
Once you determine what the important arguments are for your essay, read through it looking for any paragraphs or sentences which fail to address your main argument(s) or topic. It’s easy to accidentally go off on tangents when writing, and eliminating these tangents can help reduce the word count. The more focused you can remain on your topic and arguments, the more concise your writing will be.
Use the Best Verb
This may sound obvious, but a lot of writers don’t do this well. When writing, always use the perfect verb rather than one that’s close, but not perfect. When you use the best verb possible, it will reduce the amount of writing you do in most cases. This is due to the fact that when you use a verb that’s not quite correct, you usually need to add more words to clarify your meaning. Here’s an example:
“They beat the opposing team by a lot of points.”
While “beat” is accurate in this case, it’s not the perfect verb because they not only beat the team, they beat the team by a lot. Using the better verb “trounce” in this instant will reduce the word count while still giving the same meaning as the longer sentence.
“They trounced the opposing team.”
Remove Adverbs
Look through your essay and see if you find any adverbs, especially adverbs which have “ly” endings. In many instances, these adverbs end up being filler words which end up being placed in the writing because it’s the way we talk, but the words don’t add anything beneficial to the actual essay. Go through the essay and ask if each one is needed and remove those that aren’t. Some words you may want to look out for are (see attachment)
FINALLY - Remove Adjectives
Much in the same way as adverbs make their way into writing, multiple adjectives are used when one (or none at all) would suffice. Read the essay to see if all of the adjectives used are needed, and remove those which don’t add to the meaning of the sentence being written. Some common adjectives to look for are:
able, bad, big, different, early, first, few, good, great, high, important, large, last, little, long, new, next, old, other, own, public, right, same, small, young
Rank Your Arguments
If you find you’re well above your word count maximum, the first step is to rank the points you use to substantiate your argument. By ranking the importance of the arguments you make in the essay, you can eliminate ones which aren’t as important as others, keeping the essay strong while removing large portions of writing. If you don’t want to eliminate any of the points, you can still reduce the word count by mentioning all the arguments, but not writing as much detail about those not as strong as the more important points.
Focus on the Main Point
Once you determine what the important arguments are for your essay, read through it looking for any paragraphs or sentences which fail to address your main argument(s) or topic. It’s easy to accidentally go off on tangents when writing, and eliminating these tangents can help reduce the word count. The more focused you can remain on your topic and arguments, the more concise your writing will be.
Use the Best Verb
This may sound obvious, but a lot of writers don’t do this well. When writing, always use the perfect verb rather than one that’s close, but not perfect. When you use the best verb possible, it will reduce the amount of writing you do in most cases. This is due to the fact that when you use a verb that’s not quite correct, you usually need to add more words to clarify your meaning. Here’s an example:
“They beat the opposing team by a lot of points.”
While “beat” is accurate in this case, it’s not the perfect verb because they not only beat the team, they beat the team by a lot. Using the better verb “trounce” in this instant will reduce the word count while still giving the same meaning as the longer sentence.
“They trounced the opposing team.”
Remove Adverbs
Look through your essay and see if you find any adverbs, especially adverbs which have “ly” endings. In many instances, these adverbs end up being filler words which end up being placed in the writing because it’s the way we talk, but the words don’t add anything beneficial to the actual essay. Go through the essay and ask if each one is needed and remove those that aren’t. Some words you may want to look out for are (see attachment)
FINALLY - Remove Adjectives
Much in the same way as adverbs make their way into writing, multiple adjectives are used when one (or none at all) would suffice. Read the essay to see if all of the adjectives used are needed, and remove those which don’t add to the meaning of the sentence being written. Some common adjectives to look for are:
able, bad, big, different, early, first, few, good, great, high, important, large, last, little, long, new, next, old, other, own, public, right, same, small, young
