How Long Should an Essay Be?

Essay length is one of the most frequently asked questions among students. Individuals get confused because they want to meet the requirements and not surpass the limit. To do that, they should know how long an essay should be. Generally, the piece is short compared to the research paper and thesis. An accurate word count and page count are mentioned in the requirements provided by your professor. However, it's still good to know how long different essay types are and what can change the final word count. Keep reading to find out.

Main Points to Remember About Essay Length

The first point to remember is that every essay has three core elements: an introduction, a body part, and a conclusion. In the introduction, you provide background data and a thesis statement to catch readers' attention. In the body part, you give the readers the main points, facts, and arguments supporting your opinion. In conclusion, you summarize everything said in the previous parts.

The second point is that the essential requirement for an essay is a 5-paragraph structure - one piece for the opening, three for the main part, and one more for the closing part. Depending on the received instructions, you can change the number of paragraphs.

The third essential point is that the introduction and conclusion are always shorter than the central part. The fourth point says that each paragraph always has a topic sentence defining the main idea and a concluding sentence that sums everything up. Last but not least - single-spaced and double-spaced pages differ in word count.

How Long Should Each Paragraph Be?

The answer to this question depends on the overall length of the essay. To define the approximate length of all parts, divide the text into equal parts. It should be changed if you see paragraphs with eight sentences or more. Otherwise, the essay will have low readability, and readers will find it difficult to switch between the paragraphs. Before you start writing, think about how big each paragraph will be. For example, if the essay is under 3000 words, the introduction and conclusion should be up to 200 words.

The Graduation Level Matters

When students graduate and move to the next step of their education career, their tasks become more complicated, forcing them to spend more time and effort to complete them. The same thing happens to essays: the topics become more complex, and the length increases. We will describe how exactly the length changes and advise on writing more complicated essays.

• A high school essay consists of five paragraphs and is up to five pages long. On this level, you should focus more on quality than word count. Try to make an essay smooth and highly readable; the rest is unimportant.
  
• A college essay usually has three pages where one page is for the introduction and conclusion, and two pages are for the main part. Still, if you see you can add more information about the topic, make it bigger, but no longer than five pages. If you find it difficult to compose such a big essay yourself, ask someone to do my essay cheap.
  
• A typical undergraduate university essay starts at 1500 words and depends on what subject you study, what department you have, and what is your course level. The higher your level, the bigger your essay's word count will have.
  
• A graduate-level essay could reach up to 6,000 words and depend on the university level, subject requirements, and topic. Students sometimes have to complete multiple writing assignments in a single module.

Managing the word count is important, but it should not be the first place for you. Quality also matters; if the assignment is of bad quality, the word count doesn't matter. Focus on the argumentation of your points and ensure it's strong enough. Missing one part of the essay could cost you a high grade. So, to ensure this won't happen, create an outline and decide what information will be in each part.

Why It's Important to Follow the Word Count?

Depending on your academic level, the professor will expect you to compose an essay of an appropriate length. If you didn't find how long the essay should be according to the requirements, stick to basic recommendations and aim to achieve a standard word count.

Once you don't write enough words in the essay, your mentor will think you are not doing enough to complete the task. However, if you need a huge number of words in the text, be smarter. Use wordy constructions, or research the topic to find secondary information and add it to the text.

At the same time, going over the suggested length is bad, too. There's no need to add watery content or topic-related information that is not checked. If your assignment is too long, do the following:

• Ensure every paragraph has only relevant information. Remove all unneeded statements if there are ones.
• Ensure each paragraph is point-focused and doesn't go too far.
• Remove all filler words, making every sentence clear and concise.

These simple tips will help you achieve the needed word count and satisfy the professor.

Final Thoughts

A word count is essential for the essay's success, but it shouldn't be rated over the quality. This decision is wrong if a student fills an assignment with watery content. He should perform better research and add missing parts from the text. Anyway, you should be able to achieve the needed word could and have an appropriate quality.

All paragraphs should be balanced and have transition sentences between them. The introduction and conclusion will be short, and the body part will be the biggest part of the text. Also, if you add citations, they should be presented in full length, which is a significant bonus to the word count.

When you finish writing, read the text at least once to ensure you don't miss anything. It will be unfortunate if you don't have a significant piece of information in the essay. So, take your time, make the check, and add more information if needed.