Writing Help

How long should an essay be?

Students are not expected to go beyond the recommended word length count of the essay. Any attempt to go beyond the word length will likely make the instructor less interested in reading through the essay.

If the instruction by the Instructor says the essay length should be between 500-550 words; the length should not be more than the required word length which is 550. The length of the essay depends on the topic of the essay. Admission essays are shorter in length.

How many parts should an essay have?

There are three major parts in every essay. They are the Introduction; body and conclusion. The introduction and conclusion should be short. A typical essay consists of five paragraphs. The body of the essay should be made up of five different paragraphs with each of the paragraphs focusing on a particular point that is made is the thesis statement. 

The length of a short essay is between 400-1000 words. Admission essays are usually shorter because each school will deal with a lot of them. If you are writing such; it is advised that the word length be strictly adhered to if you want the Instructor to read through your essay.

What happens when you are not given a word count?

There are occasions where students will be given the freedom to choose the length of words that they are going to write in a given essay. The standard length for the category of essays in the school should be used as the template.

One of the strategies that you can use to understand the length of the essay can be through the descriptions given in the question. If for instance, you are told to limit yourself to two paragraphs; then the length should not be more than about 450-500 words. That represents the standard for the limit on each paragraph. 

If you cannot hazard the length of the essay through the description, then you can go online to search for length requirements. Ideas on what the length should be can be gotten through forums and social networks that discuss these essay requirements. 

It is also possible to get ideas through your college site by inputting word or length into the browser of your college site. 

Taking it further, you can call the admissions office to get info on the word length of the easy. They might not supply the exact word limit, but getting info on the word length of previous essays that they have received in the past will serve as a guide to how you can get the results. 

The introduction and concluding part of the essay are the shortest of the three parts that are involved in an essay. Depending on the topic; the body should be made up of three paragraphs that will elaborate on the thesis that you stated in your topic sentence.

Final thoughts

The tips above leave every student covered on how the length of the essay should be. 

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