What counts as a word in an essay

Word count includes everything in the main body of the text (including headings, tables, citations, quotes, lists, etc). The list of references, appendices and footnotes2 are NOT included in the word count unless it is clearly stated in the coursework instructions that the module is an exception to this rule.

How long does a 1000 word essay take?

about 3 hours and 20 minutes

How much under Word Count is acceptable?

Assignment length requirements are usually given in terms of numbers of words. Unless the lecturer tells you that these limits are strict, it is normally acceptable to be 10% above or below this word limit (so, for example, a 2000 word assignment should be between 1800 and 2200 words).

Does a 500 word essay have to be exactly 500 words?

500-word essays do not have to be exactly 500 words, but they should be as close as possible.

What does 500 words look like?

Answer: 500 words is 1 page single spaced or 2 pages double spaced.

How many A4 pages is 20000 words?

20,000 words is 40 pages single spaced, 80 pages double spaced. 25,000 words is 50 pages single spaced, 100 pages double spaced. 30,000 words is 60 pages single spaced, 120 pages double spaced. 40,000 words is 80 pages single spaced, 160 pages double spaced.

How many pages is 40000 words?

80 pages

How many A4 pages is 500 words?

2 pages

What does 20000 words look like?

Answer: 20,000 words is 40 pages single-spaced or 80 pages double-spaced. Typical documents that are 20,000 words include include novels, novellas, and other published books. It will take approximately 67 minutes to read 20,000 words.

What does 1 000 words look like?

a page. As you may have already figured out, 1,000 words is approximately 3 pages of double-spaced typed manuscript with one-inch margins on the side. Three pages. That’s all.

Can you read 20000 words per minute?

Is It Possible to Read 20,000+ Words Per Minute? Eye-movement expert Keith Rayner, argues that even going beyond 500 words per minute is improbable because the mechanical process of moving your eye, fixing it and processing the visual information can’t go much faster than that.

What is a 20000 word book called?

Word counts

Award	Genre	Minimum
Novella Award	any genre of fiction	20,000
RITA Award for Best Novella	romance	20,000
British Fantasy Award for Novella	fantasy	15,000
The Paris Literary Prize	literary fiction	17,000

Is 15000 words a lot?

Answer: 15,000 words is 30 pages single-spaced or 60 pages double-spaced. Typical documents that are 15,000 words include include novels, novellas, and other published books. It will take approximately 50 minutes to read 15,000 words.

Can a book contain 100000 words?

Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words (unless you’re JK Rowling). It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250-300 words per page. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. A 100,000 word book would be about 400.

How many pages is 300000 words?

600 pages

How many pages is 750 words?

3 Pages

Can you write a 5 page paper in 2 hours?

You Can Write a Five Page Essay in 1 Hour. If you’re panicking over a deadline, take hope in this: it’s possible to write a five page essay in an hour. It’s not, obviously, going to be your best work, but it can be a very passable paper so long as you follow this guide.

How many pages is a 10-minute talk?

Given the normal speed of speech, you should consider a 10-minute talk the same as a 1500-word paper. Rule of thumb for the number of slides is 10 slides for 10 minutes, and many speakers will vary between 20 to 30 seconds or a minute per slide.

How long does a 750 word essay take?

about 18.8 minutes

How long is a 1000 word essay double spaced?

4 pages

What does 1500 words look like?

1500 words is about 3 pages single spaced or 6 pages double spaced. Word counts of 1000 words, 1500 words, etc. Of course, page counts depend on your editor settings, but with a standard font size of 12 point in Times New Roman or Arial and default page margins your results should be about the same.

What does 8000 words look like?

A word count of 8,000 words is around 16 pages of A4 using single spacing, or 32 pages of A4 using double spacing.

How long should 1500 words take?

Writing Time by Word Counts

Word Count	Slow (5 wpm)	Average (40 wpm)
1,000 words	200 minutes	25.0 minutes
1,500 words	300 minutes	37.5 minutes
2,000 words	400 minutes	50.0 minutes
2,500 words	500 minutes	62.5 minutes

What does 2500 words look like?

2500 words is about 5 pages single spaced and 10 pages double spaced. This is based on a word editor with default settings—12 point Times New Roman or Arial font and basic page margins. Answer: 2500 words is 5 pages single spaced or 10 pages double spaced.

When I started writing in the 1970s, counting words in an essay really meant making a rough estimate. The words had been typed on paper, and no software could me help count what was there.

Yes, we were primitive.

Today, text is data, and composing your essay in a word processor is the easiest way to get an accurate word count for essays and papers.

Microsoft Word shows the word count in the status bar. Google Docs shows the word count after you select Word Count from the Tools menu. Most leading word processors show the count in both ways.

After you read this post, you will know how to use a range of reliable software to count words, as well as how to answer common word-counting questions that could help you avoid mistakes and misconceptions.

Using Eight Leading Word Processors to Count Words

The leading word processors have similar approaches to showing you the word count for your essay or paper.

Most leading word processors, such as Microsoft Word, display the word count in the status bar. The status bar lies below the editing area of the document.

Click the word count in the status bar to view a popup with extended information such as the number of pages, the number of characters, the number of paragraphs, and the number of lines.

Other word processors that display the word count in the status bar include

• LibreOffice Writer,
• Apache OpenOffice, and
• WPS Office.

In contrast, Google Docs does not display the current word count by default.

To make Google Docs show the word count while you edit, do the following:

1. Select Word Count from the Tools menu.
   
2. A popup will display the current word count and other statistics.
3. Tick Display word count while typing.
   
4. Click OK to close the popup.
5. A floating word count combo box will appear near the bottom of the editing area.
   

Other word processors that offer a Word Count item in the Tools menu include

• Microsoft Word for the Mac,
• LibreOffice Writer,
• Apache OpenOffice, and
• WPS Office.

Word processors that don’t have a Tools menu place their Word Count command elsewhere.

In Microsoft Word for Windows and in Microsoft Word on the Web, there is no Tools menu: the Word Count button is on the Review tab of the ribbon.

In the Pages word processor, on the Mac, get the word count in the following way:

1. Select Show Word Count from the View menu.
   
2. The word count will appear and remain at the bottom of the editing area.
   
3. Hide this word count information again by selecting Hide Word Count from the View menu.

The following table summarizes how leading word processors allow you to count the words in your essays, papers, compositions, or other documents.

Counting Words in a Section or Subset of Your Document

What if you don’t want to count all the words in your document? For instance, what if you want to count only the words in a single sentence, paragraph, or section of your essay? You can do that.

Count the words in a subset of your document by first selecting the text you want to count, then look at the word count in the status bar or choose Word Count from the Tools menu to find out the number of words in the text selection.

Inserting Word Count Automatically

A teacher or editor may require you to include the word count for your work in the document itself.

Of course, you could simply type the current word count into the document before you submit it — and nothing is wrong with that.

However, some word processors allow you to insert a special field that will display the word count and dynamically update with changes.

In Microsoft Word, insert the word count field into the document with these steps:

1. Place your text cursor in the document where you want the word count to appear.
2. On the Insert tab of the ribbon, click the Field button.
   
3. The Field dialog box will pop up. Select Document Information under Categories, then select NumWords under Field Names.
   
4. Click OK.

In LibreOffice Writer, insert the word count field into the document with these steps:

1. Place your text cursor in the document where you want the word count to appear.
2. On the Insert tab or menu, click Field.
3. The Fields window will pop up. In the Type list, select Statistics. In the Select list, select Words.
4. Click the Insert button.
5. Click the Close button.

Using Online Tools to Count Words

If you are composing in an application that doesn’t tell you the word count, you can use an online tool in your Web browser to count the words in the text.

To use an online word-counting tool, do the following:

1. Select text in the document and copy it to the clipboard.
2. Switch to the browser tab that contains the online tool and paste from the clipboard into the edit area on the page.
3. The online tool will display the word count and usually other statistics about the text as well.

I tested eight online word-counting tools using text that I had previously word-counted using Microsoft Word.

The following six online tools gave the same word-count total as Microsoft Word:

• www.charactercounteronline.com
• www.numberofwords.com
• tools.codesnail.com
• www.easywordcount.com
• wordcounter.net
• wordcounter.io

All the words in your essay contribute to the word count, even short ones. This includes

• personal pronouns (I, he, she),
• definite and indefinite articles (the, a, an),
• prepositions (at, in, for),
• numbers, both spelled out (seven) and written in numeric form (9,672),
• acronyms (CIA, NAACP).

Initials written with a space separating them from other text count as individual words. Thus, George H. W. Bush counts as four words.

Hyphenated words (check-in, know-it-all, father-in-law) are counted as one word.

Contractions (won’t, couldn’t) count as one word.

Numbers combined with symbols such as a dollar sign ($42) or percent sign (99%) count as one word.

Footnotes and endnotes are not usually included in a word count, but Microsoft Word will count them by default.

To prevent Microsoft Word from counting words in footnotes and endnotes, do the following:

1. Click the word count in the status bar to bring up the Word Count dialog box.
2. Untick the checkbox labeled Include footnotes and endnotes.
3. Click the Close button.

If you are assigned essays with both a word count target and footnotes or endnotes, check with your professors or teachers to find out their rules for whether to count words in footnotes and endnotes. If you don’t have time to check, assume that the text in footnotes and endnotes should not be included in the word count.

Normally, bibliographies and references would not be included in your word count.

Microsoft Word counts the words in captions (e.g. below figures, charts, and pictures), and this is likely to be the correct behavior in most situations.

The title and title page material should not be included in the word count.

Whether headings, and subheadings should be included in the word count depends on the policies of the instructors, schools, or clients involved. The decision to count headings will matter more in compositions where headings are more numerous, such as in advanced academic writing (e.g. theses). In such cases it is especially important to find out what the rules are ahead of time and adhere to them.

Words in direct quotations, including shorter quoted text or longer, block-quoted text, should be included in the word count. Whether you are quoting too much is likely to matter when judging the quality of the essay, so don’t quote more simply to drive up the count!

If your instructor or institution has rules about word counts that differ from your word processor’s word counting behavior, you may opt to individually select and count the allowed parts, then total all the counts. Another option is take the word count provided by your word processor, then subtract an estimate of the word count of the parts that should not be counted.

How Close to the Target Word Count Must You Be?

Many instructors and institutions have a “10% rule,” meaning that your word count may be within 10% of the target word count in either direction.

Using the 10% rule, an essay for a 500-word assignment should be not fewer than 450 words and not more than 550.

Why Do We Count Words?

Teachers, schools, and publications have good reasons for specifying target word counts for writing.

One thing to understand is that a word count requirement is almost always a required range of word counts (often ranging from 10% below to 10% above the stated requirement).

This means that there is an implied minimum word count and an implied maximum word count for the assignment.

So, we will divide this answer into three parts: good reasons to require a range of word counts, good reasons to specify a minimum word count, and good reasons to specify a maximum word count.

Good reasons to specify a range of word counts:

• Some professions (and academia) often require word counts on writing, making writing to a specified length a valuable skill to learn.
• Instructors are able to grade essays more fairly in comparison to each other when they are approximately the same length.
• Different types of writing simply require different lengths: a novel is longer than a novella; a novella is (usually) longer than a short story.
• Different genres require different lengths.
• A publication may have a length of article that fits its brand or satisfies its audience.

Reasons for minimum word counts:

• Teachers want students to engage with a topic at adequate depth. A certain length for the essay is a proxy for that.
• Teachers want students to learn to write with sufficient evidence and level of detail.
• Teachers want students to learn to organize larger amounts of material.

Good reasons for maximum word counts:

• Readers and scorers may have limited time and a great many essays to read.
• Teachers want students to learn to write concisely.

How to Count Words in Handwritten Text and Other Hard Copy Material

Occasionally you may need to estimate the word count of text, even in the 21st century.

Reasons to estimate word counts:

• You may prefer (or be required) to write drafts of your essays by hand and need to know if you are close to the target word count.
• You may write journal entries daily and are wondering how many words you have written in the past year.
• You may be curious to know how many words are in a published book.

Below I explain one method of estimating word count for short works, such as school essays, and a second method for longer works, up to novel length.

To estimate the number of words in a fairly short essay, do the following:

1. Calculate the average number of words in a full line (count the total number of words in five to ten full lines and divide by the number of lines you counted).
2. Count the number of full lines in the essay.
3. Calculate the total number of words in full lines (multiply the average number of words in a full line by the number of full lines).
4. Simply count the number of words in all partial lines.
5. Estimate the total number of words in the essay by adding the number of words in full lines to the total number of words in partial lines.

Using this method on a short essay, I came within 3 words:

• The essay had 48 full lines.
• I calculated an average of 14 words per full line.
• The number of words in partial lines was 69.
• Microsoft Word reported that the essay had 738 words.
• 14*48+69 = 741 words. Close!

To estimate the word count for a longer work, do the following:

1. Find a page with average word density (i.e. an average number of partial and full lines for this book — use your judgment after thumbing through the book).
2. Count all the words on this average page.
3. Multiply the count of words on this page by the number of pages in the book.

Using this method, I was able come within 2.1% of the reported word count for J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Two Towers.

• According to lotrproject.com, The Two Towers has 156,198 words.
• My edition of the novel has 443 pages (after subtracting 14 pages for table of contents, maps, and so forth).
• The “average” page I picked out had 353 words.
• 443 * 353 = 152,849. Fairly close!

Of course, if you choose the wrong “average” page your estimated total word count may miss the mark by a great deal. To improve the accuracy, you could count the words on three pages of average density and divide by three.

On the other hand, if you’re trying to be as quick as possible, you can pick out any half page that seems to have the right density, count the words in that half page, and multiply by two to get the average density for a page.

Learn how your words are counted in IELTS. This page explains about counting words, numbers and symbols. You need to know how words are counted for IELTS listening, reading and writing. If you make mistakes with the number of words, you can lose points which can affect your band score.

How words are counted in IELTS

1. Numbers, dates and time are counted as words in writing. For example 30,000 = one word  /  55  = one word  /  9.30am = one word / 12.06.2016 = one word. “Six million” is counted as two words in IELTS writing. In listening, 30,000 is counted as one number and 9.30AM is also counted as one number.

2. Dates written as both words and numbers are counted in this way: 12th July = one number and one word in IELTS listening and as two words in IELTS writing.

3. Symbols with numbers are not counted. For example, 55% = one number (the symbol “%” is not counted as a word). However, if you write “55 percent” it is counted as one word and one number.

4. Small words such as “a” or “an” are counted. All prepositions, such as “in” or “at” are also counted. All words are counted.

5. Hyphenated words like “up-to-date” are counted as one word.

6. Compound nouns which are written as one word are also counted as one word. For example, blackboard = one word.

7. Compound nouns which are written as two separate words, are counted as two words. For example, university bookshop = two words.

8. All words are counted, including words in brackets. For example in IELTS writing, “The majority of energy was generated by electricity (55%).”. This sentence is counted as 9 words. The number in brackets is counted. Brackets can be used in IELTS Writing Task 1, but not in IELTS Listening or IELTS Reading.

9. Some people have asked me if words such as “the” are counted only once regardless of how many times they are used. It is best to illustrate: “The man walked into the shop for the newspaper” = 9 words.

10. Contractions are counted as: it’s = one word / it is = two words.

Tips

• Get useful tips and advice about the word count for IELTS writing.
• Start learning how to write compound nouns correctly. Some are one word and some are written as two words. If you make a mistake, it can affect your band score. Here’s a link to tips about compound nouns.
• Learn more about the meaning of ” no more than one word and/or a number” in listening and reading, by watching the video on the main IELTS Listening Page.

It’s safe to say that most students struggle with the word limit within an essay. Sometimes, it’s hard to find ideas for a text and meet the word requirement for every part of the paper. With so many factors influencing essay length, it’s easy to get confused.

Luckily, our custom-writing team has your back. In this article, our custom-writing experts will answer all your questions regarding essay length. We will also help you write papers with an ideal number of words!

📜 Is Essay Length Important?

Often, the phrase “word limit” causes panic among students. After all, if an essay is too long or too short, your grade will be lowered. However, in reality, there’s nothing to worry about. When it comes to words, limitations are beneficial for both the students and the professors.

Let’s see what exactly it means.

Many people believe that the longer an essay is, the better. However, according to Frontiers, research shows that it’s a bias that couldn’t be further from the truth. A perfect-length paper is one that allows students to express their ideas and showcase their knowledge fully while keeping it clean and simple.

What Influences Essay Length

Various factors determine the length of an essay. Here are the most important ones:

📏 Essay Parts: Recommended Length

Let’s start with the essentials. Usually, assignment length is given as a number of words rather than pages. Unless your supervisor or instructor mentions any specific limitations, it’s acceptable to be 10% below or above the word limit.

It’s also worth knowing the 80/20 rule. According to it, the body should constitute 80% of the text, while the intro and the conclusion take up the remaining 20%.

Keep reading to learn more about the recommended length of each essay part. The main numbers are shown in the table below:

How Long Should an Introduction Be?

An introduction is the first section and the face of your essay. For that reason, it needs to be compelling and well-thought-out. Usually, it consists of 3 to 5 sentences or 50 to 80 words.

An introduction must have a hook, some background information, and a thesis statement. While the attention grabber and the thesis are usually brief, you may need 2 to 3 sentences for the background. To avoid going overboard, try to stay on topic and don’t add any filler.

How Long Is a Body Paragraph in an Essay?

The length of a body paragraph may vary. Sometimes, it can be limited to a single sentence. In other cases, it may take up a whole page. Usually, it’s recommended to have between 80 and 200 words (5-8 sentences) per body paragraph.

Since the paper’s body contains the most information, it’s necessary to explain and support your ideas properly. That’s why it’s no big deal if your body paragraphs go slightly over the word limit.

How Many Body Paragraphs Should Be in an Essay?

Like the word count, the number of paragraphs is determined by the type of paper and its topic. The minimum is 1. Generally, however, the body consists of 3-5 paragraphs, 1 for each argument.

To improve your paper’s structure, ensure that there are as many paragraphs as there are points in your thesis statement. Each one should have a purpose and support your arguments. If there’s any fluff, it’s better to get rid of it.

How Long Should a Conclusion Be?

Like the introduction, the conclusion consists of 50-80 words. It’s essential to keep it simple and only mention the central ideas. A weak concluding sentence may affect the reader’s understanding of the topic and spoil the overall impression of your paper.

🤔 How to Make Essays Shorter or Longer: Best Tips

Undoubtedly the essay’s content is more important than the number of words you use. But there are times when students go more than 10-15% below or over the limit. Is there a solution to this problem?

Yes, there is! In this section, we will share the most useful tips to help you stay on point with your paper’s word count.

How to Make Essays Longer

Since having enough words is essential for a good grade, we’ve collected the best tips that can help you lengthen your essay without teachers noticing:

1. Use relevant quotations. You don’t need to litter your essay with citations, but using them whenever appropriate is a great idea. For instance, if you’re working on a book analysis, referencing a couple of direct quotes from the source text will make your essay more credible and increase the word count.

1. Give examples. Go through the claims in your paper and provide additional evidence where possible. It will make your essay longer and more informative.

1. Use transitional expressions. Adding transition words and phrases is a natural way of increasing the number of words. It will also improve your essay’s readability. 

1. Add more references. Providing references is always a good idea when writing a formal essay. That way, you will increase the number of words and make your paper more credible.

1. Work on your descriptions. If you struggle to develop new ideas, go over what you’ve already written and consider adding some descriptive words. It’s a great idea for creative essays to include more imagery. 

How to Shorten an Essay

Another struggle of academic writing is cutting down the number of words in your essay to meet a set limit. We are here to tell you that it’s not that hard. Writing straightforwardly and keeping your sentences short is a key to concise content. Here are several strategies you may use to tighten a lengthy essay:

1. Choose the active voice. It takes up less space than passive voice. Using it also makes your writing more professional and compelling.

1. Remove needless transitions. Transitions can indeed maintain the flow of the paper. But some transitional phrases can be easily removed.

1. Get rid of unnecessary adverbs and adjectives. Some students tend to overuse adjectives and adverbs. It adds wordiness to their writing.

1. Avoid running starts. Some students like to start their sentences with long phrases like: “there are,” “it is believed,” or “the fact that.” Getting rid of them makes texts much more concise.

1. Delete “that.” In most cases, the word “that” can often be easily removed from texts.

Another cool trick is to use our summarizing tool as essay shortener. Try it out!

📑 How Long Is an Essay Depending on Formatting?

As we mentioned earlier, the essay’s length is usually limited by the number of words. But sometimes, a teacher may ask you to write a specific number of pages. This is trickier because the amount of text you can place on the page depends on the formatting. By using the font size and spacing properly, it’s possible to make the paper visually longer or shorter. Let’s discuss it in more detail.

Essay Spacing: How Does It Affect the Length?

• Adjusting the spacing between lines. Try to make the changes as slight as possible. For instance, if you were asked to double-space the paper, use 2.1 or 2.2 spacing instead. Another option is to slightly extend spaces between paragraphs.

• Extending the margin size. You can increase the right and bottom margins by a quarter to make very subtle changes in length. For example, if the margins are 1 inch, you can set them at 1.25 inches instead. 

• Increasing the spacing between characters. It is less noticeable than the line spacing. Still, try not to overdo it and keep the numbers between 1.2 and 1.5. 

• Adjusting the footer. Add a footer with page numbers to stretch the bottom margin even further.

• Lengthening the header. You can extend your header by adding your name, e-mail address, or other relevant information. Another option is double-spacing it.

Length of an Essay: Font and Size

• Using the right type of font. If your instructor didn’t specify which font you should use, go for the bigger ones. We suggest Arial, Bangla Sangam MN, Cambria, or Quicksand. They will make your text look longer without being too on the nose.  

• Using a bigger font size. This is another technique that can come in handy. However, be careful and don’t increase your font by more than 0.1-0.5 pt. 

• Increasing the size of periods and commas. This is one of the less noticeable tricks you can use. For instance, if your paper’s font is 12 pt., increase it to 14 pt. only for punctuation marks. Italicizing periods and commas will also add several lines of length to your essay. 

What to Do if There Are No Length Guidelines

Sometimes a teacher sets no word limit for a written work. What to do in that case? Well, first, you can ask your professor to confirm if they have simply forgotten to mention it. But if that’s not the case, here are a couple of helpful solutions:

1. Think of the paragraph number. Sometimes, you may be given the number of paragraphs instead of words. In that case, you can decide on the number of words depending on how many paragraphs you have. 

2. Think about the topic’s complexity. The length of your paper is also directly dependent on the theme. If the topic is simple, 4-5 paragraphs will be enough. A more complex issue may require an in-depth explanation, so your essay can be 6-8 paragraphs long.

❓ Essay Length for Different Academic Levels FAQ

📚 How Long Should an Essay Be: Different Types

Now, let’s talk about different types of essays. How long should they be? Keep reading to learn about the length of college essays, short and extended ones, scholarship essays, and research papers.

How Long Is a College Essay?

When it comes to a college essay, it’s more important to stick to the word limit than with any other paper. Some teachers may refuse to read it unless it meets all the requirements.

The shortest limit for a college essay is about 250 words which is the shortest length of a Common App personal statement. It’s also rare to see a good college essay with over 650 words. So, an average piece usually has between 150 and 650 words; you can go over or below the limit by 50.

How Long Is a Paragraph in College Essays?

A college essay usually consists of 4-5 paragraphs. One paragraph takes about 1/3 of the page, which is roughly 5 sentences. Each sentence corresponds with one of the following components:

1. Topic sentence.

2. Explanation.

3. Examples.

4. Analysis.

5. Transitions.

College Essay Length Requirements: Top 5 Schools

To understand the requirements for a college application essay even better, take a look at the table below. It showcases the top 5 schools and their length criteria for personal statements. Keep it in mind when writing your college essay:

How Long Is a Short Essay?

A short essay is usually 500 words long. Using 12pt Times New Roman font with standard margins and double spacing should result in about 2 pages of text.

Extended Essay Length

An extended essay is different from a short or a standard one. It requires extensive research and thorough explanation. That’s why the upper limit for this kind of essay is 4000 words. In this case, a typical essay length is 3500 words or 18 paragraphs.

Scholarship Essay Length

Generally, scholarship papers have a limit of 500 words, which is 1 page in length. Most scholarship programs provide additional requirements that indicate the minimum number of words or pages. If there are no set limitations, you can stick to the limit.

How Long Is a Research Paper?

Typically, a research paper is between 4000 and 6000 words long. Sometimes, there are shorter papers, which have around 2000 words, or in-depth ones with over 10000 words.

⭐ Other Aspects of Essay Length

When it comes to essay length, many different aspects come into play. Here, we’ve gathered all the essential information regarding an essay’s number of pages, paragraphs, words, and references.

How Many Paragraphs Are in an Essay?

Sometimes, it is more convenient to count paragraphs rather than words. Let’s now figure out how many paragraphs are in essays of different lengths. You may also check out the examples to see what such an essay looks like:

How to Count Paragraphs in an Essay Based on Word Count

You can also count the number of body paragraphs for your essay using the formula below:

Number of body paragraphs (average) = (TWC – TWC*0.16)/100

• TWC – total word count

• 0.16 – an average percentage of total word count for introduction and conclusion

• 100 – an average number of words per paragraph

How Many Pages Are in an Essay?

The number of pages in your essay may vary from subject to subject. But it’s still possible to determine the number of pages based on word count. Check out the numbers below to see the conversions with bonus examples:

You can also use a specialized calculator such as Word Counter to determine a number of pages in your essay.

What Does an Essay Look Like when Typed?

You might be wondering: what do essays of different lengths look like when typed? Well, here’s the table where you can find out the metrics for single- and double-spaced papers.

How Many Pages Are in a Handwritten Essay?

In case you need to turn in a handwritten paper, you should check out the table below.

Counting Words in a Handwritten Essay

If you don’t have enough time to count the words in your handwritten essay one by one, here’s what you can do:

1. Count how many words there are in one line. Take the first and last lines and a line in the middle of a page. Let’s say there are 15, 14, and 15 words in them. Then, the average number of words per line is 15.

2. Next, count how many lines there are on one page. Let’s say there are 17 lines on a page.

3. Take the number of words per line and multiply it by the number of lines per page. In our case, we multiply 15 by 17. So, there are 255 words per page on average.

4. Finally, multiply the number of words per page by the number of pages. If your essay has 3 pages, it is approximately 765 words long.

How Long Does it Take to Write an Essay?

It is crucial to know how long writing will take you, especially if you are working on an exam essay or just short on time. Note that you need to consider the time for typing and researching necessary to complete a piece. Research time may vary. Usually, it’s 1-2 hours for 200-250 words.

Below, we’ve gathered the average writing time for average and slower writing speed:

And here are the results in pages:

How Many References Does an Essay Need?

Another essential part of any composition is the reference list. Different academic levels require different references. You’ll find out how many of them should be in your paper in the table below!

📝 Essay Examples: Different Length

Finally, we’ve gathered some excellent sample essays of different lengths. Make sure to check them out!

We also recommend you check out our free essay samples sorted by pages:

Now you know all about essay length, word limits, and ways to lengthen or shorten your text. If you know other interesting tricks, make sure to share them in a comment! Good luck with your writing assignments!

You may also like:

🔍 References

Asked By: Colin Martinez Date: created: Nov 23 2022

What words are excluded in a word count

Answered By: Austin Gray Date: created: Nov 25 2022

Tables, diagrams (including associated legends), appendices, references, footnotes and endnotes, the bibliography and any bound published material are excluded from the word count..

Asked By: Hayden Thomas Date: created: Jan 27 2023

Does a 500 word essay have to be exactly 500 words

Answered By: Martin Bennett Date: created: Jan 30 2023

500-word essays do not have to be exactly 500 words, but they should be as close as possible.

Asked By: Simon Alexander Date: created: May 09 2022

Are small words counted in an essay

Answered By: Blake Sanders Date: created: May 10 2022

However, if you write “55 percent” it is counted as one word and one number. … Small words such as “a” or “an” are counted. All prepositions, such as “in” or “at” are also counted. All words are counted.

Asked By: Jason Cook Date: created: Feb 15 2023

How Ielts 150 words are counted

Answered By: Rodrigo Thompson Date: created: Feb 15 2023

We recommend writing 150-180 words for Task 1, and 250-280 words for Task 2. On average, most people write about 10 words per line, which means you don’t have to count every word, just the lines. You should be practicing your essays on IELTS Answer sheets.

Asked By: Christian Bailey Date: created: Dec 19 2021

Do names count as words

Answered By: Christian Garcia Date: created: Dec 21 2021

Names are certainly considered words. By definition, a word is a single unit of language that means something and can be either spoken or written. … Specifically, in English, a name is a type of noun referred to as a proper noun, and it is always capitalized.

Asked By: Curtis King Date: created: Jan 18 2023

What do 500 words look like

Answered By: Daniel Perez Date: created: Jan 18 2023

When it comes to comparing pages with word count, 500 words is an important number to remember. Using single spacing, 500 words is the same as 1 page. With double spacing, it’s around 2 pages. In both cases you’ll be using margins of a standard 1 inch and a font such as Times New Roman or Arial in 12pt size.

Asked By: Isaac Martin Date: created: Dec 12 2021

What does a 200 word essay look like

Answered By: Juan Roberts Date: created: Dec 12 2021

Answer: 200 words is 0.4 pages single-spaced or 0.8 pages double-spaced. Documents that typically contain 200 words are short memos, blog posts, or marketing copy. … A 200 word count will create about 0.4 pages single-spaced or 0.8 pages double-spaced when using normal margins (1″) and 12 pt.

Asked By: Francis Wright Date: created: Mar 22 2023

What words can replace I

Answered By: Dennis Young Date: created: Mar 25 2023

What is another word for I?I for oneI myselfI personallymemyselfyours trulyme personallypersonallyfor meourself3 more rows

Asked By: Jeremiah Cox Date: created: Mar 24 2023

What can I use instead of us in an essay

Answered By: Owen Brooks Date: created: Mar 26 2023

Using the third-person or “it” constructions can be used to replace personal pronouns like “You” and “I”. Such words also help to reduce the word count of your essay and make it short and precise.

Asked By: Raymond Jenkins Date: created: Sep 04 2022

How do you count 250 words in an essay

Answered By: Ian Cook Date: created: Sep 05 2022

Here are some quick tips for writing a great 250-word essay:Write the first draft from start to finish without any pauses. … Avoid over-editing your work. … Try not to think about the word count too much. … Don’t throw fluff sentences in your essay.More items…•Dec 14, 2017

Asked By: Wallace Hernandez Date: created: Mar 15 2022

What words are not counted in essays

Answered By: Miguel Flores Date: created: Mar 18 2022

Most importantly, many students were drilled on the rule that “certain words don’t count”, usually articles (namely, “a”, “an”, “the”), but sometimes also others, such as conjunctions (for example, “and”, “or”, “but”) and some prepositions (usually “to”, “of”).

Asked By: Ryan Bennett Date: created: Mar 09 2023

Answered By: Reginald Wilson Date: created: Mar 10 2023

Word counts the number of words in a document while you type. Word also counts pages, paragraphs, lines, and characters. When you need to know how many words, pages, characters, paragraphs, or lines are in a document, check the status bar.

Asked By: Benjamin Martinez Date: created: Jan 11 2022

How do you write 500 words in an hour

Answered By: Kevin Hill Date: created: Jan 13 2022

How to Write a 500 Word Essay in an HourStep 1: Realize that you’re not J.K Rowling.Step 2: Make Sure You Have a Plan.Step 3: Take Notes Efficiently.Step 4: Turn Your Notes Into an Outline (in 5 minutes)Step 5: Write Your Introduction and Get Your Essay Flowing.Step 7: You’re Finally Ready to Conclude!

Asked By: Diego Martin Date: created: Mar 10 2022

How do you count 1500 words in an essay

Answered By: Jake Gray Date: created: Mar 12 2022

Answer: 1500 words is 3 pages single spaced or 6 pages double spaced.

Asked By: Oliver Barnes Date: created: Dec 27 2022

What counts as a first word

Answered By: Jacob Brooks Date: created: Dec 28 2022

Some perfectly normal babies don’t say a recognizable word until their 18 month, whereas some babies begin to communicate in words or word-sounds (“ba-ba” for bye-bye, bottle or ball; “da” or “da-da” for dog, dad or doll) as early as 7 months.

Asked By: Christopher Howard Date: created: Mar 16 2022

How many pages is 40000 words

Answered By: Gerld Baker Date: created: Mar 18 2022

80 pagesA 40,000 word count will create about 80 pages single-spaced or 160 pages double-spaced when using normal margins (1″) and 12 pt.

Asked By: Owen Martinez Date: created: Feb 16 2022

Do we count the as a word

Answered By: Lucas White Date: created: Feb 16 2022

Yes, they definitely count. Use whatever number the word count feature in your word processing program comes up with.

Asked By: Evan Campbell Date: created: Aug 05 2022

Can I say we in an essay

Answered By: Isaac Sanders Date: created: Aug 07 2022

1st Person Plural Avoid using we or us in an essay. … This sentence is not so bad, but again it tries to include the reader in the essay. This is fine for books, but for an essay it is artificial and a breach of expected roles. The reader (your marker) should remain a separate and impersonal individual.

Asked By: George Phillips Date: created: Sep 16 2022

How do you write a killer essay

Answered By: Lewis Rogers Date: created: Sep 16 2022

How to write a killer essaySelect a Suitable Topic. The topic you pick has a great influence on your overall essay. … Outline your ideas for topic. … Craft Your thesis statement. … The body of the essay. … Create an introduction. … Create a conclusion. … Go through the essay.

Asked By: Walter Evans Date: created: May 11 2022

How many pages is 50000 words

Answered By: Jake Miller Date: created: May 13 2022

165 pagesA 50,000 word manuscript is about 165 pages.

Asked By: Kyle Stewart Date: created: Jan 19 2022

How do you begin an essay

Answered By: Cyrus Mitchell Date: created: Jan 20 2022

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

Word count includes everything in the main body of the text (including headings, tables, citations, quotes, lists, etc). The list of references, appendices and footnotes2 are NOT included in the word count unless it is clearly stated in the coursework instructions that the module is an exception to this rule.

Where do you put word count on a paper?

Your teacher may ask you to include your word count. Be sure you select (highlight) only the paragraphs of your paper—do not include the heading, title, outline, or citations. The word count will appear at the bottom left of your document.

How do you cite a word count?

How to Cite Word Count in an MLA Works Cited

1. Count all of the text excluding your ‘Works Cited’ list, any appendices, and any citations you have included. This is the selection of text that MLA considers to be important as your word count.
2. Consult your tutor or lecturer.
3. Insert your word count as directed by your tutor.

To insert a word count into a Word 2016 document, place the cursor where you would like the word count to appear (say in the Header or Footer) and then: click the Insert tab. click the Quick Parts icon (towards the right hand end of the toolbar)

How do you insert word count in 2020?

Insert the word count in your document

1. Click in your document where you want the word count to appear.
2. Click Insert > Quick Parts > Field.
3. In the Field nameslist, click NumWords, and then click OK.
4. To update the word count, right-click the number, and then choose Update Field.

What is the shortcut key for word count?

Microsoft Word Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut Key
Replace items in a document	Ctrl + H
Open Go To dialog box	Ctrl + G
Open the thesaurus	Shift + F7
Open the word count dialog box	Ctrl + Shift + G

What is Ctrl V do?

Keyboard Command: Control (Ctrl) + V. Remember “V” as. The PASTE command is used to place the information that you have stored on your virtual clipboard in the location that you have placed your mouse cursor.

What is Ctrl U for?

Alternatively referred to as Control+U and C-u, Ctrl+U is a keyboard shortcut most often used to underline text.

What is Ctrl F7?

F7. Commonly used to spell check and grammar check a document in Microsoft programs such as Microsoft Word, Outlook, etc. Shift + F7 runs a Thesaurus check on the word highlighted.

What happens if you press Alt-F4 in zoom?

Alt + F4: Close the current window. Alt + F: Enter or exit full-screen. Alt + H: Display/hide in-meeting chat panel. Alt + U: Display/hide participants panel.

Why is Alt-F4 not working?

Fix 2: Use the Fn Key The Function key is often located between the Ctrl key and the Windows key. It may be somewhere else, though, so make sure to find it. If the Alt + F4 combo fails to do what it is supposed to do, then press the Fn key and try the Alt + F4 shortcut again. Try pressing Fn + F4.

What do you do when Alt-F4 doesn’t work?

If “Alt + F4” doesn’t work, then the next thing to try is ending the process through Task Manager. To get to Task Manager, either press “Ctrl + Alt + Delete” and click Task Manager or press “Ctrl + Shift + Esc” to go straight to Task Manager. Next, right-click the troublesome program and click “End task.”

How do I turn off F4 mic?

Some navigation and gestures might be different for a Windows phone or tablet.

1. To unmute or mute your microphone, press Windows logo key+F4.
2. To turn your camera on or off during a video call, press Windows logo key+F5.

Use fields to insert word count in your document

1. Select in your document where you want the word count to appear.
2. Go to Insert > Quick Parts > Field.
3. In the Field names list, select NumWords, and then select OK.

The word limit for an essay reflects how much you’re expected to write. Most universities allow around 10% leeway either side of the suggested figure.The word count matters for two reasons: Writing too little suggests that you may have underestimated how complicated a problem is or not done enough research.

What should be included in a word count?

What is included in the word count? Word count includes everything in the main body of the text (including headings, tables, citations, quotes, lists, etc).

What is included in word count for essays APA?

Dear Wordy, Counting the number of words in an APA Style paper is easy: Count all the words in the entire paper to get the total word count. That includes the title page, abstract, main text, quotations, headings, citations, footnotes, reference list, tables, figure captions, and appendices—everything.

How do you write word count?

Insert the word count in your document

1. Click in your document where you want the word count to appear.
2. Click Insert > Quick Parts > Field.
3. In the Field nameslist, click NumWords, and then click OK.
4. To update the word count, right-click the number, and then choose Update Field.

Do references count in word count?

Yes, they are counted in your word count. However, you reference list and bibliography are not counted in your word count.

How do you count words in a paragraph?

Select the Tools menu at the top center of the document window. Click on Word Count. Select Word Count from the Tools menu dropdown. A box displaying the number of words, characters, lines, pages and paragraphs will appear on the screen.

How important is word count in university essays?

Word counts are part of the challenge of academic writing for several reasons: To suggest a level of detail: with one topic, you could write a 100 word summary, 1,000 word essay, 10,000 word dissertation, or a 100,000 word PhD thesis! The word count gives an indication of the level of depth you are expected to go into.

How do you count words in a paper?

Multiply the average number of words per line by the number of lines on a full page. This is the number of words per page. If you want to know the total word count for your document, then multiply this number by the number of pages it contains.

How do you count 250 words in an essay?

You know the minimum number of words you need to write for the essay is 250. So in this case, divide 250 with 6, to get 45 – the number of lines you will need to write to reach the word count. You would need about 3 extra lines to leave some space between each paragraph, so add it to 45 and you are left with 48 lines.

What is not included in word count?

Tables, diagrams (including associated legends), appendices, references, footnotes and endnotes, the bibliography and any bound published material are excluded from the word count.

What words are excluded from the word count of an essay?

For concise and meaningful writing, do your best to avoid these words and phrases in your admission essays.

• 1) Contractions.
• 2) Idioms.
• 3-5) “So on,” “etc,” “and so forth“
• 6) Clichés.
• 7-11) “Thing,” “stuff,” “good,” “bad,” “big“
• 12) Slang, jargon, teen speak.
• 13) Rhetorical questions.

Does word include footnotes in word count?

Do footnotes count when doing a word count? No, footnotes don’t count in the word count in most cases. When a teacher or professor gives an assignment with a minimum or maximum limit, it’s usually done with the intent of being applicable to the topic being assigned.

How do you count 750 words in an essay?

A word count of 750 words will equal about 1.5 pages single spaced or 3 pages double spaced.

How do you count 450 words in an essay?

Answer: 450 words is 0.9 pages single-spaced or 1.8 pages double-spaced. Documents that typically contain 450 words are high school and college essays, short blog posts, and news articles.

How do you count 100 words in an essay?

Answer: 100 words is 0.2 pages single-spaced or 0.4 pages double-spaced. Documents that typically contain 100 words are short memos, blog posts, or marketing copy.

Why is word count bad?

Word counts teach bad habits and get in the way of good communication. They also make writers lazy.And teachers, think about doing the same. NOTE: The above blog is 415 words, which falls far short of the recommended length for search engines and reader engagement.

How far over a word count is acceptable?

Unless the lecturer tells you that these limits are strict, it is normally acceptable to be 10% above or below this word limit (so, for example, a 2000 word assignment should be between 1800 and 2200 words).

How do you count letters in an essay?

Select the TOOLS menu and then WORD COUNT. A dialogue box will appear containing the character count. Character counting tools many times will provide additional information, such as the character count with and without spaces. In addition, many of the programs will perform a character count of a selected text.

How do you count characters in an essay?

When you need to check the character count in Microsoft Word, you can do so in the same way you check the word count.

1. Open the document in Word that you want to count the characters in.
2. Click the “Review” tab.
3. Click “Word Count” in the Proofing section.
4. Click “Close” to close the Word Count window.

Where do you find word count in word?

The Word Count dialog box displays the number of pages, paragraphs, and lines in your document, and also the number of characters, either including or excluding spaces. On the Review tab, in the Proofing group, click Word Count.