Word count on an essay

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.

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.

Where do you put word count on a paper?

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.

Should you include word count in an essay?

Yes. “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 count your words in an essay?

Step 1: Count words per each line. To get better results, count the first line, any middle line, and the last line of the page of your composition. For instance, you can get 8 words for first line; 7 words for any middle line; and 8 words for the last line. By estimation, you can assume that each line contain 8 words.

How do you display word count?

When you type in a document, Word automatically counts the number of pages and words in your document and displays them on the status bar at the bottom of the workspace. If you don’t see the word count in the status bar right-click the status bar and click Word Count.

Does word count include references?

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.

Does word count Include title page?

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.

Where do you put word count on an essay in Chicago?

For the sake of this class, you should include the word count at the bottom of your final page. You can finish your manuscript with a separate page for the works cited where you will include a list of all the sources used in writing the manuscript.

Why do essays have word counts?

A word count encourages students to think of enough ideas to make the essay worth reading, while discouraging them from “padding” the text with repetition and unnecessary details. A word count levels the playing field; all students are required to produce the same amount of text on the topic.

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 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 do you count the number of words in a paragraph?

Count the number of words in a part of a document
To count the number of words in only part of your document, select the text you want to count. Then on the Tools menu, click Word Count. Just like the Word desktop program, Word for the web counts words while you type.

How do you put a word count on an essay in Google Docs?

Highlight the relevant text, then either select Word count under Tools or use the Ctrl+Shift+C shortcut for the box to pop up. This time, the box will display how many pages, words, characters and characters excluding spaces are in this chunk of text with respect to the total number in the Google Doc.

How do you use word count on Microsoft word?

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.

Why has my word count disappeared?

In case you don’t see the word count, right-click the status bar at the bottom of your screen and choose the Word Count option. This’ll add the word counter to the status bar.

What is excluded from a 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 not counted in essays?

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 count include abstract?

Also be aware that word count often does NOT include the title page, abstract, references, or figures. To determine your word count in Microsoft Word, just highlight your text; the number of words appears on the bottom left of the screen.

Does word count include works cited MLA?

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.

Do in-text citations count in word count MLA?

Are the words in an in-text citation included in the word count? Any words or numbers in in-text citation are not included in the word count for the essay.

Does Microsoft word have Chicago style?

Word automatically generates a bibliography from the sources you used to write your paper. Each time you add a new citation to your document, Word adds that source so that it appears in the bibliography in the proper format, such as MLA, APA, and Chicago-style.

Essay Word Counter: The Best Solution to Getting the Right Length of Your Essay

When working on your assignments, you can only be sure of getting the best grades by strictly following all the instructions. “I have to do my coursework to the top of my abilities” is a thought that might instill worry in you. But one of the requirements in most assignments, word count, is fairly easy to keep track of. As you’re writing an essay, it is important to stick to the required word count for this particular type of paper. But how do you know it? How many words in an essay? Here are all the answers:

How Many Words are in My Essay?

It depends on the type of essay you are working on. For example, a one-page essay should be approximately 550 words or longer, depending on your department’s requirements. However, if you have been writing your essay and have probably hit midway, it might be important to check the number of words to assess progress. This is critical to ensuring your writing stays within the recommended length. To know the number of words for your essay, you should consider using the essay word counter.

How Many Words Is the Average College Essay?

An average college essay is 400-700 words, which is about five paragraphs. When you see the length requirements for a difficult paper you might immediately think “I just want to pay someone to do my essay.” But don’t worry, sometimes even a 1,000 words isn’t that much when you enjoy your topic and do the research. Make sure to pay special attention to your lecturer’s instructions because some might require specific pages or paragraphs. However, the 400 – 700 words range sound wide, right? This range is meant to cater for writers who prefer either short or longer paragraphs.

Even though the answer to the question, “how many words in a college essay?” is distinct, you need to ensure that all the key points on your topic are covered. For example, when writing a persuasive essay, make sure to bring out the main points and counterarguments.

Once you are through writing the college essay, you should make sure to confirm the number of words using a reliable tool, such as the essay word counter, before submitting it.

How Many Words Is the Common App Essay?  

Like an average essay, an application essay is another flexible type of write-up of 250-650 words, which students write when seeking admission to colleges of their choice. Ensure to be extra careful when determining how many words is a college essay for admission because it is part of the grading system.

When writing an application essay, do not simply assume that shorter is always better. Instead, you should think of how many words is a good essay, which allows you to express your personality, writing skills, and passions. We recommend that you target 500 — 600 words. To know this, you need to use the word counter tool, which is fast, reliable, and accurate.

How Many Words Is a Two Page Essay?

Now that we have answered the question “How many words is a 5 paragraph essay?,” it is time to move on to the next one, a two page essay, which starts from 500 words. However, it is very important to consider whether your paper is single or double spaced.

A single page which is single-spaced should be about 500 words or 250 words if it is double spaced. When working on two pages, you need to hit double the number of words you would do for a single page, meaning 1,000 words single spaced or 500 words double spaced. To be sure that your paper is within the right range, make sure to use the online word counter for essay.

How to Use Our Word Counter for Essay

Whether you are working on a short or a longer essay, the first thing is determining how many words should a college essay be. For example, you should have the answer to the questions, “How many words should a 5 paragraph essay be?” and “How many words is the average essay?” by looking at the prompts given by your teacher. Then, make sure to use the essay counter tool. Here is a demonstration:

• Write your essay and format it well
• Visit the online word counter on their website
• Copy the entire text of your essay, and paste it on the word count interface

The good thing about using the word counter tool is that it allows you to do more than check the number of words. In addition, you can check grammar and improve your writing. Grammar is as important as word count, and should also be at the best level possible. And if after all of this you’re ever thinking “I should get a professional to do my paper for me,” and you actually do, then you won’t have to worry about following all the instructions, because the writer will do all the work for you!

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!

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🔍 References

When you have an essay assignment with a minimum word count, one of the worst feelings is when you believe you have finished only to find that you’re still well below the minimum you have to reach (as opposed to having too many words). Many students try to solve this problem by rewriting the essay’s sentences to make them wordier or splitting contractions. While these do increase word count, they usually make the essay weaker in the process. It doesn’t have to be that way. If you ever find yourself in a position where you need to increase the number of words for an essay, below are some simple techniques which can help you add to your writing while improving it instead of writing unneeded filler.

Add Examples

Skim through your essay looking for any place you have used an example to make a point. In most cases, you should be able to provide additional examples which will make your essay stronger by showing your understanding of the topic while also increasing the word count. You can also go through the essay and look for statements made where inserting an example would be appropriate to help support the statement.

Address Different Viewpoints

An effective way of increasing word count and improving your essay at the same time is to address different viewpoints to your own. You have the opportunity to discuss how these alternative viewpoints differ from the conclusions you have made, and it gives you an opportunity to explain why you believe your conclusions are superior. This shows you have considered a range of different opinions while coming to your conclusions, and in doing so make your essay stronger while adding more words.

Clarify Statements

When you find the statements in your writing, if inserting an example doesn’t make sense, then clarifying the statement may be appropriate. This can be achieved by inserting one or more specific statements to clarify the original one. A common way to do this is to follow the statement with, “In other words…” It’s important not to over-clarify statements or use this for every statement you write as it will begin to look like filler, but using it sporadically throughout your essay can increase the word count and show you perfectly understand the points you’re trying to make.

Find Additional Sources

Another way to improve your essay and increase word count is to find additional sources you haven’t previously mentioned which support the statements and conclusions you have made. The more sources you have, the stronger the essay will be in most cases. Spending some time searching for additional sources to add to the essay can be a great way to add quality content to it.

Use Quotations

Chances are you already have appropriate quotations in your essay, and if that’s the case, skip over this suggestion. Adding more will likely not add to your essay. If you haven’t used any, however, finding appropriate quotations from experts in the field that support your statements can be an excellent way to add words to your essay while improving it at the same time.

Rework Introduction and Conclusion

If all of the above haven’t enabled you to reach your word count minimum and you need some filler, look to put it in your introduction and conclusion rather than the body of the essay. Most teachers give more leeway with the introduction and conclusion to be wordy than the guts of the essay. This is something you should try to avoid if at all possible (it’s never good to be wordier than you have to be), but if you tried everything else, it’s better to do it in these two places than in the heart of the essay.

Page Count

If you’re writing an essay which has a minimum page count instead of a minimum word count, the above suggestions will work, but you have a bit more wiggle room as well. You can make slight adjustments to the font and font size you use through a Words per Page Counter. As long as you don’t go overboard, this can be a relatively easy way to increase page count while not taking away from the essay.

(Photo courtesy of Caleb Roenigk)