By Katherine Watson
Finally finished your assignment but realised you’re over the word count? Or perhaps you’re half way through writing and are already way over? Here are some tips for how to reduce your word count.
Remember that word counts are given from a reason; they are a guideline for the depth and scope you are expected to meet in an assignment. However, self-editing is also a great opportunity to tighten up your argument and strengthen your work as a whole.
If available, do refer back to the original assignment guidelines. It is not uncommon for the parameters of the assignment to be set out by your lecturer. Any guidelines are here to guide your structure and word allocation. If there were three topics you were asked to cover in this assignment, and you’ve spent 60% of your word count on the first topic and only 40% divided between the other two, then you probably want to look at reducing this first topic.
It is far more common for students to use up their word count with description than analysis. In general, to reach a first or 2:1, you will need plenty of evaluation and analysis. This should be afforded a heavy weighting in each paragraph and the essay as a whole. If you have large sections which are predominantly descriptive, consider whether it is all necessary.
Combing through your work to shorten wordy phrases, remove ‘the’ or ‘that’, and delete extraneous adjectives and adverbs will tighten up your sentences and is a great way to make your writing clearer. However, this is not the strategy for removing hundreds (or thousands) of words.
What is your main argument? What information do you need to convey along the way to make it? These are questions you should reflect upon throughout essay planning and writing. However, even right at the end, these prompts can help you streamline your writing. Your argument should have a logical progression, each paragraph and section should lead to the next, and offer new understanding that serves your overarching argument.
Imagine a series of stepping stones across a river; it is your job to lay these stones so that the reader can reach the other side. Each stone is one of your paragraphs, starting with the introduction and ending with the conclusion. When you are clear on your destination (aka your main argument) you can exercise more objectivity and decide whether all your paragraphs are necessary. There might be some stones that are slightly to the left or right of the main route but introduce an interesting perspective or example. You may decide that they should not occupy a paragraph (or stone) of their own but be added in as a footnote or summarised into a sentence and combined with another paragraph.
Once you are clear on your argument, it is easier to be clear on the function of each paragraph. If you are able to summarise in one sentence the role of a paragraph [Tip: this can act as your opening sentence for that paragraph] then you can refine that paragraph further. Are all the examples offered in that paragraph necessary for getting the point across? Can you get to that point more quickly rather than attaching a preamble?
If your argument has a logical progression, there should be no need to repeat points you have already made. Sometimes students may deploy repetition to reaffirm their argument, or to make links with new information. Rather than using a whole paragraph to make a link, you can achieve the desired effect in a single sentence with the use of a signposting phrase. For example, ‘Building upon my earlier argument…’, ‘As discussed previously…’, ‘Having considered […] we will now consider…’
If there is content that you don’t have the word count to include, reflect on this in your introduction. This will warn you reader what they should not expect. You can add in a sentence such as: ‘This scope of this essay is limited to…’ ‘This decision was made because…’ As long as you provide clear reasons and have still satisfied the assignment guidelines, you can’t go wrong. Setting the parameters of an essay is an important skill and will empower you to keep your writing more focused and relevant.
