So, Have You?
If you have, this is very very common, especially if you have to write a detailed academic essay but within a relatively low word count. For example. you may have four different learning objectives that you need to discuss at length but they are wedged into a word count of 3,000.
However, though many students go beyond the word count in university assignments (which usually come with an agreement of allowing you to write 10% over or 10% under – but check!), removing the unnecessary words can be time consuming and fiddly to do. Also, if you have left reviewing your essay until the last minute, you may not have enough time to review as closely as you may have wanted.
Your Word Count Counts…
Remember that one of the features of a grading criteria at university relates to your ability to complete an assignment within the specified word count. So, though I have seen countless university students who say that their word count is either too small or too large (both of which present problems), remember you are being assessed on whether you can write a detailed assignment without going beyond a certain word target.
Why Do Students Go Over The Limit?
Two words: poor planning. Poor planning means you have not kept your focus on how many words to include for each essay or dissertation section or chapter. Poor planning means you have read, read and read some more, making endless notes from sources. Yet all this has resulted in pages of notes that you cannot use, because you don’t have enough words available. Poor planning means you have wasted your time (sorry!). So, if this sounds like you, try and remember to plan differently next time.
What You Can Do:
Removing words (or ideas) from your assignment needs you to be very familiar with your assignment and what you have been asked to do. This is because, if you don’t know which ideas are essential and non-essential (and where they are), finding them will take longer.
Unnecessary ideas
Using your assignment guidance, see what you are being assessed on i.e. what exactly does the assignment want you to include in order to obtain the marks available.
Then look through the assignment and delete anything that could be considered superfluous or irrelevant. Remember that these may be complete sentences or small parts of a sentence, rather than complete paragraphs.
Repeated ideas or examples
Similar to the previous point, but different in terms of what you are looking for. When we write we may sometimes include a range of examples which exemplify something significant we are trying to show the reader. This is good, but if you are over your word count, these may need to go. So, again, look where you could remove examples which are either similar to others, or don’t add anything to a paragraph.
Likewise, look for any points you have made but have then re-stated them later on.
Empty words
- This one is the most laborious but is still worthwhile. In academic writing, it is common to use “empty expressions” which make a sentence sound well-structured but which could be replaced by single words. These are often called redundant expressions.
- Some examples include: “in order to”, which could be replaced with “to”; “due to the fact that” can be substituted with “because”; “on account of” = “because”; and “at the same time” could be changed to “while”. Changing the wording may also require you to alter the sentence structure, so be aware of that when you change the language.
Repeat the above
Sorry, there is no quick fix, but these are ways that work to reduce your word count.
Also, as I stated above, focus on deleting small parts of sentences/whole sentences, rather than complete paragraphs, as doing this will help you maintain the structure you want to keep.