How Long an Essay Should Be?

This is a question that should be answered based on statistics. When a student writes under the word count; there will be issues from the examiner. On the other hand; it is not expected of students to overshoot the recommended word length.

Writing less will attract sanctions. On the other hand; when you write over the recommended word count (though there is no penalty for this); students are likely to commit more errors with a lengthy word count.

We shall be taking a look at the data-driven answer to the topic question. This will give the exact answer to the question of how much the word count of any category of an essay should be. 

How many pages should it take?

We shall start by determining how many pages the essay should take in the first place. How many pages should a 1500 words essay that is double spaced take? Take a look at the fonts settings that your college sets as standard and paste 1500 words into it. 

If your school demands such word length in any given topic; you will get the exact pages that it will require to get done with the 1500 word length essay. You can apply the same method to any number of pages that you are trying to figure out.

In some instances; your Professor may push it back to you to decide the exact word length that you wish to go in an essay. In that case, your Instructor probably wants you to write as much that will look enough to project your research into the topic. 

Where the essay is on a single topic (an opinion piece) and you are given the liberty to choose the topic; then you can limit your writing to a healthy 400 words. This will be enough to express your thoughts on a single topic.

While practicing exam questions, it should not go beyond the range of 150-250 words essay. 

However, with some broad topics, you are expected to write in the region of thousands.

What determines the length of an essay?

In a direct answer to that question, the topic will determine how long you are to go. There are short essays as well as we do have long essays that go into thousands of words. In each of the divisions, you are expected to write following the given topic. 

In a short essay; the expected word length will range between 250 words to 450 words. This will be determined by the topic of the essay as stated earlier. 

Where we are dealing with an exam essay; the question might state categorically the word count. It might be between 300-400 word lengths. The marking guide will specify how much you are going to get for each point that you can make.

A 700-word count might attract an A-plus mark depending on how many points you can put into your essay.

Final thoughts

You are going to be given the word length by your Instructor. In the case where you are allowed to choose your word length; you should endeavor to ensure that enough points that will earn you the marks are included in your essay.

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