how to get a research paper longer

How to Make a College Paper Longer

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Need to make a paper longer but out of ideas? Forget fudging the margins and font or even the legendary "period trick." These 6 tips will make your paper longer—and better!

Avoid the Old, Obvious Tricks

First and foremost, know that your professor most likely knows about all of the "easy" tricks and can spot 'em! Changing the font, changing the margins, doing the "period trick," and tons of other sneaky ways to make your paper longer have all been done before and then some. Since you need to make your paper longer , not worse , skip the easy stuff and focus on the content.

Cite a Few Sources

Add additional quotations to support your examples. If your paper is good, you'll have examples to support your thesis . To make your paper even better (and longer), make sure you have at least one quotation from the text—if not more—to support your examples. (And be careful about citing your quotations accurately, too.)

Add Some Examples to Your Paper

Add an additional example to each paragraph/argument/idea. If you can't add more quotations , add more examples to support your position. Think about more ways to make your point by showing —not just telling—the reader.

Check Your Paragraph Format

Make sure each paragraph has a topic sentence , supporting evidence , and a concluding/transition sentence. Of course, each paragraph should have more than just these three sentences, but you might be surprised at how easily each can be left off—and how much longer your paper can become if you go back through and insert missing items where needed.

See If You Can Prove Yourself Wrong

Think about the arguments against your thesis—and then make sure you've addressed those points. Sure, you may have good arguments for your position. But what would someone holding the opposite position say? And what would you say in response? Making sure those responses are already included in your paper is a great way to make sure you've covered all the bases... and a great way to add some length if your paper is a little shorter than you'd like.

Make Sure Your Paper Structure Is Solid

Confirm and reconfirm that you have a strong introduction , thesis statement , and conclusion . ​Although you may be focused on the body of your paper and the evidence supporting your position, having a strong intro, thesis, and conclusion are important, too. Making sure your paper starts with a bang (good intro), has a solid foundation to stand on (strong thesis), and leaves the reader convinced (stellar conclusion) is a great way to make sure your paper is all-around better—and longer!

• Tips on How to Write an Argumentative Essay
• What Is Expository Writing?
• How To Write an Essay
• How to Write a Research Paper That Earns an A
• Tips for Writing an Art History Paper
• The Ultimate Guide to the 5-Paragraph Essay
• Definition and Examples of Analysis in Composition
• Understanding Organization in Composition and Speech
• 5 Steps to Writing a Position Paper
• How to Structure an Essay
• How Can You Stretch a Paper to Make it Longer?
• An Introduction to Academic Writing
• Make Your Paragraphs Flow to Improve Writing
• Formatting Papers in Chicago Style
• How to Write a Good Thesis Statement
• The Introductory Paragraph: Start Your Paper Off Right

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• A Research Guide
• Research Paper Guide

How to Make a Research Paper Longer?

Leverage quotations.

• Transitional Words and Phrases

Revisit the Introduction and Conclusion

• Grasp the Prompt

Anticipate Counterarguments

Include examples, seek online assistance, read aloud for clarity, 8 ways to make a paper longer, use transitional words and phrases.

• Utilize “to be” Verbs: Incorporate verbs that start with “to be.” Transform simplistic phrases like “I eat fast” into more descriptive ones like “I am a fast eater.”
• Add Depth: Avoid brevity. Instead of stating, “We had a good time at the fair,” opt for a more detailed account like “This weekend, my friend and I thoroughly enjoyed our time there. Riding the Ferris wheel and savoring funnel cakes created wonderful memories.”

Meticulously Grasp the Prompt

• Have you addressed all the questions posed in the prompt?
• Have you backed up your claims with solid supporting evidence?
• Are any crucial details missing that could enhance your argument’s clarity?
• Have you met all the requirements outlined in the prompt besides the length?
• Have you deleted extra spacing and used the correct margin and font?

• Writing a Research Paper
• Research Paper Title
• Research Paper Sources
• Research Paper Problem Statement
• Research Paper Thesis Statement
• Hypothesis for a Research Paper
• Research Question
• Research Paper Outline
• Research Paper Summary
• Research Paper Prospectus
• Research Paper Proposal
• Research Paper Format
• Research Paper Styles
• AMA Style Research Paper
• MLA Style Research Paper
• Chicago Style Research Paper
• APA Style Research Paper
• Research Paper Structure
• Research Paper Cover Page
• Research Paper Abstract
• Research Paper Introduction
• Research Paper Body Paragraph
• Research Paper Literature Review
• Research Paper Background
• Research Paper Methods Section
• Research Paper Results Section
• Research Paper Discussion Section
• Research Paper Conclusion
• Research Paper Appendix
• Research Paper Bibliography
• APA Reference Page
• Annotated Bibliography
• Bibliography vs Works Cited vs References Page
• Research Paper Types
• What is Qualitative Research

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The Secret(s) to Getting Through Long Papers

By Sophie, a Writing Center Coach

It’s the beginning of the semester—meaning, as a graduate student, it’s time for me to get back into the groove of planning and writing long papers. For me, the hardest part of approaching a paper is coming up with a topic that will stay interesting to me throughout the research and writing process. A good example of this is from the end of last semester, when I found myself dreading the final paper for my archives class. We covered so many interesting topics in the class, it was hard to decide which one to choose.

In my experience, a bad topic can make the writing process feel infinitely longer and more stressful. As I thought about my archives paper, I worried about finding something that I could focus on for 12 pages. So many of the topics in my class felt interwoven, and I was afraid it would be hard to pick out one thread. If I try to start a long paper without planning, I’ll end up staring at the same sentence or paragraph for hours, trying to figure out what I could possibly say next.

So, when I finally had to commit to a topic, I decided to break down the process into a few fun steps. Dividing it up helped take away some of my worries and made the process easier because I only had to do one step at a time. Here’s how I got started:

1) Create a real brainstorming session

First, I decided to meet up with a few of my friends who were also in the class. We went to a coffee shop we all like, and we brought our notes and readings from the class. None of us had a concrete idea about what to write; we just wanted to throw some possibilities out to see how other people would react to them. 

We started by talking about some of the things we found funny or interesting in previous class discussions. As we talked, we found natural points of disagreement and interest. I took notes about points that stuck out to me. At the end of the conversation, I had a document full of questions and arguments that I wanted to explore further.

My friends also thought of topics, but they arrived at their ideas in different ways. One of my friends kept coming back to a short paper she had already written, and by talking about it, she discovered that she had much more to say. Another friend talked about something that he felt was conspicuously missing from our class discussions, so he decided that this paper would be a good opportunity to learn more.

All three of us came out of the session with inspiration and initial feedback. This step reminded me of the value of talking through my ideas, especially since my peers could push me to think more deeply about particular questions. Plus, connecting with my classmates through discussion helped me get excited about writing. 

Alternatively, I know that, for some people, meeting with friends isn’t always effective; there are also other ways to brainstorm. Sometimes, it helps to talk to someone who doesn’t know about the class or topic—like a Writing Center coach ! For others, the note-taking part could be like having a conversation with yourself, which might be all you need. The Writing and Learning Centers also have some great tools for brainstorming if you prefer to work independently.

2) Conduct some initial research

Once I had the beginnings of an idea, I decided to look for sources that could help me narrow my topic. The first place I go to find scholarly articles is the UNC Libraries’ page with “Resource Tools.” At this phase, I like to do keyword searches with Articles+. When you open the advanced search options, you can limit your results to be really specific by choosing a discipline, language, date the material was published, and whether the source needs to be scholarly/peer reviewed. In this case, I used “AND” to limit my results to articles with all of my desired keywords, like: “Sexual material” AND “Archives.” There’s another great article that explains the logic behind this kind of search, which uses Boolean logic.

After I’ve combed through relevant results for one search, I’ll usually adjust my keywords to see if anything new pops up. I’ll also see if the best articles (the ones that feel most related to my topic) have been cited by anyone else and whether those articles have something to offer me. I also repeat this process with Google Scholar and with the “E-research by Discipline” option, which will lead me to specific databases for my field. 

In this case, I used the Information and Library Science option, which took me to the best databases for journals in my discipline. Searching within a discipline allows me to think more carefully about my keywords; I might not have to include “archives,” or “libraries,” for example, because many of the articles are already about archives.

As I’m going along, I like to save any articles that I find in Zotero, a citation manager that I downloaded from the library’s website. Within Zotero, I make a folder for the assignment (“Final Paper”), and it automatically saves all the information I need to quickly go back to the article if I need it. (Note: I first learned about using Zotero from a helpful university librarian, so if you’re new to citation managers, it might be helpful to have a librarian give you a tutorial. You can also read another blog article on using Zotero .)

At the end of this process, I usually have a file full of “maybe” sources that I could come back to later. This helps give me an idea of what people have already said about this topic and where I might be able to add to the conversation.

3) Meet with your professor

After I came up with an idea and did some preliminary research, I thought it would be a good idea to check in with my professor during office hours. Since my professor is an expert in the field, I knew she would have a better sense of the context surrounding my research question. 

(Note: Sometimes I like to go to office hours before I do any research; getting some expertise at the beginning can make the search process even faster. In this case, my professor encouraged us to find what we could before checking in with her.)

Before the meeting, I read through the abstracts of the sources I had already found in my preliminary research (those were saved in my Zotero library). Based on those, I wrote down some questions that I had about the topic. I met with my professor for about 15 minutes, and in that time, I pitched my question and told her what I had already found. She was able to direct me to some additional books and cases to look at, and I wrote those down to research later. 

My professor also encouraged me to post my topic in our class’ Sakai forum. She created a discussion page specifically for final topic ideas so that my other classmates could provide feedback. Often, she said, students with similar topics will find sources that are helpful to each other, so the forum is a good place to share resources. I left the meeting with a strong sense of direction of what I needed to begin the actual writing.

After going through these steps, I felt like I had a good idea of what I wanted to write about and some evidence that could support my argument. Still, because it was such a long paper, I felt like I needed help to get started on the outline and the actual writing process. So, I decided to make a Writing Center Appointment to get my ideas in order and to make a plan for finishing the paper on time. Again, since I’m a person who likes to talk through my ideas, it was helpful to hear another person’s reaction to my topic so far. It also gave me a self-imposed deadline to complete these initial steps.

Breaking down the first few steps of writing my research paper helped me think of it as a list of small tasks to check off instead of one giant, frustrating project. It felt good to accomplish little things that I knew would add up to finishing the whole thing. This process also led me to a topic that really excited and engaged me, so when it was time to do the final step (the actual writing), I was happy to get started.

This blog showcases the perspectives of UNC Chapel Hill community members learning and writing online. If you want to talk to a Writing and Learning Center coach about implementing strategies described in the blog, make an appointment with a writing coach , a peer tutor , or an academic coach today. Have an idea for a blog post about how you are learning and writing remotely? Contact us here .

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How to Add Length to a Research Paper: Tips and Tricks

When writing research papers most students struggle with two things the most: making their papers shorter and making them longer. We will focus on the latter, because if your paper isn’t long enough you will not have enough content to make good edits, or even make anything shorter. When you’re starting out, the struggle is often with adding length.Then as you mature as a student the more difficult challenge becomes removing content from papers and editing for clarity. Don’t get discouraged if you are facing the need to add length, it takes a long time to get to the point of automatically writing too much. Dave talks in his vlog below about his own experiences adding length to research papers when when he was first started out:

This post was written by Stephanie A. Bosco-Ruggiero (PhD candidate in Social Work at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service) and Jessica Russell ( freelance writer) on behalf of Dave Maslach for the R3ciprocity project (Check out the YouTube Channel or the writing feedback software ). R3ciprocity helps students, faculty, and research folk by providing a real and authentic look into doing research. It provides solutions and hope to researchers around the world.

There are many different ways of writing a research paper and your professor will have his/her own rubric for what must be included and how the paper will be graded. Graduate level research papers may tend to be more like lengthy literature reviews where you review and synthesize what is already known about your topic. At the doctoral level (or graduate level), you may be proposing an actual research study. Still other papers have their own requirements and rubrics. ( If you like this post, you might want to read this one on how professors grade papers. )

There are many places where you can add content to different types of papers. It is actually more difficult to make a research paper shorter, but there are simple tricks to make your research paper longer. This post discusses some tips and tricks for adding length to doctoral level research papers, in particular, but it also will help you find ways to add length to other types of papers as well, including at the graduate level.  

Choosing a good topic may be a process, not the first step

It is important that you’ve chosen a good research topic. By making sure to do many of the following things we describe when writing, you’ll find out if you have chosen well. Sometimes taking these steps will cause you to change your path, and sometimes (hopefully more often) it will truly help you not only add length to your paper, but get into the really important aspects of what you want and need to say. 

What should I write in the introduction ?

Most research papers begin with an introduction, but this section should only be two to four paragraphs. You really don’t want to go on and on in the beginning of the paper because it really is for summarizing your topic, what the aim of your study is, and perhaps why it is important to look at this issue or research question. You can say more in the background and/or literature review about the context, state of the art in practice, or what knowledge there is to date on this topic. Here are some tips for writing more about the context of your study in one of the earlier sections of your paper (e.g. background, aims and scope literature review, etc.)

What is the context of your research?

Write about the who, what, when, where, how, and why of your problem, issue, or phenomenon. Write 2-3 sentences for each W or the how. Who does it affect, who can affect the outcomes, who needs to be involved? What is the objective or the strategy of your paper? What has happened before, what is happening now, and what could be happening in the future? Where is this problem or issue occurring, and where are its effects happening most? Where is this topic needed and who needs to be discussing it? And why is that? Why is it happening, why should we care, and why has this topic not been at the forefront? These are just some of the questions you can ask yourself to flesh out the context  of your research questions and research paper. 

Why is your research or topic important ?

Write about why this issue or problem is important and what the potential implications are of your study. After writing a few sentences about who, what, where, and why, you will start to see where you can expand upon what you’ve already started to discuss about context. Why is this study or research topic important, who does it affect, where are the implications most evident, and what needs to happen in order to affect change? Then switch those questions around to consider more views on the topic. Dig deep into every avenue of thought and hypothesis on this topic. This alone will give you something to write about.  (Here is a great blog post on choosing research topics that you should read) .

What are your research questions and hypotheses?

This the place where brevity is best. You do not want to provide detail to back up your hypotheses in this section. Your hypotheses emerge from your review of the literature and your knowledge of the field. Your research questions are expanded on in your background and literature review. You have taken a journey toward developing specific research questions and hypotheses if you are proposing a study. Your research questions and hypotheses may be refined several times, but that is ok. Just make sure they are clear and to the point. 

What is your literature review telling you about what is known and what you might find (if you are doing a study)?

The background and literature sections of your paper are great places for discussing the context of the study or phenomenon and for expanding on what is known in the field about this topic, and /or what the different hypotheses or trains of thought are about how it works or why it is relevant. Your literature review should not be a simple list (like an annotated bibliography) of studies that have preceded yours and what the findings were. Rather it should synthesize similar findings, discuss emerging themes, and show how knowledge to date about the subject suggests your hypothesis might be true. If you need help with literature reviews, you might want to read this blog post:

What Is A Literature Review (In A PhD Or Graduate School)? A How to Guide

You might also want to discuss similar theories about the phenomenon, as well as what is not yet known and needs to be studied. There is a lot to write about when looking at the literature and history of your topic, but be careful not to list every study or paper known to man about the topic. Look back about ten years and highlight the most important studies or information. As you mature as a student, this is the section where you tend to write too much and can edit down.

Write a detailed description of 1-2 pages about how things are thought to work. Focus on what is known. When we work from what we know, we can see the gaps that need to be addressed. Do more research if you are struggling on the history and current events relevant to your topic. Search different sources to learn up to the date details on current happenings in your field of study. As you are covering this, more questions and thoughts about the topic will pop into your head. Make sure to take notes and jot down ideas, even if they are small. You never know which thought will lead to a few pages of content. Make sure you establish why your research question and study are necessary and important.

Which theories provide the foundation for your research questions, hypotheses or study?

Your paper may require you to propose or critique a theory. Write where, what, and why the theory is important. Aim for writing 2-3 sentences for each W. Your theory, or someone else’s theory, is the basis of why you’re studying this topic. Start off with a few sentences and then expand upon each sentence. As you are writing, you will develop ideas you may not have thought about initially. It is important to really get into the meat of your theory. Your paper is meant to prove your theory, or it will disprove it as you’re working and cause you to take new avenues and thought patterns to figure out what needs to change. 

Note why you have not chosen a different theory to focus on. It helps to talk about why your theory is important. Why are you writing this, why do you believe in it and why others should read your paper. What is it about this theory that made it something you chose to write about, chose to study and research? And why should others take notice and consider everything you’re saying? Why should it lead to others choosing this to research and study? What led you down this path, what were some of the topics that you didn’t choose, but steered your research towards this theory? 

Where can you go deeper with your analysis ?

Look for multiple levels of analysis. What happens when you zoom in and zoom out of what you are looking at? A great example Dave talks about is looking at your hand. It’s a hand, you know it has bones and muscles and tendons, so he says, “ I can look at my hand and I can see it as a hand but I can think about it in terms of the molecular structure that’s behind it. I can think of it in terms of cells that are behind it. You know, I can think of it in terms of the different wrinkles and wrinkle patterns; I have lots of fingerprint patterns. ” The multiple levels of analysis he is describing will give you a rich, multifaceted, understanding and written description of your topic. Writing a paragraph or two about each level of analysis of your topic and/or a theory will really tease out the details and add length and clarity to your paper. 

Where can you define for clarity and understanding ?

Write definitions for each of the ideas you introduce in your paper. Each definition will add one paragraph to the paper. Not everyone who reads your paper is an expert on your theory or topic. It is often helpful to add definitions both to aid understanding and for adding length. Just make sure not to add superfluous definitions to add length where no additional understanding is really needed. Ask yourself if you weren’t in this field, talking about this topic regularly, what would you need to understand better in order to understand the whole? Define those topics and ideas, expand upon those topics and ideas with the intention of making them more clear to the reader and as a basis for topical understanding. 

Have you described your research methods thoroughly ?

Why is the method that you are using important and the best method for addressing your research question? How is it different from other methods? What are the key assumptions in your research method? Why can’t you use another method? It’s important to keep notes about your methods. These notes will help you describe your methods, conduct your research and discuss the importance of your methods. You can talk about how other methods vary as well as how other methods failed to yield satisfying answers. Explain how different methods led you to your current method and why the changes were necessary. Spend time discussing how you came to where you are now in your research and what brought you to this place. Taking time to expand on these thoughts in your paper to add length and detail, and to document the evolution in your thinking about how to approach this study. 

What do you think? Write it down 

Not everything has to be cited. If you have a clever idea that is novel, about 75% of your paper will have citations but 25% of your paper will be original . Record your sources and make good citations. But make sure to expand upon your thought patterns on the topic. Yes, you have chosen a research topic and are required to write about it, but you are here for a reason. You have chosen your topic, perhaps created a theory or hypothesis, and are at the point of writing about all you’ve learned. Don’t just talk about what others say, think, and have done. Talk about all the ideas you’ve thought about (take notes!) along the way. 

Research sparks ideas and creativity. This provides avenues for new thoughts and theories. Research sparks more research. Learning and discovering new ways to do things, change things, save lives, increase productivity, provide meaning, and spark more in the minds and lives of others are half of the reasons you do what you do. Talk about what you think about everything you’ve learned and where you think there are more avenues for further study. 

Dave says that you know your own ideas. He says it’s important to look for ways that you can add things that are uniquely your own insights because not everything has to be cited in a research paper. The general rule is you want 60-80% of your content to be based on others’ ideas and work. The remaining 20-40% is your own thinking, theorizing, and synthesizing. You can go on a tangent sometimes about different things, and talk about those different things that you find interesting. It will add to the particular context so if you do that you’re going to have a much more original paper and it’s going to seem a little more clever because nobody else is talking about these ideas. 

Discussion: Have you described several mechanisms that might explain what you are looking at ?

There might be several reasons for the change you have observed or are trying to explain. You are seeing change or certain information in your work. Take time to describe those mechanisms, but also look at different mechanisms that might help you and others understand what you are seeing. Looking at it from different viewpoints or through another lens will give you a better understanding of the who, what, where and why of your topic. Considering other mechanisms can help you as you do the research because then you are really thinking about what is happening and why. And, what you may not have considered before or dismissed off hand will become important, not only to your theory, but to your research in general. 

There are many places where you can add length to a paper. At the doctoral level especially, great detail is expected. Just do not write your paper as if you are trying to think of things to say or write about. It will be obvious. You have enough to talk about, even if you don’t realize it at first, to have a paper with sufficient depth and breadth.

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Home / Guides / Writing Guides / Writing Tips / How to Make an Essay Longer the Smart Way

How to Make an Essay Longer the Smart Way

Meeting an essay’s required page or word count can sometimes be a struggle, especially if you’re juggling multiple papers or exams. In a pinch, students often rely on tricks like increasing margin size or making their font slightly bigger. Though these tricks do increase page length, there are easier (and smarter) ways to write a longer, high-quality essay. Making a paper meet minimum word or page counts doesn’t have to be an agonizing process—you can add length while also adding clarity and depth.

Here are 10 tips on how you can write a longer and a smarter essay, even if the deadline is fast approaching:

Tip #1: Look Back at Your Prompt/Rubric/etc.

If you’ve been provided a comprehensive prompt or rubric for an essay, read it, and read it again. Think about the following:

• Did you answer all of the questions in the prompt?
• Did you provide supporting evidence to back up whatever claims you made?
• Did you leave out any information that might increase the reader’s understanding of your argument?
• Did you meet all requirements (besides length) for the paper?

If the answer isn’t a decisive “yes” to every question on this list, go back and revise.

Tip #2: Go Back Through Your Introduction and Conclusion

Often times, ideas evolve while writing a paper. If the first thing you wrote was the introduction, go back and reread the first paragraph. You might decide that you left out key information that aids the reader in understanding your argument. When looking back on the conclusion, make sure you’ve both summarized the main points within the essay and provided your reader with a solution to consider. If you don’t feel you’ve done this, go back through and revise the paper.

Tip #3: Have Someone Proofread Your Essay

Even if you’re short on time ask a friend, sibling, or parent to read through your paper, specifically noting any points they find confusing. Then, go back and revise the parts that were unclear, adding in more information to provide readers with further clarity. You have a more comprehensive understanding of what you’re writing about than your reader, so having someone else look over your paper can be a helpful way to ensure that you haven’t missed any important details.

Tip #4: Use Quotations

Chances are, you have already used quotes in your paper. Quotations are a great way to enhance your argument while also driving up a paper’s word count, but don’t add quotes just for the sake of doing so. If you’re short on words, read through your source materials again to see if you’ve missed any valuable quotes. You can also do a little more research to see if there are any other sources you can add to provide the reader with more evidence toward your argument. Longer quotes aren’t necessarily better, but if you’re really in a bind, you might want to lengthen some of the quotes that are already included.

Tip #5: Review Your Outline

Did you make an outline to plan the essay when you first started? Go back through that initial outline and make sure you’ve hit all of your intended points. It’s possible that you’ve left out an important piece of your argument that would both increase page count and make for a better essay.

Tip #6: Include More Transitional Phrases

Graders often look for traditional words linking sentences to each other, like “therefore,” “even though”, and “on the other hand.” Read through your essay and make sure the sentences flow smoothly into each other. If they don’t, go back and add in transitional phrases like the ones listed above. Your writing will be easier to read, and you’ll get closer to the minimum page requirement in the process.

Tip #7: Read Your Paper Out Loud

This might sound like a silly tip, but when you read your paper out loud, you become increasingly aware of any grammatical or syntactical issues. When you rephrase sentences to fix these, you might end up increasing the paper length a bit. In the process of reading out loud, you also might realize that you didn’t include sufficient details within a particular paragraph. If that’s the case, go back in and add more to increase length.

Tip #8: Take a Break From Your Essay

You’ve probably been staring at your computer screen for hours, hoping words will magically pop into your head. Take a break. Eat a snack, go for a walk, or talk to a friend on the phone. You’ll come back to the essay with a fresh perspective after some time away, and you might have new ideas after you’ve had time away from your paper.

Tip #9: Ask Your Instructor for Help

Most teachers, teaching assistants, and professors are willing to look over papers for students before the final submission date. If there is still time, ask if you can make an appointment to go over your paper or head over to office hours. Your instructor might offer tips on how to better answer the prompt, and this in turn may also increase the word count of the paper.

Tip #10: Use multiple examples to back up your argument

If you’ve only used one source or anecdote to explain a given point, find a second source to provide additional evidence for the reader. This method will help drive up a paper’s word count while also providing further support for your argument.

Although hitting a minimum page count can sometimes be challenging, you can do it the smart way by increasing the information you provide to the reader—there’s no reason to resort to tricks like increasing line spacing or font size. If you’re really in a bind at the last minute, you might want to break up some of your paragraphs. This increases length while also making text more manageable for a reader. But after going through the tips on this list, your paper should be adequate in length without you having to even consider spacing.

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How to make a paper longer: ideas that will help any student.

Maybe you want to know how to make a paper longer because you’ve been researching and writing the essay without reaching the word or page count your teacher needs. Maybe you’re getting desperate because it looks like you might not achieve this goal. That’s because you’ve tried to be fluffy with descriptions, paying with words, and rewriting your sentences, but nothing seems to work. Luckily, you’ve come across this article where you will learn tips for making a paper longer.

The length of academic papers varies depending on the subject and educational level. Some courses have specific requirements, and departmental guidelines can also affect the size of academic writing. Nevertheless, most teachers and professors provide guidelines for the number of pages or words to write.

In most cases, the length of an academic paper is a range instead of an exact figure. For instance, your educator can ask you to write between 2500 and 3000 words or 10 and 12 pages. The length of most high school papers ranges between 200 and 1000 words. College admission essays range between 200 and 650 words, while undergraduate essays range from 1500 to 5000 terms. Graduate school admission essays can range between 500 and 1000 words, while graduate school essays’ word count range from 2500 to 6000.

Many students want to learn tricks to make a paper longer because they struggle to meet the word count that their colleges, teachers, or departments specify. And this is mainly the case when a learner is juggling multiple assignments and exams. Nevertheless, increasing a paper’s length shouldn’t be an agonizing process. All you need are tips for adding depth and clarity to your writing.

How to Make Your Paper Longer by Expanding Some Sections

You can make your paper longer by expanding some sections.

For instance, you can go back to the conclusion and the introduction sections to see if you have included all relevant details.

In most cases, ideas can hit your mind when writing the paper. If you started this task by writing an introduction, you could revisit this section to see if you might want to add anything.

Maybe you decided to leave out some information, yet it can help the readers comprehend your argument. In that case, include this data to see if it will extend the length of your paper. Also, check the conclusion to ensure it summarizes all the main points of your essay. Additionally, make sure that your concluding section provides a solution that readers can consider. Don’t hesitate to revise these sections if you feel like you can add something after reading the conclusion and the introduction.

Use Your Rubric or Prompt to Make a Paper Longer

Perhaps, your supervisor or educator provided a comprehensive rubric or prompt for the paper. In that case, read it a second or a third time to determine whether you’ve included everything the assignment requires.

Consider the following after reading your rubric or prompt:

• Does the paper answer every question in the essay rubric or prompt?
• Does my essay provide adequate supporting evidence backing up every claim in it?
• Does the paper meet all requirements, apart from the length?
• Does my writing leave out vital information that can boost the reader’s comprehension of my argument?

If you don’t answer any of these questions with a decisive “yes,” revise the paper to ensure that it provides the best response to your essay prompt.

How to Increase Paper Length Using the Format

The format or outline of a paper is more than a guide for writing an academic essay. When looking for the sections that you can take longer, consider reviewing the structure of your writing.

Looking at your paper outline can help you identify vital points that you might have overlooked. You can also notice issues that you have not developed sufficiently and adequately. Thus, you can identify concepts that you want to go back and clarify further.

Also, you can find paragraphs that deserve breaking down and introducing new ideas. When you break down each section, you can explain their primary points and provide supporting evidence. And such acts will increase your paper’s word count.

If your paper has longer paragraphs, you can break them down to boost the world count. And this can help you if the page count is the primary issue. Breaking up sections in your paper is easy, and it makes it more readable.

Essential Tips on How to Make an Essay Longer

Maybe you’ve exhausted every detail of your topic, but the page count doesn’t correspond to your professor’s criteria. In that case, try these tricks to extend your paper’s length.

• Change the font size: If the educator didn’t specify the font size for your paper, consider using a larger one. Also, use fonts like Cambria, Bangla Sangam MN, and Courier New that make a document seem longer. However, avoid exaggerating by using fonts like Arial Black or Lucida Handwriting. That’s because the professor will notice that you’re trying to give your paper a long appearance by using a larger font. Also, you can adjust your font size from 11pt to 11.5pt.
• Use periods and commas: One of the best ways to make your paper longer without the educator noticing is by enlarging periods and commas. To do this, press control +F on your keyboard. This command will prompt the computer to display the “Find” and “Replace” that you can use to select 11pt periods and commas and then change them to 12pt.
• Change spacing: You can also make your paper look longer by changing the spacing between sentences. If the educator requires you to double or single-space the document, open “Format” and then “Paragraph.” This command will prompt the computer to display the line “Spacing” option. Using this option, select “Multiple” and then enter 1.1 or 2.1 inside the box.
• Scale down the margin: You can also scale down the paper margin on the right side. To ensure the educator won’t notice, adjust by a quarter. For instance, if the educator requires your paper to have a 1.5cm margin, scale it down to 0.9cm. To do this, click “Format” followed by “Document.” Once the box appears near the right side of the paper, enter 0.9. That way, you can extend the paper length without noticeable changes. However, don’t reduce the margin on the left side of the paper. That’s because educators use the left margin to justify documents. Thus, altering the left margin can give your essay a visible change.
• Expand the bottom margin: You can also make your essay appear longer by increasing the bottom margin. Find a box next to the “Bottom” in the document and enter 1.25. If this is too visible, reduce it to 1.15. That way, your paper can look longer, and the educator won’t notice the large bottom margin.
• Expand words spacing: Expanding the space between words is also another practical tip on how to make a paper seem longer. Open “Font” followed by “Advanced” to do this. Once the “Expanded” box appears, enter 1.6 adjacent to the “By” button.
• Increase the header: You can increase the page count of your paper by expanding the paper header. To do this, include the title, name, course number, date, lecturer’s name, email, and student ID. Ideally, you can increase the length of your paper by including more information in the header. You can also double-space sentences in this section to give your essay a long look.
• Center the title: Your paper title should appear below the header. To make your paper seem longer, place it at the center and expand its font size. Also, use double space between the header and the title. The same should apply to the first paragraph and heading.
• Add a footer page: The footer page includes numbers that make the paper appear longer.

These are practical tips on how to increase page count for an academic paper. However, read your educator’s instructions carefully to ensure that you do everything without going against them.

How to Make Your Essay Longer with Your Writing Style

If working with periods, commas, and spacing doesn’t help, check your writing style. Ideally, you can use words to make your essay longer.

Here are tips on how to extend paper length with words:

• When using a number with a value below ten, spell it out. For example, you can spell two instead of using the numeral. That way, you can make the paper longer while keeping it professional because formal writing requires authors to spell out numerals.
• When writing something formal like a research paper, academic guidelines require you to avoid shortening words. Therefore, you can extend the length of your essay by writing words. For instance, you can write “will not” instead of “won’t” and “do not” rather than “don’t.”
• Include a short conclusion for every paragraph. Perhaps, this is the most effective tip on how to make essays longer because it enables you to add your paper’s word count. Ideally, you can summarize the main point in a paragraph and then give an opinion.
• You can also extend your paper’s length by using more descriptions in a capstone paper. When you provide new information, give definitions, explanations, specific numbers, people’s names, and dates.
• Use names to replace names. For instance, you can use Donald Trump and Barack Obama instead of replacing them with “they.” Nevertheless, be careful to avoid exaggerating with this tip.
• Using more transitional phrases can also make your essay seem longer. What’s more, transitional words enable you to move from one idea to another naturally. And this increases the paper length while making your thoughts easy for the readers to follow. Therefore, read the paper to see whether you can add transitional phrases to make your thoughts and sentences flow better. Most graders look for transitional phrases and words when marking academic papers. Therefore, use them to make your sentences clearer and link everything together.
• You can also make your paper look longer by adding more examples. For instance, you can add an example to every argument, idea, or paragraph. Also, you can use quotations to elaborate ideas or support a position. Ideally, you can think about ways to make every point by demonstrating instead of telling your readers.

Get Professional Help to Make Your Paper Seem Longer

Maybe you’ve tried to write a high-quality and captivating paper, but your attempt to make it longer seems to ruin its quality. The submission deadline for your essay might also be fast-approaching, yet you have other things to do as you work on your writing assignments. Such situations can make you feel desperate, thinking you can’t get rapid assistance with your paper.

However, you can use a paper writing service to submit a quality paper with the help of professionals. Our crew offers the best writing service online to make completing any paper assignment easy. If stuck with your project, contact us and say something like, “make my paper longer.” We guarantee you a reliable, professional, and affordable service when handling your write my paper request!

Writing Longer Papers

View in pdf format, a cyclical process.

While short assignments may lend themselves to a linear strategy – first research, then writing, then revision – longer papers require a more fluid approach. Expect to move back and forth between these stages as you craft and sharpen your argument.

For example, you might read a few sources, take notes, then write a page or two comparing them, editing what you’ve written before returning to your sources, etc. It’s fine to lack a specific thesis until you’ve done all your research; your thesis will be a result of this process rather than a precursor to it (and should reflect all of your evidence anyway).

In fact, think of your paper as having a “working thesis,” a potential thesis that is subject to change but can guide the development of your argument. Don’t be afraid to revise this all the way through the final draft of your paper, in light of your continued writing, research, and revision.

General Advice

Get started early. Long papers inevitably take time – you will be researching, writing, and revising continually. Doing so will ensure that you think about your project with the depth and complexity required of a long assignment, and that you remain engaged with your ideas.

It is natural to get stuck sometimes. Having trouble with writing? Try reading over what you’ve already written or reviewing your notes – you may come across something you hadn’t yet considered. Feeling totally adrift? Speak to your advisor or a writing tutor – this is a collaborative process, and talking through your ideas can help you to make them more concrete. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is set things aside for awhile and recharge.

If the task of writing a longer paper seems overwhelming, think back to what you know about shorter papers. Basic research and writing skills will always serve you well. Use them to your advantage.

Select a topic that interests you. Your professor is the best resource for choosing something that is broad enough to discuss at length, but narrow enough to discuss in one paper. At this early point in the process, think of your topic as a question you’re looking to answer, not a thesis you’re trying to prove.

Look through class texts and their bibliographies for potential sources. If you’re having trouble finding relevant sources, ask your advisor for suggestions. Read broadly – knowledge of opposing viewpoints will make for a stronger paper.

Take notes with writing in mind. Jot down quotes that appear important and record citations as you go. A well-organized and comprehensive set of notes will make your life much easier. Keep track of any organizational ideas, like potential connections between topics or similarities between arguments, that strike you during your research – these contain the seeds of your paper.

Remember that research is an ongoing commitment that will continue after you’ve started writing and is the key to a successful long paper.

Drafting Your Paper

If you’re having trouble coming up with an argument, think about how your notes relate to each other and try to draw interesting connections between them. This is the most effective way to produce a working thesis which you will continue to refine.

Start by writing the sections for which you have the most information, about which you have the most to say. You need not begin with the introduction and continue sequentially. Thinking about your paper in sections (regardless of whether or not you wind up dividing it that way) can help break up the work and make starting in the middle feel more natural.

Get down all that you are thinking – structural and stylistic concerns can wait. The basic organization of your paper will happen somewhat organically, depending on how your notes relate to one another and what elements you emphasize when putting them into writing. Think often about how to relate your different paragraphs to each other – what do you have to prove first?

Refining your thesis requires acknowledging counterarguments and weaknesses in what you may have originally thought you would argue. A more nuanced thesis will be more convincing and ultimately stronger than one that ignores relevant evidence for the sake of driving home one point. Because this is a longer paper, it’s perfectly all right for your thesis to be more than one sentence.

Getting your paper to reflect your improved thesis will often require some rewriting and reshuffling: it’s all part of the process. You should aim to have your entire paper reflect your thesis – if something doesn’t quite fit in, then you probably want to modify your argument or remove that example.

Remember the cyclical process. Changes will beget further changes – more research will reveal an aspect of your topic you have not yet considered, rewriting one section will give you new ideas for rewriting another, or for adding a new section. All of this is natural, and will result in a stronger final product.

Your conclusion is a chance to think back on the work that you’ve done by drawing on broader ideas, discussing a related aspect of your topic, and/or exploring areas for possible future research.

Toward a Final Draft

There is no rule for the number of drafts you should write. When you’ve gone through a few and feel that your paper is in a good spot, set it aside for a day. Return with fresh eyes and read it aloud. Your ear will catch incongruities that you might otherwise have missed.

Longer papers sometimes suffer from internal inconsistencies – each section’s argument is cogent, but the whole does not quite cohere. To remedy this, approach the paper as a critic, trying to find logical holes and contradictions. Does each section explicitly follow that which preceded it, creating a clear overall argument that advances step by step? Have you anticipated counterarguments? In a longer paper, where there is space to do so, this is especially critical.

Remember that a paper can always profit from another reader. If possible, ask your advisor or a peer to review your writing. We hear the Writing Center is pretty good at that sort of thing too…

By Will Ardery ’17 and Ian Baize ’18

Office / Department Name

Nesbitt-Johnston Writing Center

Contact Name

Jennifer Ambrose

Writing Center Director

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Making Your Paper Longer

It’s that point in the semester where you may be struggling to add a couple more pages to your papers before your final deadlines. The easy way out is to fill your paper with filler. Like most easy solutions, however, not only have teachers been trained to spot fluff, but this makes your writing intolerably boring. So I’ve gathered some tips to help expand your paper.

If you’re trying to explain something, nothing is more poignant than providing an example. Don’t just tell your reader what you want to say, show it. Concepts will fall out of the realm of the abstract and into the world. The meaning of your argument will become more than just empty talk, but experience. Explanation isn’t necessarily bad, however, if you’re looking to expand your paper you can explain your reasoning to further clarify your points. Or you could even add a new point. Usually there are multiple ways to think about a subject, how many ways have you used?

Counter Arguments

Speaking of different ways to view a subject, offer your reader multiple views. Even include some views that you may not necessarily agree with. Papers with limited viewpoints suggest bias: anything that offers no alternative is suspicious to the reader. The world is too ambiguous and diverse for that. Rather, you could include a counter-argument that boosts your own point by showing how others might agree with it and then talk about why you reject it. Incorporating other opinions creates a more well-rounded paper and allows you to get more words down.

This one’s a bit self-explanatory: details show life. I’ve always been amused by novels that have fake books in them or pay attention to the names of things no matter how insignificant they seemed. This level of detail makes the world appear real, it broadens its scope and gives it tangibility, even if this world only exists in words. In papers, instead of just saying things bluntly (which isn’t always a bad approach), you can be declarative in colorful ways: Instead of “The meal was revolting,” write something like, “the steward came down the aisle with a steaming cart and handed us plastic lunch boxes. Every portion of the meal had to be unwrapped and the sausage had the same consistency as Styrofoam.”

Broader Conclusions

What are the implications of your paper? What kinds of questions arise? Where can the reader go next? The conclusion is a place of expansion. Not only do you get to bring all your points home, but you can pull in that extra stuff that your paper had only briefly touched on before. You don’t want to go overboard, but you can give your paper a strong sense of where it fits in the big picture.

May 27, 2014

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How to make an Essay Longer – 21 Easy Tips!

Just about all the advice on the first page of google about how to make a paper longer sucks. No, really. The tricks they suggest suck so bad I can’t believe how bad it sucks.

Most advice on how to make your essay longer tells you to do gimmicky things that will lose you marks.

How do I know? Because I read it. And I (yes, I’m a professor) would instantly see through all those things.

Let me tell you: if you’re wasting time turning “15” into “fifteen” to get an extra 6 characters into your essay , increasing font size, or sticking fluffy adjectives into sentences to make your essay longer and increase word count, you’re stuffing up. You’re flushing marks down the drain.

So, here’s what you SHOULD do to make your essay longer.

How to Make an Essay Longer

1. make sure you included everything.

I can’t tell you how many of my students submit assignments and forget to include important points! Go back to your writing prompt . That’s the thing that you’re going to be graded on.

Go and check out exactly what your teacher asked you to write about. Did you write about every point they suggested?

Related Article: 17+ Great Ideas For An Essay About Yourself

2. Make Every Paragraph at least 4 Sentences

Scan over each paragraph. Do you have any paragraphs that are less than 4 sentences long? This is your low-hanging fruit for making your paper longer. You need to make these paragraphs longer and your page count will naturally increase.

The best paragraphs should be 4 – 7 sentences long .

If you’ve got a 1, 2 or 3 sentence paragraph, make sure you go back through it. What new points can you include to make your paragraph better? Maybe you can:

• Add a sentence at the start of the paragraph explaining what the paragraph is about;
• Add a sentence giving a real-life example of the points you’re trying to make
• Add a sentence giving an explanation of your points.

Or, you can try adding points explaining:

• Why the thing is true;
• Where the thing happened;
• How the thing happened;
• When the thing happened.

3. Define your Terms

Have you written a paragraph defining your key terms? If you’re writing an essay on modernism, write a paragraph defining modernism. If your essay is about education , write a paragraph giving a brief history of education. This will make your paper better – and longer!

You should have a paragraph or two right after your introduction defining and explaining what your topic is!

Now, if you are going to provide a definition for a term in college or university level writing , you need to read this article . In it, I show you how to write a full paragraph that defines a term in the right way using a research paper, not a dictionary!.

4. Get new Ideas from your Class Handouts

Below are the class handouts that you should go back through to add new ideas. They’re your most important sources. Go through all these sources and try to take down and more key points you can add:

• Handouts or worksheets in class?
• Readings or articles that they asked you to read?
• Lecture slides?

6. Get new Ideas from Friends

You will have many classmates working on the same essay as you. What ideas have your friends come up with? See if you can find out. You want it to seem like you’re working to help each other out. You don’t want to be a sponge, taking from them and not giving back. Help each other out so you both get better marks. I recommend being strategic about this:

• Offer to look over each others’ work and give suggestions;
• Trade key points in bullet point format;
• Brainstorm together to create a master list of key ideas.

8. Get new Ideas from Blogs

There are websites online about just about every topic that you can possibly imagine. That includes the topic you’re writing your essay on!

Let me ask you a question: Why would you waste your time trying to add padding to old sentences to increase your word count when you can write new ones that will win more marks?

It’s really so simple – google your essay topic or question and see what comes up. What have other people said on the topic? What ideas can you grab from others and use for yourself? You can also get new ideas from Google Scholar, which can provide you with a free to access research paper that will give you ideas as well. 

12. Use the Keep Writing Website

Keep Writing is a website where you can write your essay. But, it won’t let you delete anything. So you have to just keep on typing. This means you can just write ideas that roll off the top of your head. I gave this website a go to write this article you’re reading right now and it really did help me just write in a way that flowed nicely and added to my page count quickly. I must admit, after using the website, I copied the text and did some edits. But by that point I had a ton of words in there – more than enough – and I could shorten the essay by deleting the words that weren’t so good. I ended up having the opposite problem – too many words!

13. Include one new Example in Each Paragraph

Another thing you can do is go through each and every paragraph and add one more example and some supporting evidence. Even if you’ve included one example in each paragraph, that’s okay. You can still add more examples. In fact, teachers love to see examples and supporting evidence.

Good examples are what separates good and bad students.

Teachers love to see examples because you can only give examples if you understand the topic. So, when we see examples we go “Yes! You Got It! You understand it!”

16. Don’t add Pointless Words!

‘Padding’ is what we call it when you stick extra words in a sentence just to increase your word count. I’ve taken a sentence from earlier in this post and I’m going to show you the sentence as it is, then show it to you with padding.

Here’s the original:

“You’re going to need some new points to add to your essay. You should not try to make your sentences you’ve already written longer. You shouldn’t be trying to add in fluffy new words or saying things in a longer way.”

Here’s the padding:

“You’re going to need some new points to actually add to your essay , which actually is quite significant . You should not actually try to generally make your sentences you’ve already written longer , generally contrary to popular belief . You shouldn’t be trying to generally add in fluffy new words or saying things in a longer way , which is fairly significant. ”

Your teacher is going to read this and think “This student is a terrible writer.” And you’ll lose a ton of marks.

17. Don’t Change the Formatting

Increasing the line spacing, font size or character spacing will just make your paper worse. You should have ONE space between each word. Your line spacing should either be 2.0 or 1.5 spacing. That’s it. Those are your options. Stick to normal margins in Microsoft Word You should use font size 12. If you artificially change any of this, your teacher will see through it and grade you down .

Final Thoughts

Making an essay longer needs to be done in a way that will get you marks. I can’t believe that there are websites ranking high on google that recommend tricks like “make the space between lines bigger” and “increase your margins”.

If a student did that in my class, I’d fail them instantly. There are smarter and better ways to do it – whether you’re writing a grade 7 essay or dissertation chapter! Do it the right way and you’ll grow your marks and be on the way to success.

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 5 Top Tips for Succeeding at University
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 50 Durable Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 100 Consumer Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 30 Globalization Pros and Cons

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How To Write A Research Paper

Step-By-Step Tutorial With Examples + FREE Template

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | March 2024

For many students, crafting a strong research paper from scratch can feel like a daunting task – and rightly so! In this post, we’ll unpack what a research paper is, what it needs to do , and how to write one – in three easy steps. 🙂 

Overview: Writing A Research Paper

What (exactly) is a research paper.

• How to write a research paper
• Stage 1 : Topic & literature search
• Stage 2 : Structure & outline
• Stage 3 : Iterative writing
• Key takeaways

Let’s start by asking the most important question, “ What is a research paper? ”.

Simply put, a research paper is a scholarly written work where the writer (that’s you!) answers a specific question (this is called a research question ) through evidence-based arguments . Evidence-based is the keyword here. In other words, a research paper is different from an essay or other writing assignments that draw from the writer’s personal opinions or experiences. With a research paper, it’s all about building your arguments based on evidence (we’ll talk more about that evidence a little later).

Now, it’s worth noting that there are many different types of research papers , including analytical papers (the type I just described), argumentative papers, and interpretative papers. Here, we’ll focus on analytical papers , as these are some of the most common – but if you’re keen to learn about other types of research papers, be sure to check out the rest of the blog .

With that basic foundation laid, let’s get down to business and look at how to write a research paper .

Overview: The 3-Stage Process

While there are, of course, many potential approaches you can take to write a research paper, there are typically three stages to the writing process. So, in this tutorial, we’ll present a straightforward three-step process that we use when working with students at Grad Coach.

These three steps are:

• Finding a research topic and reviewing the existing literature
• Developing a provisional structure and outline for your paper, and
• Writing up your initial draft and then refining it iteratively

Let’s dig into each of these.

Need a helping hand?

Step 1: Find a topic and review the literature

As we mentioned earlier, in a research paper, you, as the researcher, will try to answer a question . More specifically, that’s called a research question , and it sets the direction of your entire paper. What’s important to understand though is that you’ll need to answer that research question with the help of high-quality sources – for example, journal articles, government reports, case studies, and so on. We’ll circle back to this in a minute.

The first stage of the research process is deciding on what your research question will be and then reviewing the existing literature (in other words, past studies and papers) to see what they say about that specific research question. In some cases, your professor may provide you with a predetermined research question (or set of questions). However, in many cases, you’ll need to find your own research question within a certain topic area.

Finding a strong research question hinges on identifying a meaningful research gap – in other words, an area that’s lacking in existing research. There’s a lot to unpack here, so if you wanna learn more, check out the plain-language explainer video below.

Once you’ve figured out which question (or questions) you’ll attempt to answer in your research paper, you’ll need to do a deep dive into the existing literature – this is called a “ literature search ”. Again, there are many ways to go about this, but your most likely starting point will be Google Scholar .

If you’re new to Google Scholar, think of it as Google for the academic world. You can start by simply entering a few different keywords that are relevant to your research question and it will then present a host of articles for you to review. What you want to pay close attention to here is the number of citations for each paper – the more citations a paper has, the more credible it is (generally speaking – there are some exceptions, of course).

Ideally, what you’re looking for are well-cited papers that are highly relevant to your topic. That said, keep in mind that citations are a cumulative metric , so older papers will often have more citations than newer papers – just because they’ve been around for longer. So, don’t fixate on this metric in isolation – relevance and recency are also very important.

Beyond Google Scholar, you’ll also definitely want to check out academic databases and aggregators such as Science Direct, PubMed, JStor and so on. These will often overlap with the results that you find in Google Scholar, but they can also reveal some hidden gems – so, be sure to check them out.

Once you’ve worked your way through all the literature, you’ll want to catalogue all this information in some sort of spreadsheet so that you can easily recall who said what, when and within what context. If you’d like, we’ve got a free literature spreadsheet that helps you do exactly that.

Step 2: Develop a structure and outline

With your research question pinned down and your literature digested and catalogued, it’s time to move on to planning your actual research paper .

It might sound obvious, but it’s really important to have some sort of rough outline in place before you start writing your paper. So often, we see students eagerly rushing into the writing phase, only to land up with a disjointed research paper that rambles on in multiple

Now, the secret here is to not get caught up in the fine details . Realistically, all you need at this stage is a bullet-point list that describes (in broad strokes) what you’ll discuss and in what order. It’s also useful to remember that you’re not glued to this outline – in all likelihood, you’ll chop and change some sections once you start writing, and that’s perfectly okay. What’s important is that you have some sort of roadmap in place from the start.

At this stage you might be wondering, “ But how should I structure my research paper? ”. Well, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution here, but in general, a research paper will consist of a few relatively standardised components:

• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology

Let’s take a look at each of these.

First up is the introduction section . As the name suggests, the purpose of the introduction is to set the scene for your research paper. There are usually (at least) four ingredients that go into this section – these are the background to the topic, the research problem and resultant research question , and the justification or rationale. If you’re interested, the video below unpacks the introduction section in more detail. 

The next section of your research paper will typically be your literature review . Remember all that literature you worked through earlier? Well, this is where you’ll present your interpretation of all that content . You’ll do this by writing about recent trends, developments, and arguments within the literature – but more specifically, those that are relevant to your research question . The literature review can oftentimes seem a little daunting, even to seasoned researchers, so be sure to check out our extensive collection of literature review content here .

With the introduction and lit review out of the way, the next section of your paper is the research methodology . In a nutshell, the methodology section should describe to your reader what you did (beyond just reviewing the existing literature) to answer your research question. For example, what data did you collect, how did you collect that data, how did you analyse that data and so on? For each choice, you’ll also need to justify why you chose to do it that way, and what the strengths and weaknesses of your approach were.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that for some research papers, this aspect of the project may be a lot simpler . For example, you may only need to draw on secondary sources (in other words, existing data sets). In some cases, you may just be asked to draw your conclusions from the literature search itself (in other words, there may be no data analysis at all). But, if you are required to collect and analyse data, you’ll need to pay a lot of attention to the methodology section. The video below provides an example of what the methodology section might look like.

By this stage of your paper, you will have explained what your research question is, what the existing literature has to say about that question, and how you analysed additional data to try to answer your question. So, the natural next step is to present your analysis of that data . This section is usually called the “results” or “analysis” section and this is where you’ll showcase your findings.

Depending on your school’s requirements, you may need to present and interpret the data in one section – or you might split the presentation and the interpretation into two sections. In the latter case, your “results” section will just describe the data, and the “discussion” is where you’ll interpret that data and explicitly link your analysis back to your research question. If you’re not sure which approach to take, check in with your professor or take a look at past papers to see what the norms are for your programme.

Alright – once you’ve presented and discussed your results, it’s time to wrap it up . This usually takes the form of the “ conclusion ” section. In the conclusion, you’ll need to highlight the key takeaways from your study and close the loop by explicitly answering your research question. Again, the exact requirements here will vary depending on your programme (and you may not even need a conclusion section at all) – so be sure to check with your professor if you’re unsure.

Step 3: Write and refine

Finally, it’s time to get writing. All too often though, students hit a brick wall right about here… So, how do you avoid this happening to you?

Well, there’s a lot to be said when it comes to writing a research paper (or any sort of academic piece), but we’ll share three practical tips to help you get started.

First and foremost , it’s essential to approach your writing as an iterative process. In other words, you need to start with a really messy first draft and then polish it over multiple rounds of editing. Don’t waste your time trying to write a perfect research paper in one go. Instead, take the pressure off yourself by adopting an iterative approach.

Secondly , it’s important to always lean towards critical writing , rather than descriptive writing. What does this mean? Well, at the simplest level, descriptive writing focuses on the “ what ”, while critical writing digs into the “ so what ” – in other words, the implications. If you’re not familiar with these two types of writing, don’t worry! You can find a plain-language explanation here.

Last but not least, you’ll need to get your referencing right. Specifically, you’ll need to provide credible, correctly formatted citations for the statements you make. We see students making referencing mistakes all the time and it costs them dearly. The good news is that you can easily avoid this by using a simple reference manager . If you don’t have one, check out our video about Mendeley, an easy (and free) reference management tool that you can start using today.

Recap: Key Takeaways

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. To recap, the three steps to writing a high-quality research paper are:

• To choose a research question and review the literature
• To plan your paper structure and draft an outline
• To take an iterative approach to writing, focusing on critical writing and strong referencing

Remember, this is just a b ig-picture overview of the research paper development process and there’s a lot more nuance to unpack. So, be sure to grab a copy of our free research paper template to learn more about how to write a research paper.

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How to Make an Essay Appear Longer Than It Is

Last Updated: February 2, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,774,270 times.

You are writing a paper and the deadline is approaching, but you are nowhere near the page limit. Many students find themselves in this position. Luckily for you, you can lengthen your paper by using a few tricks. Increasing the font size, adding a lengthy header, and manipulating the spacing between lines are just a few strategies you can use to make your essay appear longer. However, be aware that breaking your teacher’s guidelines may result in a lower grade.

Playing with the Font

• Don’t pick a very large font like Arial Black or Lucida Handwriting. Your teacher will notice that you are trying to make your essay longer by choosing a larger font.

Manipulating Spacing and Margins

• If the increase is too noticeable, then try 1.15 or 1.1 instead.
• Because all documents are left justified, avoid increasing the left margin. Adjusting the left margin will produce a noticeable change that your teacher will detect.

Adjusting the Header and Footer

Expanding the Content

• Additionally, if you are quoting or paraphrasing research or literature, make sure to cite it properly. Citations can add extra length to a paper as well.

• Expand your introductory paragraph with an attention-getting statement to hook the reader in.

• However, try to avoid being descriptive when it is unnecessary since this may cause your paper to appear embellished or sound verbose.

Community Q&A

• Copy and paste your paper into a new document. Make these changes to the new document. Then compare and contrast the document with the changes to the original document. Remove any adjustments that seem obvious. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Use a thesaurus to find longer synonyms to use in place of shorter ones. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Spell out abbreviations; for example, write out “United States" instead of using "US." Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Be aware that breaking your teacher’s guidelines may be considered cheating, which may result in a lower grade or even a zero. Thanks Helpful 11 Not Helpful 1
• Don't be redundant. Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 1

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• ↑ https://www.paperhelp.org/blog/how-to-make-a-paper-longer.html
• ↑ https://www.jakebinstein.com/blog/how-to-make-an-essay-look-longer/
• ↑ https://studentshare.org/study-guides/how-to-make-your-essay-look-longer
• ↑ http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/advice/a27491/tricks-you-try-to-make-your-school-paper-longer/
• ↑ https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-make-paper-longer-793288

About This Article

To make an essay appear longer than it is, pick a font that's slightly larger than Times New Roman, like Arial, Courier New, or Cambria. If you're required to use 12-point font, try increase the font to 12.1 or 12.2 to gain some extra length without the font looking noticeably larger. Then, press on Control and the F key at the same time to activate the find and replace function, and replace all of the commas and periods with 14-point font. If the essay still isn't long enough, increase the line spacing by 0.1 or 0.2 and make the right margin 0.1-0.2 inches larger. For tips on adjusting the header and footer or adding more content to your essay, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Essential Ways on How to Make Your Paper Longer

You finished writing your paper and need to submit it soon. However, the number of pages does not correspond to the criteria provided by your professor.  You ask yourself how to make an essay look longer? Fortunately, it is possible by using the following tricks.

• You may use a larger font. In case your professor did not give you exact specifications about the font which you can use, you should choose some popular one like Courier New,  Cambria, Arial or Bangla Sangam MN. Nonetheless, try not to exaggerate. We do not advise you to use, for instance, Lucida Handwriting or Arial Black, because your professor will see that you are trying to make your paper look longer by applying a larger one.
• You can slightly adjust the font size. For example, if your professor asks to use 11 pt., to make paper longer, apply 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.5 size. Compare the adjustments and apply the one which is not too eye-catching.
• If you wonder how to make an essay longer period trick, just extend the size of commas and periods. To do it, you should press control+F on the keyboard. You will see a window with find and replace function. All you need is to select all the 11.pt commas and periods and then change them to the 12 pt.
• You could also change the spacing between your paper lines. In case the single or double spacing is required, follow the next steps: open “Format” and “Paragraph”. You will see the line “Spacing”. In this case select “Multiple”.  Then just enter 1.1 or 2.1 in the box.
• You should scale down the right margin. To reduce it without noticing, change it only by a quarter. For example, if your professor requires the margin size of 1.5 cm, reduce it to 0.9 cm.  In order to do it, click “Format” and then “Document”. Enter 0.9 in the box next to “Right”. This tip can help you to extend your paper without any noticeable changes. Do not reduce the left margin. As the documents are always justified on the left margin, it helps to create a visible change.

5 More Tips on How to Make an Essay Longer

Here are some pieces of advice from experienced essay writers and students:

• Try to increase the bottom margin by a quarter. In the “Document” find the box which is next to “Bottom” and enter 1.25. In case it is too visible, change it for instance to 1.15.  With this useful tip, you can make your paper look longer without noticing.
• Expand spacing between the words. It will also increase the number of pages in your paper.  Open “Font” and then “Advanced” window. In the “Expanded” enter 1.6 into the box. It is next to the button “By”.
• Increase the header of your essay. Include your name, the title, the number of the course, the date, the name of your teacher, number of your student ID card and email. Include all necessary information which may extend your header. Do not forget to use double spacing.
• The title of your paper should be placed on the line under the header.  You should put it in the center. You can also expand the font size. Check whether you use double space between the title and the header as well as between the title and the first paragraph.
• By adding a footer page which includes numbers your composition will look longer as well.

When you know everything about period tips which would make your essay longer, now it would be useful to learn how to make an essay longer with words.

• If you need to enter a number and it is less than ten, then spell it out. For instance, spell out two instead of writing the numeral. This tip helps to make your paper longer. Moreover, it is professional because spelling out the numerals is required in formal writing.
• It is forbidden to use shortenings in formal writing. So this is another possibility to extend your essay by writing them out. Instead of “won’t” use “will not”, or instead of “don’t” - “do not”.
• Replace specific pronouns with names. For instance, “Barack Obama and Donald Trump” instead of “they”. However, do not exaggerate.
• You should use a lot of descriptions in your capstone paper . While providing any new information, extend its description and give definitions, specific dates, and numbers, names of persons.
• Make a short conclusion after each paragraph. Summarize the points and give your opinion if necessary.

You don’t need to ask anymore how to make a paper longer. Just use these methods and you will be surprised how the number of pages increases in a few clicks.

If You do not Have Time for Writing Essay, EssayVikings Can Do it for You

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21 Helpful and Easy Tips to Make an Essay Longer

Bookman Old Style > Times New Roman.

When you're writing a school paper after researching and typing for what feels like ages, but you still haven't reached your teacher's required page count, it's normal to feel frustrated. Maybe you get a little creative and play Microsoft Word gymnastics with different fonts and spacing, or become super expressive with your descriptions. There's also a chance you missed something on the assignment rubric, or overlooked the opportunity to include more quotes from trusted sources. You might even be able to load up on a few more examples for your argument, easily boosting the word count with additional research. Still a couple pages behind the limit? Don't worry. Below, we have over 20 tips to help you hit that page requirement.

1. Make sure you included everything on the rubric. If you forgot a whole section focusing on the counter argument, that could be the reason why your paper is a couple pages shorter than needed.

2. Load up on transitional phrases. Your paper isn't long enough, therefore it may be necessary to add some transitional phrases because they take up space. On the other hand , this could make your paper really wordy, however , it may be necessary. See what I did there?

3. Spell out your numbers. There are four editorial styles — AP, APA, MLA, and Chicago. Each one has a different rule for spelling out numbers, which can work out in your favor. For instance, in APA, you write out all numbers under 10. So a one-character "7" becomes a five-character "seven." In MLA, you spell out all numbers at the beginning of a sentence, and all simple numbers (those that are one or two words). Make sure to check the assignment rubric to see what style your paper should be written in!

4. Ditch the contractions. Honestly, you probably should not even be using contractions in a formal essay, so if you are filling up your paper with "don't," "won't," and "can't," switch them out for "do not," "will not," and "cannot."

5. Use numerous examples. Make sure to do extensive research on your essay topic and come up with at least 2-3 examples for every argument presented. One example might seem like enough, but adding a couple more points improves your paper and boosts its word count.

6. Add quotes. Including quotes, whether they be from a book, news article, or trusted source, helps strengthen and validate the point you're making in a paper. But you can't just drop a quotation without context. Introducing, writing out, and properly unpacking a quote can add value — and length — to your essay.

7. Start getting really descriptive about everything. How illustrative can you get about the evolution of electricity, you ask? Well, the answer is: Very. The howling wind gushed passed Benjamin Franklin at 30 miles per hour on that cold, rainy night, pulling the string of his kite taught as it fought to stay in the sky and sent his grey hair flying up in the sky like silvery wisps.

8. Try to make your header longer. If possible, of course. Some teachers clearly state what information needs to be included in the header. But if there's no guideline, add what you can within reason — I'm not sure your teacher is going to appreciate your TikTok or Insta handle listed on the page.

9. Have someone proofread. Getting another pair of eyes to read your paper might reveal some areas in need of work. Maybe you need to elaborate a bit more on a certain argument, or include a quote to strengthen an example.

10. Revisit your introduction paragraph. Sometimes, an introduction is easiest to write after the paper has been written. Having already presented and thoroughly discussed the argument in the essay's body paragraphs, you have a more concrete understanding of what direction the paper takes. There might be some information or ideas you can add into the intro, to better set up the paper's points.

11. Make your spacing larger. Your teacher probably won't be able to tell the difference between double spacing and 2.5 spacing. *fingers crossed*

12 . While you're at it, expand the spacing between the characters. Yes, I'm talking between each and every letter.

13. Raise the font size from 12pt to 12.5pt. Nobody has to know!

14. Make all periods and commas 14pt. It sounds tedious, but simply command-f and search for the period, that way you can change all of them at once.

15. Put extra space around your (super long and bolded) title. It needs some space to shine and breathe, obvs.

16. Change the font. You can't get too crazy or else your teacher will call you out, so you stick with something super similar to Times New Roman, but slightly bigger, like Bookman Old Style. However some teachers specify a certain font in the paper's assignment requirements — in the case, don't try to switch things up.

17. Reverse outline. After you've finished penning your essay, read it through and write an outline on what you have written so far. This strategy can reveal some paragraphs in need of further development. If you notice one super long paragraph, try breaking the ideas down into separate paragraphs. This might bump the page count up a bit, and give you the opportunity to include a few more transition sentences.

18. Make your margins bigger. You have to be careful about the left and right margins, and the top can be tricky. But the bottom margin, you can practically make it as big as you want. And then you can...

19. Add a fancy footer with page numbers. Obviously (hopefully), your teacher will appreciate your attention to detail and presentation.

20. Add a header with the title of your paper to every single page. Just in case your teacher forgets what your paper is about. You only want to help.

21. Make a separate cover page. Technically, the rubric didn't say it couldn't count as page one.

When I'm not holed up in my room going on a completely unproductive Netflix binge or Tumblr stalking Timothée Chalomet, I'm searching for awesome celeb news stories that Seventeen readers will love!

Leah Campano is an Associate Editor at Seventeen, where she covers pop culture, entertainment news, health, and politics. On the weekends, you can probably find her watching marathons of vintage Real Housewives episodes or searching for New York City’s best almond croissants. 

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• Knowledge Base
• Starting the research process

A Beginner's Guide to Starting the Research Process

When you have to write a thesis or dissertation , it can be hard to know where to begin, but there are some clear steps you can follow.

The research process often begins with a very broad idea for a topic you’d like to know more about. You do some preliminary research to identify a  problem . After refining your research questions , you can lay out the foundations of your research design , leading to a proposal that outlines your ideas and plans.

This article takes you through the first steps of the research process, helping you narrow down your ideas and build up a strong foundation for your research project.

Table of contents

Step 1: choose your topic, step 2: identify a problem, step 3: formulate research questions, step 4: create a research design, step 5: write a research proposal, other interesting articles.

First you have to come up with some ideas. Your thesis or dissertation topic can start out very broad. Think about the general area or field you’re interested in—maybe you already have specific research interests based on classes you’ve taken, or maybe you had to consider your topic when applying to graduate school and writing a statement of purpose .

Even if you already have a good sense of your topic, you’ll need to read widely to build background knowledge and begin narrowing down your ideas. Conduct an initial literature review to begin gathering relevant sources. As you read, take notes and try to identify problems, questions, debates, contradictions and gaps. Your aim is to narrow down from a broad area of interest to a specific niche.

Make sure to consider the practicalities: the requirements of your programme, the amount of time you have to complete the research, and how difficult it will be to access sources and data on the topic. Before moving onto the next stage, it’s a good idea to discuss the topic with your thesis supervisor.

>>Read more about narrowing down a research topic

Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting

Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

• Academic style
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See an example

So you’ve settled on a topic and found a niche—but what exactly will your research investigate, and why does it matter? To give your project focus and purpose, you have to define a research problem .

The problem might be a practical issue—for example, a process or practice that isn’t working well, an area of concern in an organization’s performance, or a difficulty faced by a specific group of people in society.

Alternatively, you might choose to investigate a theoretical problem—for example, an underexplored phenomenon or relationship, a contradiction between different models or theories, or an unresolved debate among scholars.

To put the problem in context and set your objectives, you can write a problem statement . This describes who the problem affects, why research is needed, and how your research project will contribute to solving it.

>>Read more about defining a research problem

Next, based on the problem statement, you need to write one or more research questions . These target exactly what you want to find out. They might focus on describing, comparing, evaluating, or explaining the research problem.

A strong research question should be specific enough that you can answer it thoroughly using appropriate qualitative or quantitative research methods. It should also be complex enough to require in-depth investigation, analysis, and argument. Questions that can be answered with “yes/no” or with easily available facts are not complex enough for a thesis or dissertation.

In some types of research, at this stage you might also have to develop a conceptual framework and testable hypotheses .

>>See research question examples

The research design is a practical framework for answering your research questions. It involves making decisions about the type of data you need, the methods you’ll use to collect and analyze it, and the location and timescale of your research.

There are often many possible paths you can take to answering your questions. The decisions you make will partly be based on your priorities. For example, do you want to determine causes and effects, draw generalizable conclusions, or understand the details of a specific context?

You need to decide whether you will use primary or secondary data and qualitative or quantitative methods . You also need to determine the specific tools, procedures, and materials you’ll use to collect and analyze your data, as well as your criteria for selecting participants or sources.

>>Read more about creating a research design

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Finally, after completing these steps, you are ready to complete a research proposal . The proposal outlines the context, relevance, purpose, and plan of your research.

As well as outlining the background, problem statement, and research questions, the proposal should also include a literature review that shows how your project will fit into existing work on the topic. The research design section describes your approach and explains exactly what you will do.

You might have to get the proposal approved by your supervisor before you get started, and it will guide the process of writing your thesis or dissertation.

>>Read more about writing a research proposal

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

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What Is a Research Design | Types, Guide & Examples

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Essay Extender for Students

Have you ever struggled to reach the specific word count while writing an essay? Our online essay extender can help you get the desired word count with just a few simple steps. All you have to do is:

• Copy and paste your essay.
• Choose how many words you need in your paper.
• Click the "Extend" button.

💎 5 Key Advantages of the Essay Extender

🙋 when to use the ai essay extender, 📜 essay extender free examples, 🖇️ essay word extender tips, 🔗 references.

Our essay word extender offers a range of benefits that can enhance your writing experience. Here are some of them:

With its user-friendly interface, our online essay extender can assist you in various ways. Check out these ideas on how you can use the tool.

1. To Increase the Word Count

One of the most common uses of our essay extender is to increase an essay's word count. You add words to the entire text or a specific part, for example, introduction, conclusion, or body paragraphs. This gives you more control over where you want to expand an essay and helps you tailor the extension to the academic requirements .

Our tool adds words without compromising the quality of their writing. Since it uses advanced AI algorithms, it extends the text while maintaining the coherence and flow of the original content.

2. To Add a New Part

AI essay extender can also help you add a new part to your essay. For example, if you have already written the introduction and body paragraphs but are struggling with the conclusion, our tool can generate it.

Similarly, if you need to add a new body paragraph to support your argument , our essay extender can generate a paragraph based on your prompt. This feature is particularly useful when you are short on time and need to complete your essay quickly.

3. To Get New Ideas

Sometimes, you only need a fresh perspective to improve your writing. Our essay extender can generate unique ideas by developing a body paragraph on any topic. This feature is helpful for those who are stuck with their writing and need some inspiration to continue. You can use this generated paragraph as a starting point and further develop it according to your ideas and arguments.

Wanna see how essay extender generator works in practice? Let's try it together. Imagine you're writing an argumentative essay on "Should all internships be paid?" We'll use our tool to add some words to a body paragraph and then develop an effective introduction.

All internships should be paid for the simple fact that interns are providing valuable work and skills to the company. It is unfair to expect young workers, who are often already struggling with student debt, to work for free. Interns are not just shadowing or observing; they actively contribute to the company's operations and success. By not compensating them, companies are perpetuating a cycle of unpaid labor and exploiting the enthusiasm and eagerness of young workers. Furthermore, paying interns shows that their time and contributions are valued, allowing them to gain practical experience without financial strain.

All internships should be paid for the simple fact that interns are providing valuable work and skills to the company. It is unfair to expect young workers, who are often already struggling with student debt, to work for free. Interns are not just shadowing or observing; they actively contribute to the company's operations and success. For example, a student who is completing an unpaid internship at a marketing firm may be responsible for creating social media content, conducting market research, and assisting with client meetings. These tasks require time, effort, and skills, and the intern should be compensated for their contributions. By not compensating them, companies are perpetuating a cycle of unpaid labor and exploiting the enthusiasm and eagerness of young workers. Moreover, unpaid internships often come with hidden costs that can be a significant burden for students. For instance, a student interning in a different city may have to cover transportation, housing, and other expenses on top of working for free. Furthermore, paying interns shows that their time and contributions are valued, allowing them to gain practical experience without financial strain. Companies should recognize the contributions interns bring to their organization and compensate them accordingly for their hard work.

Internships have become a common way for students to gain practical experience and valuable skills in their chosen field. However, the issue of whether these internships should be paid or not has sparked a debate. While some argue that unpaid internships provide valuable learning opportunities, others believe that all internships should be paid to ensure fair treatment of young workers. In this essay, we will explore why all internships should be paid, including the value that interns bring to organizations and the hidden costs of unpaid internships.

Check out these helpful tips to work on your academic writing skills and extend an essay manually.

• Expand your arguments . Instead of simply stating your point, provide more detailed examples to support your ideas.
• Use transitional phrases . Transition phrases such as "in addition," "furthermore," and "moreover" can help you connect your ideas and add more depth to your essay.
• Include relevant statistics and data . Adding statistics and data from reliable sources can boost the credibility of your essay and help you expand your arguments.
• Incorporate quotes . Including quotes from experts or authoritative individuals adds depth and weight to your essay.
• Provide background information . If you feel that certain concepts need more explanation, you can provide background information to help the reader better understand your points.

Remember, when expanding on your arguments, it is essential to do so smartly. This means providing detailed explanations and relevant examples that add length to your essay and strengthen your points.

❓ Essay Extender FAQ

Updated: Dec 11th, 2023

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On this page, you can find a free essay extender for students. With the help of this tool, you can increase the word count of any text – paste it into the related field and add the necessary details. The essay extender can add particular paragraphs or double your words in two clicks! Don’t miss the helpful tips and examples of text expansion.

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How to Make an Essay Longer

• 7-minute read
• 10th May 2023

So you have an essay due the next day. You’ve been holed up in your dorm all day writing it, and now you’ve finished the conclusion. You shake your fist in celebratory fashion as you punctuate the paper’s last sentence. However, your jaw drops in horror when you focus on the word count. The essay rubric states that you must write at least 1,500 words, but you’ve written only 1,000 ! How can this be? You worked so hard to do what the assignment asked you. We know the feeling, and we’re sure every college student experiences it at least once.

So with time running out, you can do the following:

●  Submit the essay and hope the professor doesn’t notice

●  Add some gibberish sentences to get close enough to the required word count

We don’t recommend these options. Making an essay longer seems daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. That’s why we’re providing this post on expanding your essay while keeping it relevant to the topic. We’ll share our helpful tips, and by the end of the post, you’ll know what to do next time your essay falls short of the word count.

1. Add Content to the Essay

Adding more details is a great starting point for increasing the word count. Review your essay and see whether you should have addressed additional points about the topic. Could you include a few more arguments?  

You’ll likely have to review your sources to find additional claims. We understand that you might not want to do this, especially if the clock reads midnight and your class starts in nine hours. However, adding more content not only increases the word count; it also makes your essay more credible. 

If you need to add content, make sure it’s relevant to the topic. Consider the following example:

Personal details about the source’s author are irrelevant. Submitting such details will only earn you the wrath of your professor’s red ink. Let’s try an alternative:

Expanding on the citation with personal insight about screen time adds punch while keeping the discussion relevant. Additional details must move your essay forward the way dialogue and narrative do for a work of fiction.  

2. Add Transitional Sentences and Phrases

Your essay might be short of words because it lacks transitional phrases, so you should add some to the mix. In fact, every academic paper should include a healthy blend of transitional sentences and transitional words/phrases . Not sure what we mean by that? You know words and phrases such as however , moreover , and in addition . 

As with details, transitional phrases help to move the essay forward, so make sure to use them correctly. Let’s take an example from an essay about the late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic:

As you can see, the writer uses transitional phrases correctly, adding value and words to the essay. When you use them correctly, transitional sentences and phrases improve the flow of your writing , enhancing readability. Professors expect coherent essays that flow smoothly, so transitional sentences and phrases are mandatory, regardless of word count. 

That being said, it can be easy to overuse linking words, particularly if you’re a non-native writer. Check out this interesting article from Fabio Cerpeloni, who argues that linking words can impact the readability of your text . 

3. Spell Out Words and Numbers

If you have contractions in your essay, such as can’t , won’t , and couldn’t , write them out in full. You shouldn’t use contractions at all in academic writing because they’re considered informal. Although using full versions of words seems to be a miniscule measure, doing so can go a long way to increasing your word count. And as a rule, you can also spell out numbers one through eleven. Again, doing this will help expand your essay.

Find this useful?

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To save time switching out your contractions, make sure you’re familiar with Microsoft Word’s find and replace tool .  

4. Add More Examples

Using at least two examples, you should aim to support every argument you present. If you have only one example for an argument, add a couple more. Provide citations to support your claims; otherwise, your professor will question your knowledge. As with details, examples will strengthen your essay. It’s a win–win situation!

If the essay has enough citations but still needs more words, you could try paraphrasing claims from sources. Just be sure to paraphrase effectively . You wouldn’t want to fall into the trap of plagiarism!

5. Review the Introduction and Conclusion

Now that you’ve written the essay, go back to the introduction and the conclusion. You might be able to expand on them and provide extra details. Remember that the introduction serves as a lead-in to the essay. In other words, it captures your readers’ attention and makes them want to keep reading. If your introduction appears weak, add details that will engage the reader properly.

And for the conclusion, provide a takeaway for the reader and offer a call to action. For example, what are the most important things to remember about your essay? The conclusion may lack punch, so add some details to improve it.

6. Expand Your Research on the Topic

The amount of research you’ve done could affect the word count. One way to check this is by reviewing your reference list. It should have at least five sources, so if yours has fewer, you need to do more research. Again, it’s not something you’d like to do in the middle of the night; however, sacrifices must be made if your essay needs more research. We guarantee your professor will notice if you haven’t done enough research. Here’s an extra tip: adding details will be much easier if you’re fully knowledgeable about the topic. Trust us on this!

While making an essay longer may seem daunting, doing so is easier if you’ve adequately researched the topic. The essay likely needs more ideas or examples, so go ahead and add them. Additional details will lend value, improve flow, and make your essay more credible. The most important thing to remember is that any details you add must be relevant. Simply adding fluff will weaken your essay and cost you marks. So never submit an essay with a low word count; your professor will notice! And after all, expanding on an essay is part of mastering essay writing skills .

We recommend not waiting until the last minute to check that your essay meets the required word count. Adding details or doing additional research the night before will only spell trouble. We understand the difficulty of making time when multiple papers are due in the same week. However, college life will test your time management skills like nothing else! Use your time wisely!

1.  Why do essays fall short of the required word count?

This is often due to a lack of details and transitional sentences. Review your essay to see whether it’s missing important examples that can strengthen your claims.

2.  Can I simply add “fluff” to increase the word count?

Anything you add to the essay must be relevant and must add value. Your professor is no fool, after all!

3. I hear proofreading is essential before submitting my essay. Can anyone help me with this?

We suggest our proofreading experts at Proofed! They can check your writing for grammar and punctuation errors and ensure perfect spelling and concision. Consider submitting a 500-word document for free today!

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• 27 March 2024

Tweeting your research paper boosts engagement but not citations

• Bianca Nogrady

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Even before complaints about X’s declining quality, posting a paper on the social-media platform did not lead to a boost in citations. Credit: Matt Cardy/Getty

Posting about a research paper on social-media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) doesn’t translate into a bump in citations, according to a study that looked at 550 papers.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00922-y

Branch, T. A. et al. PLoS ONE 19 , e0292201 (2024).

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Haustein, S., Peters, I., Sugimoto, C. R., Thelwall, M. & Larivière, V. J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 65, 656–669 (2014).

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10 Tips to reduce the length of your research paper

Grammar & Language

Clarinda Cerejo

Many English-second language authors find it quite difficult to write concisely, because they cannot find appropriate words to substitute long phrases. In fact, conforming to a given word count limit is difficult for native English speakers as well because they usually have so much to say and have to remember to keep it short.

It’s best to keep the journal requirements in mind and try to write concisely when you are drafting your manuscript itself. After you’ve written your first draft, you can look through your manuscript critically to identify text that can be made more concise and sentences that can be shortened.

Here are 10 tips to keep your manuscript concise:

1.  Look out for sentences beginning with “there is a previous study on,” “it has been reported that,” or similar phrases. Such sentences should be accompanied by reference citations, which make the above phrases redundant. These phrases can be deleted, leaving only the citation.

Original : It has been reported that the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease increases with age (Rogue et al., 2004).  (17 words)

Revised :  It has been reported that t T he incidence of Alzheimer’s disease increases with age (Rogue et al., 2004).  (12 words)

2.  Sentences carrying product names can be shortened by shifting the product name within parentheses.

Original : The samples were analyzed on the ABC spectrophotometer (Zhejiang Scientific, Zhejiang, China) to determine the xyz values.  (17 words)

Revised : The samples were analyzed on the ABC spectrophotometer to determine the xyz values ( ABC spectrometer; Zhejiang Scientific, Zhejiang, China).  (15 words)

3.  Nominalizations, that is, the use of noun forms instead of verb forms, are a big contributor to wordiness, so look out for these. In the example below, using “diagnosed” instead of “diagnosis” makes the sentence shorter.

Original : A diagnosis of cancer was made on the basis of the findings.  (12 words)

Revised :  A diagnosis of c C ancer was  diagnosed made  on the basis of the findings.  (9 words)

4.  In the results section, avoid stating individual values for groups, followed by the values for statistical significance. Instead, place the values within parentheses.

Original : The protein level was 5 mg in Group A, while it was 3 mg in Group B, the difference being statistically significant (p < 0.05).  (25 words)

Revised : The  difference in  the protein level  was 5 mg in  between   G g roups A  and B , while it was 3 mg in Group b, the difference being statistically  was  significant ( 5 mg vs. 3 mg,  p < 0.05).  (21 words)

5.  Check whether you can eliminate sentences containing very basic information that would be obvious to the target audience. Authors tend to add such statements especially at the beginning of the introduction and discussion. While it’s important to establish the context, offering your audience very obvious information may come across as patronizing.

Example : If you are writing a study about AIDS, avoid starting the introduction with a statement like “AIDS is a life-threatening disease.”

6.  Look out for typical wordy phrases that can be replaced with less wordy options. Here are some common examples:

A number of - several

As a result - therefore

On the other hand - whereas

As a consequence of - owing to

7.  English grammar allows for repeated verbs in a sentence to be eliminated by using something called “elliptical constructions.”

Original : Group A was given cyclosporine, Group B was given FK506, and Group C was given chlorambucil.  (16 words)

Revised : Group A was given cyclosporine; Group B ,   was given  FK506; and Group C ,   was given  chlorambucil.  (12 words)

8.  Most document-processing systems like MS Office consider hyphenated words as one word. So opt for hyphenated terms wherever possible.

Original : After rehabilitation, the patients came to rely on themselves. (9 words)

Revised : After rehabilitation, the patients became self-reliant to rely on themselves. (6 words)

9.  Using the active voice instead of the passive helps reduce the word count in certain constructions.

Original : Written  informed consent was given by all patients. (8 words)

Revised :  All patients gave W written  informed consent was given by all patients . (6 words)

10.  Avoid possessive constructions formed using “of.”

Original : Patients of Group 1 were followed up for 6 months, and those of Group 2, for 12 months.  (18 words)

Revised : Patients of Group 1 patients were followed up for 6 months,  while and   those of  Group 2 patients were followed up , for 12 months.  (15 words)

These guidelines will help you in reducing the length of your manuscript considerably without altering the content. But word reduction is never easy, and it often takes reading through the entire manuscript in several passes to be able to identify all possible areas allowing for conciseness. Unfortunately, if all else fails, you’ll have to go over your content and decide what aspects can be eliminated.  

Related reading:

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• COVID-19 and your mental health

Worries and anxiety about COVID-19 can be overwhelming. Learn ways to cope as COVID-19 spreads.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, life for many people changed very quickly. Worry and concern were natural partners of all that change — getting used to new routines, loneliness and financial pressure, among other issues. Information overload, rumor and misinformation didn't help.

Worldwide surveys done in 2020 and 2021 found higher than typical levels of stress, insomnia, anxiety and depression. By 2022, levels had lowered but were still higher than before 2020.

Though feelings of distress about COVID-19 may come and go, they are still an issue for many people. You aren't alone if you feel distress due to COVID-19. And you're not alone if you've coped with the stress in less than healthy ways, such as substance use.

But healthier self-care choices can help you cope with COVID-19 or any other challenge you may face.

And knowing when to get help can be the most essential self-care action of all.

Recognize what's typical and what's not

Stress and worry are common during a crisis. But something like the COVID-19 pandemic can push people beyond their ability to cope.

In surveys, the most common symptoms reported were trouble sleeping and feeling anxiety or nervous. The number of people noting those symptoms went up and down in surveys given over time. Depression and loneliness were less common than nervousness or sleep problems, but more consistent across surveys given over time. Among adults, use of drugs, alcohol and other intoxicating substances has increased over time as well.

The first step is to notice how often you feel helpless, sad, angry, irritable, hopeless, anxious or afraid. Some people may feel numb.

Keep track of how often you have trouble focusing on daily tasks or doing routine chores. Are there things that you used to enjoy doing that you stopped doing because of how you feel? Note any big changes in appetite, any substance use, body aches and pains, and problems with sleep.

These feelings may come and go over time. But if these feelings don't go away or make it hard to do your daily tasks, it's time to ask for help.

Get help when you need it

If you're feeling suicidal or thinking of hurting yourself, seek help.

• Contact your healthcare professional or a mental health professional.
• Contact a suicide hotline. In the U.S., call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline , available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Or use the Lifeline Chat . Services are free and confidential.

If you are worried about yourself or someone else, contact your healthcare professional or mental health professional. Some may be able to see you in person or talk over the phone or online.

You also can reach out to a friend or loved one. Someone in your faith community also could help.

And you may be able to get counseling or a mental health appointment through an employer's employee assistance program.

Another option is information and treatment options from groups such as:

• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
• Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Self-care tips

Some people may use unhealthy ways to cope with anxiety around COVID-19. These unhealthy choices may include things such as misuse of medicines or legal drugs and use of illegal drugs. Unhealthy coping choices also can be things such as sleeping too much or too little, or overeating. It also can include avoiding other people and focusing on only one soothing thing, such as work, television or gaming.

Unhealthy coping methods can worsen mental and physical health. And that is particularly true if you're trying to manage or recover from COVID-19.

Self-care actions can help you restore a healthy balance in your life. They can lessen everyday stress or significant anxiety linked to events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Self-care actions give your body and mind a chance to heal from the problems long-term stress can cause.

Take care of your body

Healthy self-care tips start with the basics. Give your body what it needs and avoid what it doesn't need. Some tips are:

• Get the right amount of sleep for you. A regular sleep schedule, when you go to bed and get up at similar times each day, can help avoid sleep problems.
• Move your body. Regular physical activity and exercise can help reduce anxiety and improve mood. Any activity you can do regularly is a good choice. That may be a scheduled workout, a walk or even dancing to your favorite music.
• Choose healthy food and drinks. Foods that are high in nutrients, such as protein, vitamins and minerals are healthy choices. Avoid food or drink with added sugar, fat or salt.
• Avoid tobacco, alcohol and drugs. If you smoke tobacco or if you vape, you're already at higher risk of lung disease. Because COVID-19 affects the lungs, your risk increases even more. Using alcohol to manage how you feel can make matters worse and reduce your coping skills. Avoid taking illegal drugs or misusing prescriptions to manage your feelings.

Take care of your mind

Healthy coping actions for your brain start with deciding how much news and social media is right for you. Staying informed, especially during a pandemic, helps you make the best choices but do it carefully.

Set aside a specific amount of time to find information in the news or on social media, stay limited to that time, and choose reliable sources. For example, give yourself up to 20 or 30 minutes a day of news and social media. That amount keeps people informed but not overwhelmed.

For COVID-19, consider reliable health sources. Examples are the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Other healthy self-care tips are:

• Relax and recharge. Many people benefit from relaxation exercises such as mindfulness, deep breathing, meditation and yoga. Find an activity that helps you relax and try to do it every day at least for a short time. Fitting time in for hobbies or activities you enjoy can help manage feelings of stress too.
• Stick to your health routine. If you see a healthcare professional for mental health services, keep up with your appointments. And stay up to date with all your wellness tests and screenings.
• Stay in touch and connect with others. Family, friends and your community are part of a healthy mental outlook. Together, you form a healthy support network for concerns or challenges. Social interactions, over time, are linked to a healthier and longer life.

Avoid stigma and discrimination

Stigma can make people feel isolated and even abandoned. They may feel sad, hurt and angry when people in their community avoid them for fear of getting COVID-19. People who have experienced stigma related to COVID-19 include people of Asian descent, health care workers and people with COVID-19.

Treating people differently because of their medical condition, called medical discrimination, isn't new to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stigma has long been a problem for people with various conditions such as Hansen's disease (leprosy), HIV, diabetes and many mental illnesses.

People who experience stigma may be left out or shunned, treated differently, or denied job and school options. They also may be targets of verbal, emotional and physical abuse.

Communication can help end stigma or discrimination. You can address stigma when you:

• Get to know people as more than just an illness. Using respectful language can go a long way toward making people comfortable talking about a health issue.
• Get the facts about COVID-19 or other medical issues from reputable sources such as the CDC and WHO.
• Speak up if you hear or see myths about an illness or people with an illness.

COVID-19 and health

The virus that causes COVID-19 is still a concern for many people. By recognizing when to get help and taking time for your health, life challenges such as COVID-19 can be managed.

• Mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. National Institutes of Health. https://covid19.nih.gov/covid-19-topics/mental-health. Accessed March 12, 2024.
• Mental Health and COVID-19: Early evidence of the pandemic's impact: Scientific brief, 2 March 2022. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Sci_Brief-Mental_health-2022.1. Accessed March 12, 2024.
• Mental health and the pandemic: What U.S. surveys have found. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/03/02/mental-health-and-the-pandemic-what-u-s-surveys-have-found/. Accessed March 12, 2024.
• Taking care of your emotional health. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://emergency.cdc.gov/coping/selfcare.asp. Accessed March 12, 2024.
• #HealthyAtHome—Mental health. World Health Organization. www.who.int/campaigns/connecting-the-world-to-combat-coronavirus/healthyathome/healthyathome---mental-health. Accessed March 12, 2024.
• Coping with stress. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/stress-coping/cope-with-stress/. Accessed March 12, 2024.
• Manage stress. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://health.gov/myhealthfinder/topics/health-conditions/heart-health/manage-stress. Accessed March 20, 2020.
• COVID-19 and substance abuse. National Institute on Drug Abuse. https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/covid-19-substance-use#health-outcomes. Accessed March 12, 2024.
• COVID-19 resource and information guide. National Alliance on Mental Illness. https://www.nami.org/Support-Education/NAMI-HelpLine/COVID-19-Information-and-Resources/COVID-19-Resource-and-Information-Guide. Accessed March 15, 2024.
• Negative coping and PTSD. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. https://www.ptsd.va.gov/gethelp/negative_coping.asp. Accessed March 15, 2024.
• Health effects of cigarette smoking. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/index.htm#respiratory. Accessed March 15, 2024.
• People with certain medical conditions. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html. Accessed March 15, 2024.
• Your healthiest self: Emotional wellness toolkit. National Institutes of Health. https://www.nih.gov/health-information/emotional-wellness-toolkit. Accessed March 15, 2024.
• World leprosy day: Bust the myths, learn the facts. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/leprosy/world-leprosy-day/. Accessed March 15, 2024.
• HIV stigma and discrimination. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/hiv-stigma/. Accessed March 15, 2024.
• Diabetes stigma: Learn about it, recognize it, reduce it. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/library/features/diabetes_stigma.html. Accessed March 15, 2024.
• Phelan SM, et al. Patient and health care professional perspectives on stigma in integrated behavioral health: Barriers and recommendations. Annals of Family Medicine. 2023; doi:10.1370/afm.2924.
• Stigma reduction. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/od2a/case-studies/stigma-reduction.html. Accessed March 15, 2024.
• Nyblade L, et al. Stigma in health facilities: Why it matters and how we can change it. BMC Medicine. 2019; doi:10.1186/s12916-019-1256-2.
• Combating bias and stigma related to COVID-19. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19-bias. Accessed March 15, 2024.
• Yashadhana A, et al. Pandemic-related racial discrimination and its health impact among non-Indigenous racially minoritized peoples in high-income contexts: A systematic review. Health Promotion International. 2021; doi:10.1093/heapro/daab144.
• Sawchuk CN (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic. March 25, 2024.

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image processing —

Playboy image from 1972 gets ban from ieee computer journals, use of "lenna" image in computer image processing research stretches back to the 1970s..

Benj Edwards - Mar 29, 2024 9:16 pm UTC

On Wednesday, the IEEE Computer Society announced to members that, after April 1, it would no longer accept papers that include a frequently used image of a 1972 Playboy model named Lena Forsén. The so-called " Lenna image ," (Forsén added an extra "n" to her name in her Playboy appearance to aid pronunciation) has been used in image processing research since 1973 and has attracted criticism for making some women feel unwelcome in the field.

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In an email from the IEEE Computer Society sent to members on Wednesday, Technical & Conference Activities Vice President Terry Benzel wrote , "IEEE's diversity statement and supporting policies such as the IEEE Code of Ethics speak to IEEE's commitment to promoting an including and equitable culture that welcomes all. In alignment with this culture and with respect to the wishes of the subject of the image, Lena Forsén, IEEE will no longer accept submitted papers which include the 'Lena image.'"

An uncropped version of the 512×512-pixel test image originally appeared as the centerfold picture for the December 1972 issue of Playboy Magazine. Usage of the Lenna image in image processing began in June or July 1973 when an assistant professor named Alexander Sawchuck and a graduate student at the University of Southern California Signal and Image Processing Institute scanned a square portion of the centerfold image with a primitive drum scanner, omitting nudity present in the original image. They scanned it for a colleague's conference paper, and after that, others began to use the image as well.

The image's use spread in other papers throughout the 1970s, '80s, and '90s , and it caught Playboy's attention, but the company decided to overlook the copyright violations. In 1997, Playboy helped track down Forsén, who appeared at the 50th Annual Conference of the Society for Imaging Science in Technology, signing autographs for fans. "They must be so tired of me... looking at the same picture for all these years!" she said at the time. VP of new media at Playboy Eileen Kent told Wired , "We decided we should exploit this, because it is a phenomenon."

The image, which features Forsén's face and bare shoulder as she wears a hat with a purple feather, was reportedly ideal for testing image processing systems in the early years of digital image technology due to its high contrast and varied detail. It is also a sexually suggestive photo of an attractive woman, and its use by men in the computer field has garnered criticism over the decades, especially from female scientists and engineers who felt that the image (especially related to its association with the Playboy brand) objectified women and created an academic climate where they did not feel entirely welcome.

Due to some of this criticism, which dates back to at least 1996 , the journal Nature banned the use of the Lena image in paper submissions in 2018.

The comp.compression Usenet newsgroup FAQ document claims that in 1988, a Swedish publication asked Forsén if she minded her image being used in computer science, and she was reportedly pleasantly amused. In a 2019 Wired article , Linda Kinstler wrote that Forsén did not harbor resentment about the image, but she regretted that she wasn't paid better for it originally. "I’m really proud of that picture," she told Kinstler at the time.

Since then, Forsén has apparently changed her mind. In 2019, Creatable and Code Like a Girl created an advertising documentary titled Losing Lena , which was part of a promotional campaign aimed at removing the Lena image from use in tech and the image processing field. In a press release for the campaign and film, Forsén is quoted as saying, "I retired from modelling a long time ago. It’s time I retired from tech, too. We can make a simple change today that creates a lasting change for tomorrow. Let’s commit to losing me."

It seems like that commitment is now being granted. The ban in IEEE publications, which have been historically important journals for computer imaging development, will likely further set a precedent toward removing the Lenna image from common use. In the email, IEEE's Benzel recommended wider sensitivity about the issue, writing, "In order to raise awareness of and increase author compliance with this new policy, program committee members and reviewers should look for inclusion of this image, and if present, should ask authors to replace the Lena image with an alternative."

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April 2, 2024

Eclipse Psychology: When the Sun and Moon Align, So Do We

How a total solar eclipse creates connection, unity and caring among the people watching

By Katie Weeman

Students observing a partial solar eclipse on June 21, 2020, in Lhokseumawe, Aceh Province, Indonesia.

NurPhoto/Getty Images

This article is part of a special report on the total solar eclipse that will be visible from parts of the U.S., Mexico and Canada on April 8, 2024.

It was 11:45 A.M. on August 21, 2017. I was in a grassy field in Glendo, Wyo., where I was surrounded by strangers turned friends, more than I could count—and far more people than had ever flocked to this town, population 210 or so. Golden sunlight blanketed thousands of cars parked in haphazard rows all over the rolling hills. The shadows were quickly growing longer, the air was still, and all of our faces pointed to the sky. As the moon progressively covered the sun, the light melted away, the sky blackened, and the temperature dropped. At the moment of totality, when the moon completely covered the sun , some people around me suddenly gasped. Some cheered; some cried; others laughed in disbelief.

Exactly 53 minutes later, in a downtown park in Greenville, S.C., the person who edited this story and the many individuals around him reacted in exactly the same ways.

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When a total solar eclipse descends—as one will across Mexico, the U.S. and Canada on April 8—everyone and everything in the path of totality are engulfed by deep shadow. Unlike the New Year’s Eve countdown that lurches across the globe one blocky time zone after another, the shadow of totality is a dark spot on Earth that measures about 100 miles wide and cruises steadily along a path, covering several thousand miles in four to five hours. The human experiences along that path are not isolated events any more than individual dominoes are isolated pillars in a formation. Once that first domino is tipped, we are all linked into something bigger—and unstoppable. We all experience the momentum and the awe together.

When this phenomenon progresses from Mexico through Texas, the Great Lakes and Canada on April 8, many observers will describe the event as life-changing, well beyond expectations. “You feel a sense of wrongness in those moments before totality , when your surroundings change so rapidly,” says Kate Russo, an author, psychologist and eclipse chaser. “Our initial response is to ask ourselves, ‘Is this an opportunity or a threat?’ When the light changes and the temperature drops, that triggers primal fear. When we have that threat response, our whole body is tuned in to taking in as much information as possible.”

Russo, who has witnessed 13 total eclipses and counting, has interviewed eclipse viewers from around the world. She continues to notice the same emotions felt by all. They begin with that sense of wrongness and primal fear as totality approaches. When totality starts, we feel powerful awe and connection to the world around us. A sense of euphoria develops as we continue watching, and when it’s over, we have a strong desire to seek out the next eclipse.

“The awe we feel during a total eclipse makes us think outside our sense of self. It makes you more attuned to things outside of you,” says Sean Goldy, a postdoctoral fellow at the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

Goldy and his team analyzed Twitter data from nearly 2.9 million people during the 2017 total solar eclipse. They found that people within the path of totality were more likely to use not only language that expressed awe but also language that conveyed being unified and affiliated with others. That meant using more “we” words (“us” instead of “me”) and more humble words (“maybe” instead of “always”).

“During an eclipse, people have a broader, more collective focus,” Goldy says. “We also found that the more people expressed awe, the more likely they were to use those ‘we’ words, indicating that people who experience this emotion feel more connected with others.”

This connectivity ties into a sociological concept known as “collective effervescence,” Russo and Goldy say. When groups of humans come together over a shared experience, the energy is greater than the sum of its parts. If you’ve ever been to a large concert or sporting event, you’ve felt the electricity generated by a hive of humans. It magnifies our emotions.

I felt exactly that unified feeling in the open field in Glendo, as if thousands of us were breathing as one. But that’s not the only way people can experience a total eclipse.

During the 2008 total eclipse in Mongolia “I was up on a peak,” Russo recounts. “I was with only my husband and a close friend. We had left the rest of our 25-person tour group at the bottom of the hill. From that vantage point, when the shadow came sweeping in, there was not one man-made thing I could see: no power lines, no buildings or structures. Nothing tethered me to time: It could have been thousands of years ago or long into the future. In that moment, it was as if time didn’t exist.”

Giving us the ability to unhitch ourselves from time—to stop dwelling on time is a unique superpower of a total eclipse. In Russo’s work as a clinical psychologist, she notices patterns in our modern-day mentality. “People with anxiety tend to spend a lot of time in the future. And people with depression spend a lot of time in the past,” she says. An eclipse, time and time again, has the ability to snap us back into the present, at least for a few minutes. “And when you’re less anxious and worried, it opens you up to be more attuned to other people, feel more connected, care for others and be more compassionate,” Goldy says.

Russo, who founded Being in the Shadow , an organization that provides information about total solar eclipses and organizes eclipse events around the world, has experienced this firsthand. Venue managers regularly tell her that eclipse crowds are among the most polite and humble: they follow the rules; they pick up their garbage—they care.

Eclipses remind us that we are part of something bigger, that we are connected with something vast. In the hours before and after totality you have to wear protective glasses to look at the sun, to prevent damage to your eyes. But during the brief time when the moon blocks the last of the sun’s rays, you can finally lower your glasses and look directly at the eclipse. It’s like making eye contact with the universe.

“In my practice, usually if someone says, ‘I feel insignificant,’ that’s a negative thing. But the meaning shifts during an eclipse,” Russo says. To feel insignificant in the moon’s shadow instead means that your sense of self shrinks, that your ego shrinks, she says.

The scale of our “big picture” often changes after witnessing the awe of totality, too. “When you zoom out—really zoom out—it blows away our differences,” Goldy says. When you sit in the shadow of a celestial rock blocking the light of a star 400 times its size that burns at 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit on its surface, suddenly that argument with your partner, that bill sitting on your counter or even the differences among people’s beliefs, origins or politics feel insignificant. When we shift our perspective, connection becomes boundless.

You don’t need to wait for the next eclipse to feel this way. As we travel through life, we lose our relationship with everyday awe. Remember what that feels like? It’s the way a dog looks at a treat or the way my toddler points to the “blue sky!” outside his car window in the middle of rush hour traffic. To find awe, we have to surrender our full attention to the beauty around us. During an eclipse, that comes easily. In everyday life, we may need to be more intentional.

“Totality kick-starts our ability to experience wonder,” Russo says. And with that kick start, maybe we can all use our wonderment faculties more—whether that means pausing for a moment during a morning walk, a hug or a random sunset on a Tuesday. In the continental U.S., we won’t experience another total eclipse until 2044. Let’s not wait until then to seek awe and connection.