word count on assignments

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Word limits and assignment length

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Assignment length requirements are usually given in terms of numbers of words.

Unless the lecturer tells you that these limits are strict, it is normally acceptable to be 10% above or below this word limit (so, for example, a 2000 word assignment should be between 1800 and 2200 words). If the assignment uses the words “up to” (as in “up to 2500 words”) that usually means that you cannot go above the limit.

Use the tool below to calculate the acceptable range for an assignment (based on +/- 10%).

Unless the lecturer tells you otherwise, the word limit does not include ‘administrative’ sections of the assignment: the cover or title page, table of contents, table of figures, reference list, list of works cited, bibliography, or any appendices.

The word limit that you are given reflects the level of detail required . This means that if your assignment is too long, you're either taking too many words to explain your point or giving too many / too detailed examples. If your assignment is too short, either there is more to the answer than you have written or the assignment has not gone into enough detail about the answer.

• Don't try to remove single words from your assignment. It is unlikely to reduce the assignment's length significantly, but it may confuse your argument . Instead, aim to remove or condense whole sections of your assignment.
• You should not include something just because it is a fact, or just because it is included in your course materials. Include something only if it is relevant to your argument.
• Be direct. State your point rather than writing many paragraphs to ‘lead up’ to it.
• Go back to the question . Which sections relate to the point and which are secondary?
• Go back to the plan . Which paragraphs fit in the overall structure? Which paragraphs overlap and can be combined?
• Remove sections where you
• Over-explain your point
• Over-specify your point
• Repeat yourself
• Write off-topic or ramble
• Remove multiple examples where one or two are sufficient.
• Remove hedging language that adds little to the argument (e.g., it would seem that, it is possible that).

If you are often over the word count you should look at your writing style. See writing concisely for more.

Explain your argument fully

• Make sure every argument in your head and in your plan is on the page.
• Would a general (i.e., non-specialist) reader understand your point? Have someone else read over your assignment and ask you questions about it. What do they think is missing?
• Are there gaps in your argument?
• Does each point logically follow the last one, or do you jump over important points?

Look for the ‘hidden’ answer

• What theories do you think the marker expects?
• How does this relate to the materials from lectures and study guides? Use the course information in your answer to the assignment question.
• Are there complications or contradictions in the argument or in your research? Explain them and explore them.

Flesh it out

• Define any special terminology you've used that a general reader would not be familiar with.
• Illustrate with more examples and/or quotations.
• Contextualise and explain the quotations you use. How do they relate to your argument?

Page authorised by Director - Centre for Learner Success Last updated on 12 December, 2018

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APA 7th Edition Referencing Guide: Formatting your assignment

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Check your course module outline, or ask your tutor how they would like your assignments formatted.  If you can't find this information, then the below guidelines have been taken from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association: The Official Guide to APA Style (7th ed.) (the Manual) to assist you.

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All papers should have a title page (you may have been provided a template in your module outline). All pages should be numbered (top right corner) and often you are expected to include your student ID number on each page too.  If you are handing in a paper copy, you may need to ensure you only print on one side of the page (check your tutor's preferences).

All margins (top, bottom, left, and right) should be 2.54 cm (this is the default 'normal' setting on Word).  However, some tutors might like your left margin to be much bigger (e.g. 4 cm) to allow for marking.  Also, if you are intending to get your assignment bound, you need to allow space on the left-hand margin to allow for this.

The entire paper should be double spaced, except:

• Elements of the title page (not relevant for undergraduates)
• The body of tables, figures and images will depend on the presentation of the data.
• Displayed equations

Postgraduate students and those of you publishing your work, refer to the Manual for specific information.

APA style allows for a range of accessible fonts to be used, but be consistent and use the same font throughout your paper.  However, it would be advisable to stick to 11-point Calibri or 11-point Arial throughout your assignments.

Paragraph alignment and indentation

Text should be aligned left, so that your right margin has an uneven "ragged" look. D on't use full justification, otherwise your words will be unevenly spaced across the page.

Indent the first line of every paragraph by using the tab key.

• Level 1 headings should be centred and bold.
• Level 2 headings should be left-aligned and bold
• Level 3 headings should be left-aligned and bold italic

See the Manual for further information.

Appendices contain material that supplements your paper, but would be distracting or inappropriate to include within the body of your text.  For example, if you interview someone for your research, you might want to include the transcript of the interview in an appendix.

Appendices go at the very end of your assignment after references, footnotes, tables, and figures.  Begin each appendix on a new page and provide a label and title for each.  If you only have one, label it Appendix. If you have more than one, label each with a capital letter e.g. "Appendix A", "Appendix B", in the order mentioned in the text. (Note, each appendix needs to be mentioned at least once within the text by its label, e.g. "see Appendix A".)  Labels should be bold and centred.  The appendix title should describe its contents and also be bold and centred, but on a separate line from the label.  Use title case for both the label and title.

Appendix A (label)

Analysis of Speech Fragments (title)

Content of appendix formatted the same as the body of the assignment.

According to the Manual, your word count should include the entire document from the title page to the appendices.  However, for the purposes of an assignment, we would only expect your word count to include the text (and in text citations) of the body of your work, not the title page, contents page, reference list or appendices.  As always, double check with your tutor to find out their preference.

Italicising foreign words

The APA Guide requires any words in a language that the intended reader is not familiar with to be written in italics. However, this is something you can use your judgement on. If you are uncomfortable about italicising 'foreign' words, or think your intended reader/s will be offended by it, you do not have to.

Wintec will always place cultural appropriateness above a formatting requirement.

Please note: Te Reo Māori is an official language of New Zealand. It is not a foreign language.

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• Last Updated: Jul 2, 2024 3:02 PM
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• Writing Tips

The Word Limit in Academic Writing (and How to Stick to It)

• 3-minute read
• 24th September 2016

Even the phrase “word limit” can cause panic among students . For some it’s the challenge of writing enough, while others find it hard to stick within the limit given. In either case, it can lead to spending more time worrying about the length of your paper than the content!

But why do college papers come with set word limits? And what should you do to ensure you don’t write too much or too little?

Why Have a Word Limit?

There are two main reasons that academic papers usually come with a word limit:

• Fairness It’s impossible to grade two papers of vastly different lengths (e.g., 20,000 compared to 2,000 words) on the same scale. The word limit makes sure that everyone taking the same class knows what is expected of them.
• Communication Skills As well as testing your knowledge, college papers are about communicating clearly and concisely. Setting a word limit forces you to consider what you’re saying more carefully, helping you to develop your writing skills.

Sticking to the word limit is, therefore, part of being a good academic, since being a long way over or under could suggest you’ve misjudged the scope of the essay topic or that you’re having trouble communicating your ideas.

How to Stick to the Word Limit

Although many colleges give you roughly 10% leeway on the word limit, you should aim for your finished paper to be as close to the suggested word count as possible. If you find yourself writing too much, you can reduce the word count by:

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• Editing out repetition, redundant words and padding phrases
• Cutting down long or unnecessary quotations
• Reducing the number of examples or case studies used (if you’ve included several)
• Using the active voice instead of the passive voice

More generally, you should re-read your work and eliminate anything that isn’t directly related to the question you’re answering. As well as helping you stick to the word limit, this will make your work more focused, which could boost your grades.

How to Increase Your Word Count

If you’re struggling to write enough, the temptation might be to add padding phrases like “in my opinion” or long block quotations until you hit the minimum word count. But this will simply detract from the clarity of your writing.

Instead, the answer is usually to go back over your work and look for things that could be improved with a little additional attention. This might involve:

• Addressing anything from your essay question that you’ve overlooked
• Adding illustrative examples to support a point
• Considering different sources and views on the same issue
• Using short quotations as evidence for your arguments

Moreover, whether you’ve written too much or too little, getting someone else to read your work and offer feedback is a fantastic idea (especially if you ask a professional for help). This will help you to identify areas that could be expanded or cut in the next draft, so eventually you should be able to get your essay to the required length.

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Why is Word Count Important (How to Manage Assignment Paper Length)

Word count is a crucial factor in writing projects which affects how much time you are going to need to complete it in time. It is a grading criterion which is entirely within the student’s control and failure to stay within the usual allowance range of 10% can result in penalties to the final grade. To put it another way, word count guidelines are there to help students with their assignments, so it important to always pay attention to this!

Understanding the main purpose for assigning a specific limit on the number of words in an assignment should help you write a better paper that stays on track and help you avoid unnecessary filler content. Given the importance of this factor, we will be covering this in more depth first, before moving on to tips on how to manage the word count and make the paper longer or shorter, as per your requirement.

Table of Contents

What is the purpose of word counts for an assignment?

1.       word count guidelines clarify the level of detail which is being expected.

Word counts are one of the most important clues that teachers give to students to inform them what is expected of them in the assignment. We have covered in our guide on assignment structure that combining the word count with the grading criteria can easily give you a rough outline and draft for your paper, which will then make the actual writing work much easier. You can also use our assignment time calculator to estimate roughly how long you will need.

If you end up writing a fair bit more or less than the stated guideline, it should be an indication for you that you have either:

• not collected your thoughts properly
• not phrased your points in the right way
• not put everything together into a concise and coherent paper

.. or a combination of these factors.

If you ever face a situation in which you are really struggling to meet the word count, then it is time for some introspection and reflection on what you have written compared to what you have learnt in your coursework. This is because word count guideline and limits are anything but random – you can be sure that they’ve been chosen after careful consideration so try not to make unfounded assumptions that ‘there must be a mistake with the word given’!

To summarize, the main issue that teachers have with shorter papers isn’t actually that they didn’t meet the word count – it’s the fact that a paper with a lower word count is likely to be lower in quality with weaker points which have not been fully substantiated to the extent required.

2.       Word count limits emphasize the need to be precise and concise

Limits on the number of words allowed in a paper also pushes students towards being precise in the points that they choose to include in their assignment and present it in a concise manner. Without word counts, students will have a hard time by determining themselves how much content needs to go into each section or subsection.

So, without word counts, some students may potentially struggle to write a good paper and up with content which is too thin (as they do not know what is being expected of them). Other students may wander all over the place and end up writing too much unnecessarily. Hence, they are important guidelines that help stress the importance of quantity over quality – writing a lot doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ve written good content!

3.       Word count requirements fairness in grading of all students

Another point worth considering is that word counts help make the grading scale uniform and standardized for all students – it levels the playing field by ensuring that all students make the points which they need to within the same number of words. Going one step further, word count guidelines can also be standardized across different courses, modules, universities and even countries, making the odds even for all students everywhere (well, at least in theory).

What is the purpose of word count allowance?

When a teacher specifies the word count for an assignment, they are not going to scrutinize whether you have stopped a few words short or went a few words over. What they’re trying to convey to you is that to answer the assignment requirement properly, you will roughly need the number of words that they have specified to cover all necessary points concisely.

Hence, you will almost always have a word count allowance for your assignments since the actual number specified is only intended to be a ballpark figure to guide you on the level of detail required. The standard allowance is usually 10% plus or minus so if your assignment length has been specified as 2,000 words, it would fine to turn in a paper that ranges from 1,800 words to 2,200 words. If the word count allowance was specified as 5% instead, then would mean that your paper needs to between 1,900 words to 2,100 words in length.

On the other hand, if there is no specific note about such an allowance range in the assignment requirements file, try to check the module outline file since it may be given there instead. Should that not give you any result, then check the university guidelines and see if you can find it mentioned there. If you don’t have any luck with that either, then you should probably just ask your teacher directly. In any case, try not to make an assumption on the word count allowance.

How to boost word count and make an essay paper longer

For some students, word counts are things to be dreaded and they may often find themselves falling short of the minimum word count which has been specified. It doesn’t have to be all that hard! You can follow these tips to make your essay paper longer easily in an organic way that doesn’t make your teacher suspect that you’ve resorted to some cheap tricks to achieve this.

1.       Add critical analysis to paraphrased points

A crucial part of academic assignment writing is to draw on points mentioned in other credible sources like peer-reviewed journal articles or trustworthy news outlets. When doing this, paraphrasing is an extremely important skills that you need to develop to avoid plagiarism. Even if you are providing the source from where you have taken an idea, we generally advise not to quote directly unless unavoidable. We have dedicated guide for how to effectively paraphrase ideas from other sources in your words and this guide includes some helpful tips on how to get better at this skill.

When paraphrasing content from other sources, you should always add a critical analysis of the point which you are referencing. Apart from increasing the word count of you paper, this helps you tick another checkbox. Teachers expect to see you engage with the material taken from a credible source and this approach would be proof of that.

To show you an example of how you could do this, you can see the table below. We follow a few steps to end up with more than twice the number of words that we started out with.

• We start with a source text from Porter’s well-known paper on competitive forces . We have chosen a section of the paper which has 54 words in total.
• Building on this, we can paraphrase this part in our own words , while giving the reference for the source text as per APA format and we end up writing 39 words for this.
• Lastly, we could just add a couple of lines after our paraphrased sentence to explain what we understood from th e source material. This would help the teacher realize that we are not just regurgitating information from other places. It signals to them that we have actually understood the points and concepts being discussed. This adds another 73 words to our total count.

So, by paraphrasing a source text of 54 words, we ended up doubling that (39+73 = 112 words ) with relatively little effort. For more information on this, check out our dedicated guide on how to critically analyze and engage with existing literature.

2.       Add relevant examples to support your points

You can also make use of examples to add more credibility to the points that you are trying to make. This also comes with the benefit of informing your teacher that you were able to grasp the idea or concept better as you were able to match it to a suitable example. So, taking the same scenario as above regarding competitive forces, we can then add another sentence at the end like this:

In this way, we’ve added another 94 words on top of the 112 from earlier, so we have now added around 206 words to the paper. To put this in context, if this were part of a 2,000-word paper, we have effectively written around 10% of the required word count fairly easily. To identify how and where you can add examples organically, you may need to skim over your essay a couple of times and try to get a feel for which parts could use an example or two.

3.       Include a secondary supporting reference for your point

If you feel it is appropriate, you can also include an additional point from a different source which supports the previous statement and adds further weight to the message which you are trying to convey. Having too many references is better than having too few references. However, you should try to find a middle ground and make sure to follow up referenced points with critical analysis so that your entire paper isn’t just a mix of views of others with no originality to the points you are making.

4.       Include facts, figures, or other statistical data

This would be done in a similar way to the previous suggestion in which you can provide some facts and figures from reliable sources to support the information you have just presented. You could potentially also do it the other way around by starting with a stat or figure and explaining it in your own words.

5.       Try to balance your points with alternate viewpoints (and address them)

This is the opposite of the above suggestion. You can also try to increase the words in your assignment in an organic way by presenting some opposing arguments and then trying to take a stance on which seems more appropriate or suitable to the topic of your essay. For nearly every single point that you make, there are likely to be differing viewpoints from others – you have to pick your battles though as inserting conflicting viewpoints for every single statement would make your paper dry and monotonous.

If you do use this option, then you have to make sure that you address the opposing viewpoints with suitable counterarguments and why one view is superior to the other.

6.       Always add labels for figures and tables

Labels for figures and tables are typically included in the word count of assignments unless otherwise specified. There’s no good reason NOT to use labels for each and every figure and table which you include in paper. Apart from being a standard requirement in many academic formats/styles, it is a fairly easy way to increase the word count of your paper, so it’s a win-win to always do this.

7.       Make proper use of transition (connecting) words

You can also make use of transition and connecting words like the following to increase your word count while also creating a coherent flow between your points.

• Words that help build on ideas: ‘Additionally’, ‘Moreover’, ‘Furthermore’, ‘In fact’
• Words that imply sequence or chronology: ‘Thereafter’, ‘Subsequently’
• Words indicating inference: ‘Therefore’, ‘Hence’, ‘Thus’, ‘As a result’ ‘Consequently’
• Words indicating similarity: ‘Similarly’, ‘Likewise’
• Words indicating contrast in ideas: ‘Although’, ‘Even though’, ‘However’, ‘Nevertheless’, ‘In contrast’, ‘On one hand’ (which is paired with ‘while on the other hand’), ‘From another perspective’, ‘Regardless’,
• Words for giving examples: ‘For instance’, ‘For example’, ‘As an example’
• Words for summarizing ideas: ‘In other words’, ‘In conclusion’, ‘Ultimately’
• Words that can help when paraphrasing: ‘According to’, ‘As mentioned/stated/claimed by’, ‘In their paper’

8.       Check the assignment requirements one more time

If you have done all the suggestions above and still find that you are short of the word count and are lacking ideas on how to expand further, then you should take a look at the assignment requirements again. Perhaps there could be some keywords in there for ideas, concepts or information that are expected, which you may have potentially forgotten or overlooked in the heat of writing the assignment.

9.       Avoid tricks like adjusting font and margins

Most students have a natural tendency to ‘under-write’ thinking they have a covered a topic or point adequately in a smaller number of words than are needed. However, if you find yourself trying to increase the word count of your paper using unnecessary phrases then you should realize with your intuition that you have not articulated your thoughts adequately. This means that the quality of your essay isn’t likely to be all that good and so you’re going to end up with a lower grade.

Another reason why you should avoid desperate tricks like using some large typeface fonts or adjusting the margins is because they’re fairly obvious to spot to a trained eye. You might not notice it, given your relative inexperience, but you can bet that your teachers would have seen almost all the plays in the book and spot weird formats in an instant.

As an example, a common trick that some students do is to add in some unnecessary words between some paragraphs and set the font color to white. The algorithm of some plagiarism detection software have been beefed up in recent times to detect this trick and automatically places a markup on such things that are out of the ordinary for teachers to review manually. In other instances, teachers who can spot that the content seems to be lacking compared to the word count specified can download the Word version of your submitted file, change the formatting details to standard style (which includes the font color) and detect this trick easily enough.

10.   Avoid unnecessary filler and fluff

You should be careful not to add in fluff material which would make it very difficult for teachers to get the gist of the points that you are trying to make. Remember, most of your teachers have probably been ‘in the game’ for a long time now and are sure to have come across a wide variety of students and the tactics that they use to pad their paper and reach the word count. As a result, it is usually very easy for them to tell that you have just filled your paper low quality content to meet the required word count.

How to shorten an essay paper?

There are going to be other times when you will want to cut down the length of your paper as you may have already exceeded the word count, which is typically the case for those writing long thesis or dissertations. If you are in a position where you have gone significantly over the word count and beyond the allowance range, then it means that you probably haven’t narrowed down or focused on just the most important and relevant points.

You can reduce your word count by avoiding things like repeating long form of words which are often represented by commonly used abbreviations and acronyms. This includes topics like like Human Resources Management (HRM) or concepts like Resource Based View (RBV). The first time that you use these kinds of words in your paper, you should mention the full form and include the abbreviation or acronym in brackets. Thereafter, you can continue using the shortened form for the rest of your paper.

How many words to write if word count is not specified?

If the necessary word count has not been mentioned for an assignment, then you should try to consider some other cues in the assignment requirements files. We have a guide on the standard word count weights (percentages) – this can help plan how many words to allocate to each section and then add them all up.

What is included in the assignment word count?

1.       in-text references.

In-text references are included in the word count, which is typically why some referencing formats specify the use of the phrase ‘et al.’ (which is derived from the Latin word for ‘and others’) when the source you are citing has multiple authors. In some formats like APA, you should use this phrase if there are more than 2 authors, while in another format like Harvard, you only need to use this when citing works with more than 3 authors.

2.       Labels for tables and figures

What is not included in the assignment word count, 1.       abstract / executive summary, 2.       table of contents, 3.       footnotes, 4.       references / bibliography, 5.       appendix, suggested word counts.

Around 200-300 words should be sufficient for Abstract / Executive Summary.

2.       Introduction and conclusions

Typically, you do not want to exceed 10% of the overall word count for introduction and conclusions. If the paper that you are writing is a thesis or a dissertation of 10,000 words or more, then you can even go as low as 5% of the overall word count but use your own judgement for the optimal length of these section. Most importantly, try to check the weights assigned to these sections in the scoring rubric and make sure to match that.

3.       Personal Statement

Other misconceptions about word count.

The counter for words in an MS Word document as well as most plagiarism detection software like Turnitin to which you submit your assignment does not include the spacing between words in the overall word count. These are counted under the separate counter for ‘Characters (with spaces)’.

The impact of different referencing styles on word count

This was much more important in the past, when assignment papers were almost always submitted as hard copies and, in these cases, the referencing format and style had a big impact on whether you had met the word count of your essay or not.

This is because each of the standard styles had their specific guidelines for page margins, the spacing between text, the specific font to be used and its size and other similar factors. If you had followed these correctly, teachers would be able to roughly gauge the total number of words that you have written just by looking at the number of pages.

Now, you’re probably thinking that counting the exact number of words on a hard copy assignment, especially if it is long, is impractical as it would take a long time. We can set you straight on that – teachers have an easy trick to get a rough estimation of the number of words in your paper.

• They would start by picking a few random lines in your page and counting the number of words in each of them to get an average estimation of the words per line
• They would then count the number of lines on a single page
• Finally, they can just multiply that by the total number of pages excluding the standard parts which are not included such as table of contents, references section etc.

So, do not try to be a wise ass – your teachers have been doing this for so long that it is almost second nature for them to tell if a student has met the word count, and whether they have used any obvious tricks to make it seem like their paper is long than it is.

The key differences in different formatting styles are summarized below to help you get a better understanding of this point.

Hu B,. Hu, M., Yang. Y. (2016). Open or closed? Technology sharing, supplier investment, and competition.  Manufacturing Service Operations Management .

Porter, M. E. (1979). How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review [Online]. Available from: https://hbr.org/1979/03/how-competitive-forces-shape-strategy [Accessed 14 November 2021]

Reuters (2019). De Beers curbs diamond supply as earnings drop. Reuters [Online]. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-anglo-results-debeers/de-beers-curbs-diamond-supply-as-earnings-drop-idUSKCN1UK1WB [Accessed 13 November 2021]

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• Jan 16, 2020

5 tips to stick to your word count in any written assignment

Updated: Mar 1

If you've been asked to stick to a word count on an assignment, there's usually a good reason for it.

In academic assignments, sticking to a word count shows that you not only know your stuff, but that you also know how to clearly and succinctly explain it to others. Too many words is likely waffle and may imply a lack of confidence in knowing which information or research is key and which isn't. Too few suggests that you haven't put enough time or effort in, or that your research isn't thorough enough. Either way, it could lose you marks.

In print, as well as keeping you on the point, a word count is often to do with the amount of space the publication has available for each article. If an editor asks for 2,000 words on the demise of the honey bee and you give them 2,700, or even 2,200, that's a lot of your work that they're going to need to scrap (they might even just scrap the whole article). Aside from creating work for the editor, you are also doing yourself an injustice. By putting an editor in a position where they need to cut your work, they are going to cut the bits that they don't think are important or interesting enough... it doesn't matter if you think that line was your best work, or your most important finding - it's gone, baby!

Similarly, in marketing materials, a word count is probably given to fill a set workspace. Pages in products such as brochures and pamphlets are printed in multiples of four (4, 8, 12, 16, and so on) so if you send the designer five pages of text, they're either going to have to cut a whole page of your work, or find three more pages.

Here are some ways to help you stick to your word count and make your work more palatable.

Start as you mean to go on. You have a word count that you need to stick to, the best way to do that is to plan ahead, rather than writing until you have a tome and then trying to cut it back into an essay.

Before you start, think about the key things you want to cover and any sections that you need to include such as an introduction, methodology, etc. Prioritise these sections, and give each one a word count according to how important it is.

"Bottom up - I write a sentence for each paragraph (or section) and decide the relative weight of each, then work upwards. Obviously, editing is still required, but you have developed a sense as to how much depth or detail you're going to be able to reach."

~Beverley Gibbs, Director of Learning and Teaching (Strategy) at The University of Sheffield

2) Simplify

Don't use five words where you could use one. Similarly, avoid using jargon that can often be overly verbose and put many readers off. By using plain English, you will not only avoid exceeding your word count, but you will also open your text up to a wider audience which is what most publishers (and writers) will want.

"Lose the jargon, cut to get to your core messages and keep what your audience needs at the heart of what you are saying."

~ Peta Sweet, Communications and Coaching for Change

3) Understand your brief

Understanding what's being asked of you is key to staying within your word count as it means you can easily get to the point and stay on it. Using a highlighter to go through the brief before you start can help pick out the key questions or points to keep you focused.

4) Stay on topic

It's really easy to get sidetracked when you're talking. How many times have you found yourself telling a long story, getting half way through and realising that you've got so far off topic you can't remember what your point was? The same thing happens in writing, but if you can avoid it (or spot it in your edit) then it will help to keep you within your word count.

This is not the same as proofreading (you'll still need to do that). Once you've finished writing, give your work some time to breathe before going back to try and cut things out.

You should usually aim to cut your word count by 10% during your edit. Look out for repetition, superfluous words, unnecessary adjectives and anything that isn't relevant or supportive of your point. Cut anything that strays away from your core messages. You can sometimes cut out whole paragraphs in this way.

Also keep an eye out for intensifiers like 'really' and 'very' as these are probably not needed. You can do a simple search for these words and cut them out to easily reduce your word count.

"Be brutal! Write what you want to say but then go back later and look at what you're saying that doesn't add value, words that aren't needed or shorter ways of saying the same thing."

~ Krysia Wooffinden, Assistant Director of Skills, Employment and Education at Sheffield City Region

"Write and then come back later to edit. Cut the adverbs and adjectives, and keep to the point."

~ Lorraine Dixon, Writer and Publisher at Open Narrative

What are your tips for keeping within your word count? Leave a comment below.

Stick to your word count

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How to Increase Your Essay Word Count

Add Examples

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

Address Different Viewpoints

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

Clarify Statements

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

Find Additional Sources

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

Use Quotations

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

Rework Introduction and Conclusion

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

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

(Photo courtesy of Caleb Roenigk )

I hate it when teachers give a word count. Word count shouldn’t matter at all. It should be the quality of the writing. If I can get my point across in 1000 words, why do I need to write 2500? It makes no sense at all.

You have never been a teacher. If you ever are, you will know why we give word counts.

That’s a lazy answer. Students who write well shouldn’t be punished with a word count because other students aren’t good students. It’s the teacher’s job to help those students who aren’t doing as well without forcing those good students to do stupid things that make no sense for them.

If you can make it more fun to read, this can also help with word count. Add emphasizes or explain something in more detail. There are so many great ways to increase your word count. It shouldn’t be too hard if you put your mind to it!

Word count never mattered as soon as I got to college, my professors used the “bikini rule,” short enough to keep it interesting, long enough to cover the important parts. Don’t use 2000 words to say what you can in 500

This isn’t the correct question to ask. It’s easy to increase word count on an essay, but it’s difficult to increase word count to make the essay better. So many people decide to increase their word count by inserting sentences, paragraphs, quotes and other non-necessary information simply to reach the word count. While it achieves the goal of increasing the word count, it doesn’t make the essay any better, and it usually makes it much worse. What you should always strive for is to increase the number of words in the essay while also making the essay stronger than it was before.

….Read the article you’re commenting on?

In my experience, college is even worse than high school in this regard. I regularly have to conform to word counts and page counts. Right now, I’m writing a research paper that has an 8 page minimum. Why? Because the professor said so. I could certainly be a lot more concise if I didn’t have to pad it out, but this is what’s required of me. The kicker is that the prof is DEFINITELY going to take off points due to obvious padding. DON’T FORCE ME INTO AN ARBITRARY LENGTH, THEN.

Just change the font style to a bigger one and then do the same with the size of the font but not too big or it will seem too obvious.

My professor requires Times New Roman

Really? Great!

LOL i hate Times New Roman, it’s so boring. There are so many interesting fonts out there, why should we have to make it boring? Plus, cool fonts catch your eye and draw you in. I get not wanting super crazy fonts but at least a little wiggle room here! C’mon!

try using Bookman Old Style

Your prof is stupid

My teacher wants me to write a 5 page essay and a 2 minute speech about the same book which is barely 200 pages

For me it’s either times new roman or arial

Mine too I just use it with other things I write now due to habit

bruh they LOOK at the word counts, just cuz the font will be bigger doesn’t mean that they’ll think you have gone over the limit

page counts tho

they are talking about page counts, not word counts

You’re a fuckin dumbass, increasing font size is too obvious

That’s mean

just make your periods a font style bigger, professors will notice a font style bigger for the text

Making a period a font size bigger isn’t going to do anything.

the teachers can see the word count so, there is no point in doing that

Teachers do check the font and word size y’know?

well, part of it is that you cannot be bothered to write out the word “professor” and… well let me show you a corrected version of your post.

*In my experience, college is even worse than high school in this regard. I regularly have to conform to word counts and page counts. Right now, I’m writing a research paper that has an 8-page minimum. Why? It was because the professor said so. I could be a lot more concise if I didn’t have to pad it out, but such are the requirements. The kicker is that the professor is going to take off points due to my padding. So don’t force me to an arbitrary length!

Don’t go ruining people’s self-esteem.

I’m only in Junior high and I have to write over that amount. Be grateful that your situation isn’t as bad as it could be.

That’s just nasty.

Yep, I agree!

I appreciate that I can put it to use when I tutor! Thank you.

LOL never heard of the bikini rule. I love it

Where did you go to college?

So basically you’re saying that you don’t trust your students to be able to write correctly in your class? Isn’t that more a reflection on your teaching than it is on the students who are writing?

See what you just did you got your point across in 18 words YOU JUST ARE STUPID! Anyways why are you on this web site if you are a teacher?

riiiight that’s what i was thinking like this is meant to help students lol

If it makes so much sense to give word count limits to teachers then please explain

but that makes no sense…there is no reason to do so if they are great at writing all ready…

what do i do if my word count is 800 and i only have 512

add another 288!

You keep going no matter what! Thats what i do!

This is a poor answer because it doesn’t give any reason for the word counts. The point was that they -don’t- know why the word counts are necessary, and just stating that “you don’t have my experience and if you did you’d know why” isn’t an argument or a good contribution to the discussion, when surely it would have been a better idea to just explain why word counts are necessary in the first place.

WHY DO YOU?

Care to explain? That was a super vague answer.

want to expand on that? XD

U realise this is an article for student right? u don’t need to be here dissing all of us. [EDIT]: so many dislikes on teach’s post. lmao

look, not. helping. this is why i hated a bunch of my professors, you all act like we should be overjoyed that you aren’t making us ruin our writing more because we have to stretch it out, you have students with real potential, why do so many ignorant professors waste that and take off marks for something the student cannot control? seems wrong huh?

I’m not a teacher but I do understand that word counts push students to do their best, although I according to everyone, have always been teacher’s pet, and I love to write so having a word count is an amazing way for me to experiment with my writing.

But I have an assignment in which they say use the set format, which doesn’t allow for many words, but they say it has to be 500. I physically can’t stick to the structure and the word count. I understand max word counts, but I can get my entire point across in 300 words, and I am seriously struggling to increase. I think that minimum word counts should not be put in place as I can get the point across in a lot less.

What is your essay’s point? Is it simple? I have to write 1250 word essays regularly, and I’m only on this article because I have 1156 and can’t come up with more. You sound lucky to me.

ill never be one so tell why >:(

it seems teach got the “nobody liked that” experience

We gotta keep this comment section going for 2020.

lol so many dislikes

Proceeds to not give the reason! just makes you sound like a moron with excuses. you have not proven her wrong in the slightest.

Oh my god, you are right.

Teachers too often tried to make things easier on themselves to the detriment of the students are trying to teach. I think making minimum word counts is one of those. On the other hand, I think that maximum word counts can actually be beneficial because it forces the students to better edit their writing.

“Teachers too often tried to make things easier on themselves to the detriment of the students [they] are trying to teach.” Are you making this very bold statement because you have experienced it as a teacher, completed an in-depth research on this topic, or are you just making your opinion seem like a fact? I ask simply because I am a teacher, a high school English teacher to be more specific, and I found your comment to be nothing but overblown opinion. I cannot speak for every teacher, but in my class, I have to put a minimum word count on my essay assignments or I would have the majority of the students attempt to turn in a paragraph and say it is an essay. It would not matter that I instructed them on the purpose of the essay, explained what an introductory paragraph, body paragraph, and a conclusion paragraph are and their individual purposes. It also would not matter if I also spent an entire six week grading period teaching, instructing, modeling, and practicing writing essay, I would still have some that would turn in a ridiculously short essay and argue that they have “gotten to the point.” However, any logical person would know that these student’s essays would not meet the required components of an essay and would not serve as evidence of mastery, which is what a teacher is suppose to do right? Help students master certain skills, regardless of what is “easier on” them?

Just grade them an F

Lol! Sorry to break it to you, but Z isn’t a grade. Sorry.

Lana! r/whooosh

yes it is, its a double f

nobody likes your long paragraphs.

Instead of using a minimum word count, say that you must have at least five paragraphs, and if they turn in 5 sentences, that’s on them. High school students know that a section is longer than a sentence. And if they pretend not too, that’s on them. And your problem that they turn in just a paragraph? They know what an essay is, they are lazy and, quite frankly, don’t care about the class. So give them an incomplete grade and the chance to rewrite it, if they decline, they have failed that assignment. It is harsh but necessary.

I don’t think you understand: if I can get it across in a short paragraph, and otherwise it would be graded well, then why should I have to write a three-hundred word long paragraph just to explain the same thing? I shouldn’t have to. That’s the answer.

I think that minimum word counts are fine with this reasoning, but I am very reluctant to agree with you due to your unnecessary rudeness. Also, teachers, please don’t make the minimum more than 800 words! For college, I understand, but not below college.

Exactly! 2000 words in 4 days! IMPOSSIBLE

2000/4 = 500/1

Just write approx 500 words per day; spend like 1-2 hours for the next couple day adding like 500 words every time. Or you could be a knucklehead like me and try to get it all done in one go, then me suffering the next morning because you fell asleep at 3:30

The only thing thats impossible is impossibility!!!

Hey you stole my Name!

Its Not Impossible, the only thing thats Impossible is Impossibility!!!

i agree 100%

Guidelines are so unaccepted. 🙁

I was researching but I got caught up reading you guys arguing

lmao yeah me too

Same here. Whoops.

Once more… same here.

I am supposed to be writing an essay then I just saw war in the comments so I had to read.

exactly, what is the point in a word count when you can make it easier on yourself and write shorter essays

i only have to write 400 words luckily, but it’s in a language im not great at 🙁 i only need 40 more but don’t have any ideass

Our teacher gave us a 20000 word count for the Australia Murray River Basin… I’d be lucky if my teachers ever give me a 2500 word count. Last year one of the students in our class scored a 38000 word count when the minimum word count was 25000. don’t complain. International School Of Hefei (CISH)

Just had to re-read that. Twenty THOUSAND word count? I was given that as a goal for a story in one of my classes, and we had the entire year to do it. I don’t know how long y’all had for it, but either way that’s too much for an essay.

yeah I’m in class right now in grade 8 and have to do a 250 word since assessment but I cant think of anything else to add because I stuck to the assessment sheet and used the teaches advise but I only have 227 words. (I will add my assessment below)

Energy comes in six basic forms that are chemical which is renewable, electrical, radiant, mechanical, thermal and nuclear. These types of energy are both renewable and nonrenewer, electrical, thermal and radiant are all renewable energy types but electrical, chemical mechanical and nuclear are non-renewable because there is not a infinite source of this type of energy. There are other types but these are the six basic types of energy that make up other types. Energy is the thing that powers most electrical items you can’t create and destroy energy but you can move it to an object like a light bulb or battery. Energy can be transferred by copper and other conductive materials. There are also materials that are nonconductive like wood and rubber. Energy is mostly transferred between thing with wires like when you charge you phone or turn on light. Energy can change form into other types of energy. for example if you turn on a light bulb the electric energy will turn into thermal energy and light energy. A car is also a good example of this because the car hold chemical bonds of fuel which later turns into several different types of energy and gases. The law of conservation states that every type of energy can not be created or destroyed it can and will only be transferred into other types of energy.

Now you need to write an article on how to decrease word count when you go hopelessly over the maximum allowed.

Yes! This is what I need. I don’t understand how people can write under the word count given. I’m ALWAYS over, and by a lot. I had a 1000 word paper to write and I wrote 2500. Teachers never give enough word count for writing.

I once had 200 word essay and i wrote 400!

I struggle to get to the word count, but once I’m there I go over and struggle to remove stuff without ruining it.

Here you go: https://wordcounter.net/blog/2016/01/26/101025_how-to-reduce-essay-word-count.html

The second link in the first paragraph is to just such an article.

A thesaurus is your friend when you are only a bit under word count. I’m glad to see you added one to your tool. it’s so much easier than going back and forth to another thesaurus website. Thank you for making this useful tool and not charging any money for it.

Adjectives and adverbs can help with this, but it won’t make the essay stronger. You usually want to eliminate adverbs and adjectives in your writing to make it better. You have to make a decision as to whether word count is more important or a better essay is more important before using these methods.

I’m 500 words short of the minimum word count my teacher assigned for my essay. What is the best way to increase word count fast without a lot of effort?

Did you even read the article?

Don’t use contractions.

Writing takes effort. If you want to write with no effort, your writing is going to suck.

I hate that I never seem to be able to write enough words for assignments. If I have answered a question, why do I need to write more meaningless words?

You should never write meaningless words. You would be much better off adding a different perspective or adding more support to your view. meaningless words will only lower your grade.

I have to write 7,000+ characters with spaces!!!! By thursday! I have 5,200 done. What should I do?

Write more… or put a ton of smiley faces in 😉

As a teacher, I’m glad to see legitimate ways for students to increase their essay word count instead of all the “tricks” students don’t think we know, but we do. Adding random words in white so it appears the word count is higher than it is doesn’t work because we know approximately how many pages the assignment should be. Best to actually do the work!

You are the exception. I have a great way to increase word count when I’m short on words. I will write a bunch of random text at the end of the essay, then change it to white so you can’t see it even though it’s there. Now the teacher thinks you have written the required word count. Brilliant! Teachers are so clueless that this works 100% of the time. Now you will never be under your word count and you don’t have to write a bunch of filler crap that isn’t needed. You can thank me later.

To add onto this, feel free to change the font size of the white text to fit in more words into less space.

There must be so many students who come to this article for the exact same reason as I did. (“hi” all you sleep-deprived people) I’m 500 words short on my essay and I need to figure out how to make it longer before tomorrow’s class. thank you for this list of ideas. I think I’ll be able to incorporate a few of them to make my essay long enough to reach the word count.

Yes, this is the exact reason I’m here, but I need to add 600 words to my essay. Why do teachers make the assignments so long when there is only a limited amount to say on the given topic?

I’m one of those looking for a way to extend an essay by 300 words when I’ve already said everything there is to say on the topic. I guess I’ll add a lot of useless quotes just to satisfy the teacher.

I think attitude has a lot to do with it. If you’re writing an essay you have little to no interest in writing, it’s much more difficult to write it and reach the word count. If it’s something you have a lot of interest in, then the issue is usually staying beneath the word count limit. One of the best ways to increase word count on essays is to take an interest in the topic. If you learn to become more curious and have an interest in things that may not at first seem to be interesting, you’ll be surprised at how much easier it is to write essays and to always reach the designated word count.

That easy to say and all, what if your teacher assigns you a topic? And what if that topic is totally boring? It’s hard to write about things that are boring and you have no interest in, so of course it’s going to be difficult to reach the word count. If you’re in school, you have to write with the teacher tells you to write, not what interests you. So your suggestion sounds good and all, but in reality we don’t have that choice.

I think the best way to increase the word count of an essay is to add more examples. This clarifies what you’re trying to say which adds value to the essay so anyone reading will understand exactly the point you want to get across. All my friends are bad at giving examples, but I am good and I’m always going over the word count while they are always under.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. My entire essay is almost only quotes. This is the easiest way to make your essay meet word count. Just put in a lot of quotes and you’ll get there in no time.

It maybe the easiest way to increase your word count, but if your entire essay is all quotes you probably aren’t going to get a very good grade on it. Quotes should be used to support the points that you’re trying to make, but they shouldn’t be your entire essay. If you want to do well in school, you have to know the difference between these two.

This is lazy writing. It will not help you become better in the long run, and the teacher will see what you’ve done and mark down your paper. The easiest way is often not the best way to approach increasing an essay word count.

Cite every single quote in a bibliography at the bottom to make the word count huge.

This is really a skill that every teacher should teach their students. Not just assign an essay, but explain how the steps they need to take to reach a word count. It would be a great benefit to most students (I know some students are wordy and always hit their word count, but most of us don’t). I wish teachers cared enough to actually help us.

On almost any topic you care to mention volumes have been written. To imagine you have covered the topic fully and still be 500-600 words short of required count is ridiculous. The idea that the shortfall is due to the clarity of your arguments or exceptional command of language & vocabulary is laughable in most cases.

If it’s too short, it lacks content. Do more research.

The quality of your writing may suggest you are the love child of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, but if it doesn’t cover the assignment material you won’t get the marks.

Teachers know the key points they expect to be covered on an assignment and allow a word allocation for each point, as well as marks allocation.

For example, a 1,000 word requirement may indicate a short intro and conclusion and 4 x 200 word key points.

You might be able to work out the scheme by reviewing assignments where you scored well. How many key points did you make, compared to word count?

Word count = 170.

Not everyone is born with the ability to write or enjoys writing, so sometimes it can be extremely hard to write a long essay. These tips surely did help a lot. I would also suggest learning enjoy writing more. If you like to do it, it should be easier to do.

how do you learn to like something? either you like it or you don’t.

HEy! you stole my name!!!

Any teachers out there? Why exactly do assignments have a minimum and maximum word count assigned? Is it for the students’ benefit or the teachers? I’m curious as it would seem that word count shouldn’t really matter, but that actual writing for the assignment. I waiting to hear a good answer to this question.

Word count forces students to be more concise in their writing and focus on the most important points. Minimum word counts make the student research more to find alternative supporting evidence they may have overlooked without it.

If you can’t increase your word count, you don’t know what you’re writing about well enough. There should be no issue writing about any topic up to 5000 words as long as you are familiar with the topic. If you find you don’t have enough to write about something, it’s because you haven’t taken the time to study the topic well enough.

This isn’t true. Sometimes you don’t need a lot of words to cover the topic at hand and adding more words just to increase word count does nothing but add unneeded words. Sure, you can add the words, but they are useless and don’t make the essay better. Why would anyone want to do that?

Where did you get this Bogus Idea, I’ve been trying to finish an essay and I love the topic we’re doing, but it’s almost impossible to write 2500 words on it, and according to your logic “There should be no issue writing about any topic up to 5000 words” that’s a lie.

I stumbled upon this and it’s been helpful, but are there other ways to increase word count? I still have about 500 more words to write.

Any teachers out there? Why exactly do assignments have a minimum and maximum word count assigned? Is it for the students’ benefit or the teachers? I’m curious as it would seem that word count shouldn’t really matter, but that actual writing for the assignment

As teachers, we know approximately how long an essay should be to get the points across for that particular assignment. That is why we assign a word count. If the student is well under they have not explored the topic in-depth enough and if they are well over, they are being too wordy.

Still you don’t need a word count, just let the kids try and let them be creative 😒!

But wouldn’t addressing the prompt in fewer words than assigned show that the student is smarter? Why spend 1000 words saying something that’s equally if not more so effective in 500 words?

“if they are well over, they are being too wordy.”

Now here’s something *I* don’t get. I can understand being “wordy” as something bad if it’s a student looking in a thesaurus to make every word more complicated, but I’ve done essays where I’ve covered all the points related to the topic I wanted to talk about, delivered them with examples and references where needed, and accidentally gone over the word limit to where I either have to make my essay weaker to not get points taken off OR get points taken off for being “wordy”? Why??

Hello Prince Charming! Come and Save Me from School Please! NOW!!!

The best way to increase a paper’s word count is to do more research. The more research you do, the more information you’ll have, and the more you can write on the topic.

Look, everyone has a different opinions about Word Counts, I really don’t like word counts but I do the essay anyways! So quit complaining!

Or at the bottom of your essay type a bunch of random letters like this mkfneofheoughero; then turn that to a white font.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!

you sir are a genius

well yes, genius solution, but uh— that’s cheating.

But like what if we have a page count minimum and the teacher can see if the page is full or not?

This helped a lot, thank you so much!! I don’t understand what it is with teachers and word-count. I’ve heard some teachers say, “When you become a teacher, you’ll understand why we give word counts” and I guess I do. It’s to make sure you covered all of the criteria and stuff. But If my essay word count is 800 words, and I’ve only written 300 and gotten my point across, why do I have to be marked down for it? I am in year 9 at school and I have a Geography essay due in last period today about biomes. I have gotten my point across and now I have to fluff about writing another 500 words. Thanks again, and wish me luck! 🙂

Bruh. You ain’t seen nothing yet. English 1301 has KILLED me. I’m 1500 words short….

bruh im currently 1500 words short on a 1500 word essay due tomorrow 🙁

All of you guys are complaining about essays of 2000 words or less, but I have to write a 25 000 word essay, in three weeks, which really isn’t that hard. I, for one, enjoy writing essays, but be lucky that you don’t have them of this length to write 😉

That’s not an essay it’s a book.

Actually, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone is 76,944, and that is the average length for a book so 25,000, is more like a 4 chapter fanfic…

I’ve never been a teacher but have been a university student. Personally, I get very uncomfortable when word counts aren’t given, because the fact is that the professor likely has a quiet expectation on the issue. I don’t want to try to have to hit that count by inference.

How one structures his essay depends on that word count (2000 v 3000 maybe not so much but say 1000 v 5000 is quite different). I’d like to know what kind of essay he wants.

heh, I once passed an essay online which had a minimum word count I just added random gibberish to the end in a white font to conceal it with tiny font size. try that if u really have to.

I have an idea – write a few words after each paragraph and make them white. The teacher will never know… 🙂

I think the refrigorator eat windows and the good skull

i’m 6 pages short on a compare/contrast religion paper focused around love that is due on tuesday. i have already gone over the five religions and though i need more substance (6 pages more), i don’t want to add so much that it’s just an information dump. my three options that i can see right now are: start over with a similar topic so i don’t have to just scrap everything, add more anyway, or just finish it and turn it in under the requirement but with good writing. what should i do?? do i have any other options??

use double space😂😁

i came across this because this is literally my problem now. well…

all i need is 12 more words! thats why i came to this website!

i only have 600 word for nuclear reactors i’m amazed how u guys can do 1000+ word without your brain exploding.

If i had a 2500 Word count minimum. I would die.

i love how everyone’s arguing on a blog. not complaining tho!

most of you are in college and are fussing about 1000 word essays meanwhile me still in middle school having to do 4-5 pages aka more than 1000 words

Word counts ‘work’ until students learn to hate writing, because only their word counts — not their points — matter.

UGH….. I’ve done this already and I still have 200 words to go! 🙁 It was pretty amusing to read through the comments saying someone is in Highschool or College and be like “Sucker, I’m still in Junior High”. RIP.

I had the best time reading your argument before I finished my essay thanks for the good times. 🙂

The word count at my University is a maximum word count, not a minimum. The word count is there to suggest the level of detail we’re expected to go into. For example, my last essay had a 2,500 word maximum. I could easily have written a 10,000 word dissertation or a 100 word summary. For the detail expected. I ended up with 2,464 words. If you’re writing 1,000 words for a 2,500 word essay, even if that seems OK to you, you’ve not added enough detail.

oh my god, this was SO helpful you dont understand how much this page helped me. Thank You!!!

if you have ever bean a teacher you would under stand why word counts exist jk I think text matters more than the amount of words

Im only in the 8th grade, we are righting an essay right now about the holocaust, we have to write 12 PAGES!! WHAT. i can explain it in a page or two😩

When writing a essay you got to stay on topic make sure you proofread and using correct grammar

word counts make me sad

me reading the comments in 2024 🙂 cuz i hate essay as well.

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How To Reduce Word Count In Your Dissertation, Thesis Or Academics Assignments

(without losing those precious marks).

If you follow some of the advice on this blog, chances are one of your biggest challenges is keeping your academic writing projects within the specified word count limits. It’s a good problem to have (at least compared to having not enough to say), and in this post, I’ll discuss 4 steps to reduce word count without risking losing marks.

First things first – write to think.

Before I get started, it’s worth making an important point regarding writing in general. There are essentially two ways to think about the process of writing :

• Writing as the outcome of thinking – in other words, you think deeply first, construct your argument, and then simply transfer it to paper by way of writing. You do little revising.
• Writing as a form of thinking – in other words, writing helps you flesh out your thinking and develop your arguments. Writing is an iterative process, wherein you might revise numerous times and even rewrite altogether, but this all contributes to a better quality of thinking.

Which side of the fence do you sit on? I’m an avid advocate of the latter perspective and approach – and I’m not alone. Numerous books and journal articles have covered the topic of “writing as thinking”. If the idea interests you, have a look at Henning’s “Finding your way in academic writing.”

In short, putting pen to paper as early as possible (i.e. before you feel “ready”) and then revising as your thoughts develop (as a result of writing) is an excellent way to improve the overall quality of your arguments and academic work. To do this, you cannot constantly fret over word count (at least not while you’re writing). Instead, you need to let the words flow onto paper, and then sort the wheat from the chaff at a later stage. Sure, you need some constraints, but forcing yourself to apply X model within 350 words is going to stifle your flow and limit your depth. Rather let your thoughts flow onto paper, and then trim them down once your thinking is fully fleshed out.

What does this have to do with reducing your word count? It means that word count reduction (particularly, the techniques I’ll cover below) is something you do once you’ve wrapped up your writing, not while you write . Accordingly, all the steps I’ll propose here are to be applied after the fact.

Right, let’s get into it. Follow these 4 steps (in this order) to strategically reduce your word count without losing the “meat” of your assignment/dissertation.

Step 1: Audit for purely descriptive content.

Broadly speaking, content can fall into one of two categories – descriptive or analytical.  Simply put, descriptive content eludes to the “what”, whereas analytical content describes the impact and consequence of the event/factor/situation – in other words, the “so what”. The table below highlights some of the differences between the two:

Ideally, you should try to keep your discussion analytical, rather than descriptive ( read more about this here ). There’s always be a need for some descriptive content, but ideally, this should be limited to only that content which forms the foundation for analytical content. Therefore, the first step of word count reduction is to audit for descriptive content which does not lead to analytical content . In other words, content which is purely descriptive, and is not required to get to the “so what?” content.

Read through your dissertation/thesis/assignment and trim out all content that doesn’t make the analytical cut , or doesn’t form a foundation for analysis. This is your first target – be aggressive with your trimming. Descriptive writing is pure fat and will not earn you marks – kill it!

Step 2: Audit for content which does not contribute towards answering your research question(s).

One of the reasons that it’s so important to set unambiguous research questions in your introduction is that this practice allows you to ringfence the focus of your work. In other words, it helps you to narrow the discussion to only that which is most relevant.

That said, as you write, you will invariably produce a fair deal of content that does not contribute towards your research questions . You’ll naturally digress into an interesting but irrelevant discussion about A, B and C – this might be very intellectually satisfying, but it doesn’t contribute to answering your research question. Therefore, this sort of content is your next target. Re-read your document from start to finish through the lens of your research questions or objectives. That which does not in some way contribute to answering the research question(s) or achieving the objective(s) must go .

Step 3: Audit for overly-detailed section summaries.

A good piece of academic writing should always feature summary paragraphs that link the end of one section/chapter to the beginning of the next. They should do this by summarising the key points of the former to the direction and purpose of the latter. For example:

“In this section, the analysis revealed that the key contributors to the issue included A, B and C. Accordingly, these factors will be analysed in the next chapter.”

By stating this link very clearly, you help the reader (marker) to understand your argument (which is, after all, completely new to them), which in turn helps you earn marks. Therefore, these summary sections are important. However, they can become wordy and repetitive, and you should, therefore, audit them.

Make sure that they are summarising only the absolute highlights of your argument and providing a clear, well-justified link to the next section. Don’t restate your entire chapter. The example above is what you should aim for, namely:

• Key observations/insights/highlights – followed by
• Logical link to next section

If you are extremely over word count, you may even consider removing these sections altogether. After all, it is better to remove summary content than core content. This should, however, be an absolute last resort as doing so can seriously reduce the overall flow of your document and blur the “golden thread” of your argument(s).

Step 4: Audit for wordy, bloated discussion.

This is the easiest of the four steps, and typically what most students look for when trying to reduce word count – but it usually has a comparatively minor impact. Therefore, I’m positioning it as the last step.

Naturally, your dissertation, thesis or assignment document will contain sections which are just plain wordy. This is a result of “writing as thinking” (whether you agree with the approach or not!). Therefore, the last step is to audit for sentences and paragraphs which are just plain wordy and rewrite them more concisely.

Some common trimming opportunities:

• Adjectives and adverbs – although these are sometimes necessary when developing your arguments, they are often just bloat contributors. Additionally, they can create an emotive, subjective tone, which is typically not encouraged in academic writing (where objectivity is essential).
• The word “that” – oftentimes, a sentence can communicate the same point without the inclusion of the word “that”. Use Word’s find function (Ctrl+F) to search for “that” and check where it can be omitted.
• Spaces around mathematical operators – if you’re copying numbers from Excel, chances are there are spaces between mathematical operators which can be removed. For example, p < 0.05 (3 words) can be reduced to p<0.05 (1 word).
• Abbreviate/acronymise repetitive phrases/names – if you’re repeatedly referring to a person(s) or organisation(s) that have multi-word names, create acronyms for them and replace all instances with the acronymised version. For example, “Blue Basket Enterprises” (3 words) can be replaced with “BBE” (1 word). Make sure you introduce the acronym early in the document and consider presenting a list of abbreviations. A word of warning – don’t overuse this tactic, as too many acronyms can make it difficult for the reader to understand what’s going on!

Wrapping up.

There you have it – four steps to reduce your word count without losing your core arguments. To recap, you need to:

• Audit for descriptive (rather than analytical) content.
• Audit for content which doesn’t link to the research question(s)/aim(s).
• Audit for overly detailed section summaries.
• Audit for general wordiness and bloat.

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How to Include a Word Count in Your Essay: A Step-by-Step Guide

Including a word count in your essay may seem like a small detail, but it’s an important part of meeting your assignment’s requirements. Luckily, it’s a simple process that can be accomplished in just a few steps. By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly how to add that word count with ease.

Step by Step Tutorial: Including a Word Count in an Essay

Before we dive into the steps, let’s talk about why you might need to include a word count in your essay. Sometimes, your teacher or professor will ask for this to make sure you’re meeting the length requirements for the assignment. Plus, it shows that you’re following directions and paying attention to detail.

Step 1: Finish Writing Your Essay

Complete your essay before you worry about the word count.

After you’ve finished writing your essay, you’ll have the final word count that you need to include. This is important because if you add the word count before you’re done, you might end up with the wrong number.

Step 2: Use a Word Processor’s Word Count Feature

Locate and use the word count tool in your word processor to find out the total number of words in your essay.

Most word processors, like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, have a built-in feature that automatically counts the words in your document. This is the easiest and most accurate way to find your word count.

Step 3: Place the Word Count at the End of Your Essay

Type out the word count at the end of your essay, usually after the conclusion.

Once you have your word count, you’ll need to decide where to place it in your essay. The standard practice is to include it at the end of your document, typically after the conclusion section.

After completing these steps, your essay will have the required word count clearly displayed. This not only meets the assignment’s guidelines but also gives a professional touch to your work.

Tips for Including a Word Count in an Essay

• Always double-check the word count to ensure accuracy.
• Include the word count on the same page as your essay, not on a separate page.
• If your teacher has specific instructions on where to place the word count, follow them.
• Don’t include the title page, headers, footers, or bibliography in your word count unless instructed.
• Use the word count feature periodically as you write to keep track of your essay’s length.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do i include the word count in the header or footer.

No, the word count should be included in the main body of your essay, typically at the end.

Including the word count in the main body makes it easily visible to the reader and ensures it’s seen as part of the essay’s content.

Should the word count be bolded or in a different font?

The word count does not need to be bolded or in a different font, but it should be clear and easy to find.

Keeping the word count in the same font as your essay maintains consistency and prevents it from being distracting.

What if my essay is under or over the word count?

If your essay does not meet the required word count, you may need to add more content or edit for brevity.

Always aim to meet the word count requirements as closely as possible, as this is often a key component of the assignment.

Can I include the word count in the middle of my essay?

It’s best to include the word count at the end of your essay to avoid disrupting the flow of your writing.

Placing the word count at the end maintains the structure of your essay and keeps the focus on the content.

What if my word processor doesn’t have a word count feature?

If your word processor lacks a word count feature, you can use online tools or manually count the words.

Online tools can provide an accurate word count, but if you’re counting manually, be thorough to avoid mistakes.

• Finish writing your essay.
• Use your word processor’s word count feature.
• Place the word count at the end of your essay.

Including a word count in your essay is a breeze once you know the steps. It boils down to finishing your essay, utilizing your word processor’s tool, and placing the count where it’s easily found. This simple act of including a word count not only ensures you’re meeting the requirements but also adds a professional touch to your work. While it might seem like a minor detail, it’s one that can have a big impact on how your essay is received. So, the next time you’re asked to include a word count, you’ll know exactly what to do. Remember, attention to detail can make all the difference in your writing. Now go ahead and hit that word count target like a pro!

Matt Jacobs has been working as an IT consultant for small businesses since receiving his Master’s degree in 2003. While he still does some consulting work, his primary focus now is on creating technology support content for SupportYourTech.com.

His work can be found on many websites and focuses on topics such as Microsoft Office, Apple devices, Android devices, Photoshop, and more.

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7 Word Count Tips for Clear, Powerful Academic Writing

Maximum word limits are a pain in the butt. It’s kinda soul destroying to have to cut all the beautiful words you’ve just spent hours writing.

But they are there for a reason.

Word limits force you to write concisely so you can answer the question well without wasting words. I often felt like there was no way I could cut enough from my word count but, using my techniques below, I always managed to and the end result was a clearer, more powerful piece of writing.

In this blog post you’ll discover:

• Why you should cut the fluff from your writing
• Why you should try to reduce your word count
• 7 simple techniques to improve your writing today

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Create your own simple, productive study plan in just a few minutes , so you can boost your motivation and focus, get more done in less time , and make faster progress towards your dream university grades .

Your goal isn’t to write a literary masterpiece. You won’t get higher marks for knocking your tutor’s socks off with your elegant prose.

Instead – you need to get your ideas down on paper in the least amount of words possible. While your writing may seem less pleasant to read, your tutor will appreciate de-bloated writing…and you should gain higher marks.

Benefits of reducing your word count and improving the clarity of your writing:

• Your ability to control your language will give the reader the impression you are intelligent and educated
• Clear writing will help the reader understand your ideas and argument
• Cutting the fluff will allow you to include more valuable points so you can score the highest mark possible

If you manage to cut 100 words from an essay by using these tips, that’s 100 extra words to answer the question. Those 100 spare words could be used to craft seven or eight kick ass sentences that could gain you the marks needed to push you to the next grade.

7 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Word Count

1. get rid of redundant modifiers.

The use of redundant modifiers has crept into our everyday language so they’re hard to spot. Marketing messages often include redundant modifiers to attempt to add effect, such as, ‘ very unique ’. If something is ‘ unique ’ it is one of a kind. Adding ‘ very ’ does nothing to the meaning, adds an extra word and just sounds silly if you think about it. The same applies to the examples, ‘ added bonus ’ or ‘ absolutely certain ’.

Look through your writing to see if you’ve included any redundant modifiers. After awhile you’ll get in the habit of not using them.

Here's some examples you can edit to reduce your word count

Absolutely certain > certain

Added bonus > bonus

Basic essentials > essentials

Complete monopoly of the market > monopoly of the market

Crystal clear > clear

End result > result

Exact same > exact/same

Final outcome > outcome

Immediate vicinity > vicinity

Major breakthrough > breakthrough

Make plans in advance > make plans

New initiative > initiative

Natural instinct > instinct

Over exaggerate > exaggerate

Past experience > experience

Past memories > memories

Personal opinion > opinion

Postpone until later > postpone

Revert back > revert

Top priority > priority

True fact > fact

Very unique > unique

Weather conditions > weather

Written down > written

2. De-bloat your inflated phrases

Similarly, there are probably instances where you’re using two, three or four words where one would do. These can take a few edits to pick up but once removed your word count and clarity are improved pretty quickly.

Are indications of > indicates

At all times > always

At the present time > at present/currently/now

Collaborate/join together > collaborate/join

Completely ruined > devastated

Concerning the matter of > about

Despite the fact that > although

Due to the fact that > because

During the course of > during

For the purpose of > for

Has a tendency to > tends

Has knowledge of > knows

Has the ability to > can

In a situation in which > when

In order to > to/so that

In the event that > if

It is necessary that > must/should

On the other hand > conversely

On two separate occasions > twice

The majority of > most

There is a chance that > may/might/could

Until such time as > until

What the organisation aims to do is > the organisation aims to

Whether or not > whether

Will provide a summary > will summarise

With regards to > about

3. Redundant categories

Some people have a tendency to state an attribute or characteristic and then, perhaps in an effort to be more accurate, state its category too. For example, ‘ blue in colour ’ should just be ‘ blue ’. ‘ Small in size ’ should just be ‘ small ’. Remove these in your writing and sound smarter.

Attractive in appearance > attractive

Blue in colour > blue

Heavy in weight > heavy

Honest in character > honest

In a confused state > confused

Of a strange type > strange

Of cheap quality > cheap

Period in time > period

Small in size > small

Unusual in nature > unusual

4. Remove ‘that’

Some words take up precious word count but add nothing. The most common is ‘ that ’ which is fairly harmless but, over the course of an entire essay, could increase the word count. You won’t always be able to remove ‘ that ’ and maintain clarity, but search your document and see if removing them alters the meaning of the sentence.

Ensure that you make relevant use of both articles

This is the book that she wrote

The report that was approved by the board

I want to buy that car

5. Delete adverbs

Adverbs can weaken academic writing by detracting from what is being said. Using adverbs frequently will bloat your writing and can disrupt a reader’s flow. Don’t add a descriptive word to a verb, instead just use a descriptive verb. For example, ‘ dropped rapidly ’ can become ‘ plummeted ’.

Search your text for the word ‘ very ’ or adverbs ending in ‘ ly’ and see if they can be replaced while maintaining clarity.

Eat noisily > gulp

Drop rapidly > plummet

Look angrily > scowl

Run quickly > sprint

Say quietly > whisper

Very big > enormous

Very tired > exhausted

6. Eliminate redundant pairings

The English language is so rich we often have too many words to choose from . Rather than choosing one and sticking to it we tend to pile them on top of each other. A simple idea can quickly become a bloated sentence filled with pointless words.

Look out for some of the examples below and shorten them to reduce the word count but maintain clarity

(Also do this where you’ve created your own list of descriptive or explanatory words.)

First and foremost

Hope and trust

Each and every

So on and do forth

Over and done with

One and only

Few and far between

Peace and quiet

Hope and desire

Tidy and presentable

7. Remove ‘helping words’

This technique can take a little practice to implement but it can reduce your word count quickly. Sentences including words in the form of ‘ be ’ or ‘ have ’ can often be edited and rearranged to reduce word count and add clarity. Check your writing for these sentences.

First, one has to analyse the situation > first, analyse the situation

The report was prepared by Psychology students > Psychology students prepared the report

This report has been prepared to analyse… > this report analyses/aims to analyse…

His duties were classified in the report > the report classified his duties.

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How-To Geek

How to check the word count in microsoft word.

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How to check the word count in microsoft word for windows, how to check the word count in microsoft word for mac, key takeaways.

Look in the bottom-left corner of the Microsoft Word window to see the word count of an entire document. To view the word count for a specific section of text, select the text with your cursor, and then look at the bottom-left corner of the window.

Depending on what you're working on, such as an essay for a school assignment, you may have a specific word count you must reach (or not exceed). You can quickly tell what the current word count is in Microsoft Word.

You can get the word count for your entire Word document, or you can get the word count of just a specific section in Word for Windows.

Get the Word Count of an Entire Document

The easiest way to get the word count of your entire Word document is to simply check the status bar, as the word count is displayed by default. You can find the word count to the left of the status bar at the bottom of the window.

If you're not seeing the word count in the status bar, it may have been previously disabled. You can bring the word count back by right-clicking any area of the status bar and then choosing "Word Count" from the context menu.

Alternatively, to get the word count, click the "Review" tab, and then choose "Word Count" in the Proofing group.

The Word Count dialog box will appear. You can find the word count next to Words.

Get the Word Count of a Specific Section of a Document

You can also get the word count of a specific section in a Word document. This is useful if you need to keep the entire word document within a certain word count but you feel you're being too wordy in a specific section.

All you need to do is highlight the section of the document you want to get the word count of by clicking and dragging your mouse over the text. Once highlighted, the selected word count will appear in the status bar in an x of y format--x being the selected word count and y being the total word count of the document.

Or, highlight the text you want to get the word count of, click "Word Count" in the "Review" tab, and then check the number next to Words in the dialog box.

You can also get the word count of an entire Word document (or just a specific section) on Mac. The process is similar to that of Windows.

To get the word count of your entire Word doc, just check the word count to the left of the status bar at the bottom of the window. The word count feature is added here by default.

If you don't see the word count, it may have been previously disabled. You can bring it back by right-clicking anywhere on the status bar and then selecting "Word Count" from the context menu that appears.

You can also get the word count of the document by clicking "Tools" in the header menu and then choosing "Word Count."

The word count is displayed next to Words.

You can also get the word count of a specific section. To do this, highlight the text you want to get the word count of by clicking and dragging your cursor over the text. Once selected, check the word count in the status bar. The first number represents the selected word count.

Or, open the Word Count dialog box (Tools > Word Count) and then check the number next to Words.

Getting the word count isn't the only feature available in Word. You can also get the page, character, paragraph, and line count , and see how long you've been working on a document . If you want, you can even insert the word count of your document into the document itself!

Related: How to Insert a Word Count into Your Word Document

• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Word

3 Easy-to-Use Tools to Count Your Words

by Joe Bunting | 38 comments

So you need to get a word count for the latest chapter of your novel or an essay assignment for school ? Don't worry, here are three easy-to-use tools to count your words.

Need to get a word count on your latest writing project? Here are three tools that can help.

Why Count Words?

If you're an experienced writer, this might already be obvious to you. However, if you're new to writing, you need to know that keeping track of your word count is a central habit of a writer.

You count words for two main reasons.

1. Because Publishers Count Words

In school, writing assignments are usually measured by page length (e.g. please turn in a three-page essay on Jane Austen's use of satire in Emma by Friday ).

However, measuring by page-length is inaccurate and, in many cases, unhelpful. Font, spacing, and formatting changes can alter the number of pages, and if you're writing a newspaper, magazine, or book, the pages will be in a variety of different sizes anyway. Measuring by word count, on the other hand, is consistent.

Furthermore, publishers often pay on a per-word basis, and so it makes sense for professional writers to keep track of how many words they write.

But what if you're not a professional writer? Why should you count words then?

2. Counting Words Can Motivate You

Many famous writers have kept daily word count goals. Ernest Hemingway is reported to have written 500 words per day. Stephen King writes 2,000 words per day, even on holidays. Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope wrote 3,000 words per day.

Setting a daily word count goal can inspire you.

One of the best known word count goals is  NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month). Every November, thousands of writers challenge themselves to write 50,000 words in a month (that's 1,667 words per day, by the way).

Another resource for writers is my friend Jeff Goins' 500 Words a Day Challenge , which is a 31-day writing challenge that over a thousand writers have participated in.

3 Tools to Count Words

How do you keep an accurate word count?

1. Count Words With Microsoft Word

The most-widely used word processor makes it easy to count your words.

On Windows , there are two ways to see the word count. On the Review tab, just next to Spelling and Grammar Check, and on the home ribbon beside the page number.

On Mac , you can find the word count under Tools -> Word Count.

2. Take Word Counts to the Next Level With Scrivener

While Microsoft Word is a decent word processor for writing essays and articles, if you're writing a novel or book, you need a more powerful tool.

Scrivener  is a perfect tool for finding your word count because it not only keeps your word count visible, it allows you to track your daily word count and the word count for your entire project. You can learn more about Scrivener on our review here .

In Scrivener, you can set the project targets to your daily word count and track your progress. Also, notice the word count visible at the bottom of the application.

3. A Fast, Online Word Counter

If you don't have access to either of these tools, you can find, free online word counters. One of the best, in my opinion, is  WordCounter.net .

Word Counter is a free, online word count tool.

Challenge Yourself to Write 1,000 Words Today

These tools can change your life.

How would your life be different if you challenged yourself to write 1,000 words a day? ( Share that challenge on Twitter )

Even if you took the weekends off, in just a month, you would have 22,000 words. In six months, you would have written 132,000 words, easily enough for a long novel. After the first year, you could have written  two  books.

It starts by taking just a few seconds to track your words.

Do you have a daily word count goal? What is it?

Write 1,000 words today. Keep track using one of the tools above.

When you're finished, share your best 250 words in the comments section below . And if you share, please be sure to give feedback on a few practices by other writers.

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

38 Comments

I participated In NaNoWriMo myself. My novel concluded before I reached the word count but it was still a great experience. I’ll have to post my practice later when I have time. (WOOT FIRST COMMENT)

Nice, Miriam. That’s a huge accomplishment. Also, way to get in first! 🙂

The following is EXACTLY 250 words:

I never lied before I worked here. It started with little comments, like telling a caller the boss, Robert, wasn’t in, when he was on a personal call. Next I found myself assuring a caller that our Director of Marketing had sent out the requested materials the previous Friday, when in fact Hannah had returned from lunch drunk, passed out in the lobby, and we called her husband and told him to take her home.

People tell you, “The watched pot never boils”, meaning some things happen so imperceptibly, that if you dedicate yourself to watching for the smallest advance, you’ll never see it. The lesson, I suppose, is that it won’t do any good to watch a process too closely, as there is nothing to see.

I wonder if maybe people are getting this lesson backwards. If something can happen slowly and nearly undetectably to the naked eye, then shouldn’t we watch it very, very vigilantly, to catch it before it boils over? That’s how the lying exploded. Over time Robert and Hannah escalated their expectations of us, that we say any damn thing they wanted us to say, to get them out of their chronic bungling.

That is how, today, I found myself insisting to that nice man, Tom Contreras, that Robert could not meet with him. I gave him my best “trust me, would I lie to you” smile, and convinced him he had made a grievous error, and his appointment had been for the prior day.

This is so true. After a while and after being asked to do it over and over, we are able to block even the slightest twinge of guilt. I like your line: …trust me, would I lie to you. Nice piece.

Thank you 😉

Wow this is so good, Avril. I loved the way you combine story with psychological observation so deftly. And I really like the way you bring us into the lives of these characters so completely in just a few paragraphs. Great job!

Thank you for the compliment and encouragement Joe.

Wow this is really good Avril. I love the way it sounds when I read it. Great job!

Thank you Miriam. The feedback from you and Joe today is especially helpful as I hone in on my “voice.”

It is only 811 words. Hope that’s enough. Thanks for yet another great prompt.

2012 Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, California, is a tri-era promenade: pre-earthquake, early post-quake, and now. Something to note as you look up and down the stretches of the Pacific Garden Mall. Parts of each era remain and shoulder up, intermingled and interwoven, in a strange dichotomy of style and sensibilities, palpable to six senses – senses that must include “feel.” Before the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, old family businesses struggled against a fluctuating economy and decay – Leask’s, Ford’s, the stately Cooper House, the Hihn Building – only to disappear into quake rubble and oblivion. From the earthquake ruins, the silent overgrown lots have slowly and painfully risen, Phoenix-like, to house modern replicas and buildings, saved from demolition, clothed in new paint, giving concrete testament to the power of Mother Nature’s onslaught.

It looks somewhat new, somewhat tidy, with new business owners, full of dreams, bringing new energy, unaware of the strange angles. It’s all here, the very Gen X storefronts of The Gap, Border’s, Starbuck’s, Cinema 9 and the upper-storied upper-classed condos to old fringe establishments – Logo’s, The Avenue Bar, Book Shop Santa Cruz – and the eminent Santa Cruz elder statesmen – Del Williams, The Del Mar Theater, The Palomar Hotel, Annieglass. The sun has slipped below the rooflines of the Cooper House across the street, giving the street a bluish cast, and the wind swirls, scuttling the dry leaves of late summer and wafting in the briny smell of the sea.

From my vantage perched high on a coffee shop stool, I pull on my sweater and watch and reflect. While much has changed in the last twenty-four years, much remains the same in this funny, strangely odd little place on Planet Earth. The city fathers have looked to upscale the look of this funky street, yet the fringe folks looking for attention or a handout – homeless street people, mentally ill who have slipped through the cracks, angry young people, savvy panhandlers – remain entrenched, some living in alleyways, doorways, and the lush underbrush of this tourist mecca by night and by day claiming a butt-sized patch of sidewalk. With hats and instrument cases open wide, ragged street musicians, some phenomenally talented troupes of drummers from some other cultures and guitar players belting protest songs, stake out street corners and make this city inhale and exhale. I remember the tiny ancient fiddler who played off-key, who died last year, and I wonder about the strange man in the pink tutu and tights, with matching umbrella, who, in scuffed ballet shoes, shuffled up and down the sidewalk in slow motion, his gaze unwavering, daring you to look away first.

Fast forward to today. September 2014. Border’s is no longer. Forever 21, in eight-foot letters, is now emblazoned on the storefront. Del Williams Jewelry is but a memory. They were always able to locate the elusive replacement for broken treasures. Other business, too, are no longer a presence on the Garden Mall promenade. The economy has taken its toll here and everywhere. Starbuck’s and Peet’s, along with some local coffee beaneries, have customers bulging from their sticky doors, while the protesters of conditions and wages sport signs outside. The pan-handlers still hassle the diners who shovel in ethnic foods served in sidewalk cafes. The street musicians remain, despite the white-washed façade put on the buildings rimming the street, and they produce some of the best music you’ll hear. Life vibrates through the tree-named streets that surround the Garden Mall – Cedar, Walnut, Laurel – despite the few empty lots of weeds as tall as a man dotted here and there. Life vibrates and hums. The young people gather and spill into surf shops that tout the best wetsuits, the most chic attire. Cinema 9 has eleven screens, and on opening nights lines run around the corner and past the ATM machines for Bay Federal Credit Union. Yes, life’s heart still beats here.

A few feet from my perch sits a young woman, maybe 19 or so, a street person, asking passersby for spare change. Her voice is harsh, and she barks a “fuck you” to a man who spat some words at her. Hunched against the late afternoon chill and the taunt tossed from his retreating lips, she leans against the building and sucks in a sigh, herself complicit in his response. She knows it.

When she arrived here, she was undoubtedly full of dreams, as all those absent business owners must have been, too. Once optimism must have burned in her eager heart, as she made plans for a future here. Perhaps it still does, but it has burrowed itself deep inside, for time on the streets changes people, even the young ones. She’s alone, and, as night begins to fall in a strange town, I wonder if she feels the bony edges of fear.

I stuff my notebook in my bag, curl my hands around the steaming paper, and wander into the crowd.

Gosh Diane, this piece so effectively evokes that funky seaside town (I know, I’ve been there). This is nicely nuanced, you’ve drawn the personality of the neighborhood, how it looks and how it feels at street level. I’m familiar with the denizens already. I mean this ad a compliment, that it reminds me of one of my faves, Cannery Row by Steinbeck. Oh and the guy in the tutu, he’s from Fairfax.

Thank you, Avril, for reading my too many words and your kind words. Sorry. I didn’t read the instructions thoroughly. I am so happy that you know this little burg and recognize some of the landmarks. Fairfax? Really? We would always look for him when we fofund ourselves at the Garden Mall. Too funny. Again, thank you for reading.

Thank you, Avril, for taking the time to read my way-too-many-word piece and for your kind words. Next time I will read the instructions more carefully. I’m happy you recognized some of the landmarks of this little burg. It’s an interesting place, a place that engages all the senses. Fairfax? Really? My husband and I used to look for him every time we found ourselves on the Garden Mall. Again, thank you.

This place is not so much about the rules Diane, but about the encouragement to write. Writing more is always a good thing if you are on a roll! We’re glad you shared.

Very well done! Your description of the town, the people, the changes, everything create a living, moving video in my mind. I feel as if i’ve just been there myself. Adelaide

Thank you, Adelaide. I’m happy you were able to visit here for a little while. It’s a special place.

You’re a very good writer, Diane. The description here is perfect. I bet you had a lot of fun writing this!

I did have fun writing it, Joe, but it brought back a lot of unfun memories. Thank you for your encouraging words and for this wonderful site.

Wow amazing Diane. I could feel and see everything you described. Based off of this I feel that you’re going to be a great writer. Keep up the great work!

Thank you so much for your kind words, Miriam, and for taking the time to read the piece.

You made me feel as if I’d like to go there and experience it for myself. Vivid descriptions and emotions draw you in.

PI glazed my fingers over the peeling yellow with time flower wallpaper. My footsteps echoed though the enpty halls as the dust lifted from the ground. Silence filled the air one I would find at an funeral,quiet from neglect as if it was hiding a burning hatred for what I had did.

Rain slid down the clouded window pane and the pit pat in the roof sent a eiree chill down your spine. Memories followed my though the house as I breathed in the rich earthy smell of mothballs. Those memories wandered next to me hoping for me to look at them just to catch a fleeting look, toopen up the vault which I had buried them in.

This once was my childhood home where I spent long days and cold nights curled up asleep on my bed with dreams leading me into a false sense of security.

I took one last look around and shut the chipping word door. I sprinkled the last of the gasonle and struck a match, soon the house set fire, the flames licking the night sky as the stars twinkled in the inky blackness as the fire crackled from the heat.

I sat back a blank expression on my face.

“That’s finally done.” I said. I started walking with the embers glowing brightly behind me casting shadows.

Now I know that is part of a good story. Nice twist to start off visiting the childhood home, then burn it down.

This needs some cleaning up for spelling and grammar (for a practice this is fine though), but I loved the way you evoked sensual details as the character paces through the house. There’s a lot going on here, and like Avril said, this seems like a small piece of a promising story. Well done!

Nice job Chloee. I’m intrigued as to where this will go next. Keep up the good work!

It holds my interest as to why she sets fire to her childhood home? What bad memories are hidden there? Like Joe pointed out. it needs careful editing for mistakes. Adelaide

Alright. So a few practices ago I posted about Angela.(the post “You Need to Ask this Question Every Time You Sit Down To Write” specifically) This is a continuation of that post. Here is my 250 words.

Groggy, disoriented, confused, I slowly awoke to my surroundings. The first thing that I became aware of was the pounding pain pushing through my skull. Questions like: Where am I? What happened? Why can’t I move? Rose in my mind.

I opened my eyes to closer examine my surroundings. The ceiling was bare cement and seemed to animate cold to the very marrow of my bones. I tried to move my head to look at the walls but found it fixed in place. Panic slowly began to rise within me like a poison. Slowly I began to remember what happened until it came back in a rush. My apartment, escape, Andrew, the emerald. Where is the emerald! Came my panicked thought.

Frantically I looked around the room with my eyes but came upon nothing. Calm down Angela think this through. No need to lose control. I thought about that night. Where had the emerald been then? In my desk… until I put it on. My eyes drifted to my chest in hopes of seeing it there. It was gone.

My alarm began to rise again as did my scolding thoughts. Angela you idiot! You should’ve left the emerald in its holding spot but no you had to be noble and put it on. Just then the door opened.

“Ah you’re awake.” Came Andrew’s voice. He walked to a chair somewhere behind me and, by the sound of it, took out a pen and paper. “Now to business. Where is the emerald?”

I didn’t know what I was going to write about when I began, but I was in our local diner so I began about a waitress. I don’t know if I did a 1,000 words because I write on a yellow pad and haven’t transcribed it all yet. This is as much as I’ve typed so far, about 350 words.

Edna knew her customers. She had been waitressing at the Loganville diner for 20 years, and she had served many of the customers for the same 20 years. They had grown old together. Some had died during those years; some had been born.

When Bob died Edna had taken stock of her situation: two children married, one grandchild and another expected, living miles away, an old house paid for, a small pension from Bob’s union, a moderate savings account, the interest of which she and Bob never touched.

“Let it grow,” Bob had said. When I’m gone you will need the interest to supplement my pension.”

Edna could have used the interest now, but Bob’s voice came back to her in those few weeks right after he died. “Let it grow.” So, she did and got a job at the diner.

“I never waitressed before,” she had told Fonda, the owner, “but I’m strong and a hard worker.

“Well…”

Edna almost heard the wheels spinning in his head as Fonda Metatakis thought it over. “Can you operate a cash register? They’re all computerized now.”

“I can use a computer, and I’m a quick learner.”

“Well… O.K. Part time to start, one to five in the afternoons at first, then maybe later full time.”

Edna suspected he gave her the job because Bob had died. Everyone in town knew it. Bob was always talking to people whether he knew them or not. and, if he didn’t, he soon did. Fonda probably thought she needed the money. She did, but it wasn’t until after she had asked for the job did she really know why. She would use this money for living expenses, as little as possible, and add the rest to her savings as a legacy for her grandchildren.

It was something she used to fantasize about when she was a child–a legacy left by some unknown relative or stranger because she had done a good deed. For a time she had gone out of her way to help strangers even if they really didn’t need it.

“Thank you Dear, but I can carry this package. It was kind of you to offer.”

It hadn’t been easy, but now and then her help had been accepted. she made sure to tell them her name and to get theirs. For years she had checked the obituaries regularly. Adelaide

I’m starting to think of all the other little stories she has been a part of over the years and what happens next. I enjoyed reading it Adelaide

Thank you, Ann. Adelaide

I like Edna. I wish I knew what was going to happen with her legacy she’d built up. A very interesting teaser, Adelaide.

As I read this I could picture the diner the regulars went to in my home town… Everyone knew everyone and came to tell stories and have coffee and breakfast. It would be interesting to see what some of the stories Edna had heard over the many years she had worked there.

When I get in the zone, I write 1,000 words in two hours. Most of the time, i’m procrastinating, so it’s usually 250 a day.

I use the tool http://wordcounttools.com and it works like a charm. Would you please help readers to revise the article and put it in?

If somebody is looking for reliable and new service for counting, I would suggest countwordsfree.com as the one to be look at. Stop words exclusion and original text pre-processing as well as possibility to load and save the text from/into file makes this portal universal and quite useful for writers and seo specialists.

image finding Pasteur here, away from my wall…………………………………

Pills and pigs – here’s my excerpt. 27 minutes to free-write 1067 words.

“Okay, there is this new pill out,” he said, “barely fresh from clinical trials. It’s a calming pick-me-upper. It works I’m told very well for people like you, although I don’t know anyone personally yet. You will be the first. And there are a few side effects. Want to be a guinea pig?

Well, sure, why not. What did I have to lose for a month’s free supply? The possibility of becoming an actual pig? Yep, that’s what the bottle says. But, hey, who are they fooling, how does a human become an animal? Besides, the results, they were glowing to say the least.

One day later. So I took the first pill – pink and round – upon rising as prescribed. By noon I seemed to have more energy than usual. I took a 3 mile walk on my lunch break. Feeling good! I had a bit more of an appetite that night, but I figured I must have walked off a gazillion calories at noon, so I could afford an extra serving of buttered cornbread with my five-meat chili.

One week later. Wow, I’m cruising in high gear There’s no end to my energy. I rise, take a pink pill – have a little burp. Did I tell you they make me burp? They do, but no problem, I cover my mouth. Today however, the burp tasted good. Like the fried chicken I had last night. I tried to burp again, but couldn’t. But I definitely had fried chicken on my mind when I went to work.

I’m ready. Let’s do this!!!

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COMMON QUESTIONS

How many pages is 6000 words.

How many pages does 6000 words produce? If you're single spacing your work, 6000 words is close to 12 pages; double spaced around 24 pages.

How Many Pages is 500 Words?

How many pages is 500 words? The answer is one page single spaced or two pages double spaced

How Many Pages is 300 Words?

How many pages is 300 words? The answer is close to two-thirds of a page single spaced, and around one and one-third of a page double spaced.

How Many Pages is 1200 Words?

How many pages is 1200 words? Just a little under 2.5 pages single spaced, and almost 5 pages double spaced.

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You can also use Word Counter to track your text length against common web standards like Twitter's tweet character count (140), Google's meta description (300), and Facebook's average post display length (~250). If your text is longer than 360 characters the counter will show you the number of sentences, paragraphs and pages instead; useful metrics for blog posts, articles, papers, essays, dissertations and other long-form content.

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What counts as a word when dealing with a word limit?

I am trying to determine if it will be feasible to revise a manuscript for a journal that has a 6500 word limit. Currently, the manuscript is between 7500 and 8000 words long, depending on how I count words. However, it is not clear which of the following words will count toward my word count (in decreasing order of word count):

• Figure and table legends
• Math equations
• Section headings

Which of these uses count toward a word limit? Are there general rules for which words count toward a word limit?

Bonus: how strict are editors with word limits?

• technical-writing
• scientific-publishing

First of all, you should check and see if they have any guidelines posted that will help you to be certain that you stay within their listed range. If they don't have anything listed, then you could send them an inquiry to try to find out.

• Generally, the word count would not include the title page, if you have one.
• Words used in tables or graphs, including the legends, would not normnally be included.
• If you use abstracts as part of the body of your material, then they would be included.
• Citations, on the other hand, would not.
• If the math equations constitute any portion of your overall content, then they would be included.
• Section headings should be included.
• When you mention numbers, I assume you mean numbers that are used as part of your formulas or equations, in which case they would be included.

If you make use of an appendix or a table of contents, then neither of those would be included in your word count. I would recommend creating a second copy of your document and removing the items that would NOT be included and see what your word processor comes up with for the word count. That would probably put you pretty close to where you need to be.

As far as editors,it just depends. Some may be flexible, especially if the content warrants it. Others, however, set limits as a hard and fast rule and are not willing to concede and additional space at all.

• thank you for the advice. I wanted to ask here first before bothering the editor with a naive question. The numbers I was curious about are in the text. –  David LeBauer Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 18:00
• In that case, your numbers would inded count. –  Steven Drennon Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 18:08

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How to Check Word Count with Our Word Counter?

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• Paste or Upload the Text
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Copy-paste your text in our online word counter or upload a textual file like PDF, Doc, Docx, or Txt.

Choose the font type, font size, and line spacing of your blog post or paper to get character counts and word counts.

The word counter tool will instantly estimate the number of characters or words in a sentence or passage.

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Writing any paper within a specified word limit is no walk in the park. While you can always use our online word counter and character count tool, you can also reach out to our proficient stalwarts. Our experts possess the unique skill of meeting and excelling within word limits. We take pride in delivering articles that encapsulate the essence of a subject matter without any words or syllables wasted. With us, you’ll experience the art of conveying comprehensive thoughts with precision in different ways and leave a long-lasting impression, all within limited pages.

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Who Can Use Our Word and Character Counter?

Do you often wonder, How many pages is 2000 words?

or “How to get words counted for a doc on Google Drive?” Your prayers have been answered. When counting words, the goal is generally to meet a minimum or a ballpark, with a few exceptions. Below are certain cases where our online tool for word count may be needed –

Students and Teachers-

The assignment word count calculator can be beneficial for both educators and students. The students can use it to count words or characters for assignments, thesis, and many other projects for even other languages. Similarly, educators can use it to determine whether the students are adhering to the specified guidelines

Bloggers/Content Writers -

Bloggers and content writers often need to write content where they need to count words and characters before delivering, even if it’s not their own site. Our online tool can count words and keywords for your SEO.

Freelancers -

Freelancers need to count words, syllables, and characters, and this tiresome process could be dealt easily with our word counters. Our reliable tool can help them strengthen client relationships by avoiding disputes

Website Owners -

Our character counter can help webmasters examine the content by estimating the number of words, characters, syllables, spaces, and sentences.

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What Makes Our Word Counter Different from Other Tools?

Undeniably, other word counters exist, but our count words and long words tool is exceptionally unique and remarkable. Apart from its user-friendly interface and usage convenience, our word counter and character counter are loaded with exclusive features you hardly get from other counters that count words or characters online. It doesn’t count just a word, a sentence, or a couple of syllables. It also does the following –

• It shows ‘Basic Count Letter Statistics,' incorporating total words, characters with space, and characters without space.
• It demonstrates the ‘Top Density’ for 1, 2, and 3 words with a few exceptions.
• It demonstrates ‘Extra Count Letter Statistics’ for a certain number of unique words, sentences, etc.
• When you type in ‘ how long is 800 words ?', it shows you the length statistics of the short and long words, longest syllables, etc.
• Further, it also does a grammar check of your text simultaneously.

With all these premium features, the online word counter tool by MyAssignmentHelp is much more than your average calculator- and it's free!

Try it once, and you’ll see how efficient it is for estimating the count of words or characters in a sentence or on a page. In case of any query, you can seek the assistance of our essay writing service.

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Our tool is designed to help you easily check the total word count or average sentence length in a PDF file. Simply upload the PDF file to the tool and use the check option. Your documents will be processed similarly, and you'll get accurate results instantly, even for other languages.

Counting words or characters on our tool is incredibly easy. If you desire to count words in sentences or passages, all you need to do is –

● Paste the text in the empty text box

●  Choose the font and font size or other languages

● Select the line spacing

Once you provide all the details, the counter accurately estimates the number of characters, words, and syllables in sentences or passages. It can also do a grammar check simultaneously.

A word counter or character counter tool is a web-based utility designed to help users track numerous metrics related to written content. These include the total number of words, syllables, sentences, characters, paragraphs, and the likes.

You can count the words you've written by simply accessing our calculator and entering your text in the text box. As a result, the count of words and other information will be shown on your screen immediately.

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What is a Word Counter?

Word counter is an online tool that calculates the total number of words and characters in your text. It does that in real-time to help you count words and stay within the required limit.

Social platforms and content publishing websites set a certain limit on your comment or post in terms of the number of characters. These online platforms automatically truncate the extra text, which disturbs the context, and makes it incomprehensible. An online word counter is an ultimate solution to this issue.

It helps the writers, bloggers, students, educationists, and general users to meet their respective word count needs.

How to Use the Word Counter Tool?

Counting words is easy with this user-friendly and simplest tool.

• Simply write or copy & paste the text into the text box
• It will automatically calculate the number of words, characters, letters, sentences, and word density.
• The results will be changed as you will change the text
• Our online word count tool allows you to change text size and text style by using the buttons on the left
• Click on the "Grammar Check" button to highlight the grammatical mistakes in your text and make it 100% grammatically correct.

Who Can Use the Word Counter?

Everyone can use this free word counter, especially people who need to stay within a specified text limit.

Digital marketers and  SEO experts use  word counter online to write post titles, descriptions, blog posts, and other write-ups within the character and word limits.

Students can count their assignments and essay's word count online and make them grammatically perfect with our free grammar checker.

Word-counter.io is the best word counter for writers to stay within their  word limit goals  and help them make their content free of grammatical errors.

Does Word-Counter.io Work on All Operating Systems?

It works on all operating systems like Windows, Mac, Android, and IOS.

However, you will need a web browser and an internet connection to make it work. Once you land on the word counter tool, it is ready to roll. The online sentence counter works on all the latest browsers, and you do not need to sign-up, sign in or install anything to use this word counter online.

Benefits of Using an Online Word Counter Tool

Word count has become an essential component of online writing. Various famous social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Google prefer quality over quantity. It is challenging to share a story or explain something when word/character limits bind you.

For example, Facebook allows 2000 characters, Twitter posts need to be less than 280 characters, and Instagram also has a set limit of 2200 characters.

If you start writing in the field of word count checker or copy/paste any text, you can start modifying it while keeping your word count in check.

Our word counter can also be used to change the text style, size, and solve your text's grammatical errors.

Customizing Text with This Free Word Counter Tool

Along with counting words, the tool has multiple text formatting options. For example, you can select different font styles and change their size. These options can help you modify the text according to your requirements if you use plain text.

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How to use our free online word counter.

Our free online word counter is designed to be easy to use and highly efficient. To get started, simply copy and paste your text into the text box, and the counter will show you the word count, character count, and even the number of words and characters without spaces. This counter is perfect for checking word counts in essays, articles, and assignments. If you’re typing directly into the tool, it’s still just as effective, instantly updating as you write. Whether you’re using it to count words for a paper, check word count for a platform, or ensure you meet a specific word limit, our free online word counter makes the process seamless and hassle-free.

Benefits of Using a Word Count Tool

Using a word count app offers numerous benefits. It helps you keep track of the amount of words and characters in your text, which is essential for meeting minimum or maximum length requirements. Our online word counter is particularly useful for students, writers, and anyone who needs to count words for assignments, papers, or SEO purposes. By providing instant word and character counts, it saves you time and ensures accuracy. It also integrates grammar and spelling checks, helping you identify and correct writing mistakes. Additionally, you can use it to analyze keyword density for better SEO performance. Text analyse tools help to improve content and save much time. Online Sentence Counter , which helps you count sentences, lines and words from any text. -->

Use Cases for the Online Word Counter

There are many use cases for our online word counter. If you’re a student working on an essay, you can use the tool to ensure you meet the word count requirements. Writers can use it to see the word count for articles and manuscripts, helping them adhere to submission guidelines. Bloggers and content creators can count words to optimize their text for SEO by analyzing keyword density. Additionally, social media users can ensure their posts stay within character limits, such as the 280 characters limit for Twitter. This versatile app is also great for checking the reading time and summarizing long paragraphs. Check our Paragraph Counter

Integrating Grammar and Keyword Analysis with Word Count

Our word counter tool is not just for counting words. It also helps you improve your text by integrating grammar and keyword analysis. By using this tool, you can identify and correct grammar errors, check for spelling mistakes, and ensure proper punctuation. Additionally, you can analyze the keyword density in your text, making it a valuable SEO tool. Whether you’re writing an article, essay, or any type of text, our word counter helps you maintain high-quality writing. With features similar to Grammarly, it’s one of the best tools for enhancing your writing style and ensuring your text is error-free.

Why Would You Need a Word Counter Tool?

There are many reasons why you would need a word counter tool. For students, it helps ensure that essays and assignments meet the required word count. Writers and bloggers can use it to keep track of their word count and character count , making it easier to meet submission guidelines. For those in the SEO and content creation world, it helps analyze keyword density and optimize text for search engines. The tool is also useful for checking the reading level and summarizing text. Overall, our free online word counter tool is a must-have for anyone in the writing world who needs to count words and characters accurately and efficiently.

Understanding Word Count in Different Texts

Understanding word count is crucial for different types of texts. Whether you’re writing an essay, article, or social media post, knowing the word and character counts can help you meet specific requirements. For instance, an essay might require a minimum of 300 words, while a Twitter post must stay within 280 characters. Our tool provides detailed word and character counts, helping you stay within the required limits.

Enhancing Text Quality with a Word Counter

Using a word counter can significantly enhance the quality of your text. By keeping track of word count and character count, you can ensure your writing is concise and clear. The tool also helps you maintain the right keyword density, which is important for SEO. Additionally, by integrating grammar and spelling checks, our word counter tool helps you eliminate errors and improve your overall writing style.

Maximizing Efficiency with the Online Word Counter Tool

Our online word counter tool maximizes efficiency by providing instant results. You can quickly see the word count, character count, and keyword density without manually counting. This saves you time and helps you focus on your writing. Whether you’re working on an essay, article, or any type of text, our free and easy-to-use tool helps you achieve your writing goals efficiently.

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Free Word Counter & Page Calculator Tool

Submit the number of words & paste your text to know characters, word & page count., what is a word counter or character count tool.

The Word Counter, also known as the Character Count Tool, is a live web tool that counts words, characters, phrases, paragraphs, and pages. Many writers use it, such as students, researchers and so on, to improve their word choices, word ephemeral issue and writing style.

A Word counter is a key component because it counts the number of words in an assignment. Naturally, counting words in a long piece is impossible. This free word counter tool can count a certain number of words in your text. What's the best part? With this tool, you can count a limitless number of words and characters!

How Does the Word Counter Tool Work? 

Five boxes with their individual labels are visible above the tabs. The first box, as you might imagine, displays the word count for the posted text. The text's character count is displayed in the next two boxes, one with spaces and the other without spaces.

The sentence count will be to the right of that. It's important to notice that end punctuation shows all the headings, the tool will not consider those to be sentences. The headline and the first line of that section will be treated as a single sentence.

Finally, you'll see the paragraph count. It operates by identifying a block of text as a paragraph based on the presence of breaks between the sentences.

How to Use an Online Word Counter Tool or Character Counter Tool? 

The Word Count Tool is extremely simple to use and provides instant results. The word count will display the number of words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs.

To check the word count, simply place your cursor in the text box above and start typing. As you type, delete, and modify, the number of characters and words will increase or decrease. You can also copy and paste the text into the web editor above from another program. The Auto-Save feature ensures that any changes you make while editing are saved.

It also functions as a character counter and may be used to count words in Google Docs, PDF files, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint , Adobe InDesign, and other applications. To use the word counter tool, simply copy the text from any file type or webpage and paste it into the input box.

How Is the Word Counter Useful?

In publishing, advertising, academic, legal procedures, or in writing a descriptive essay word count is an essential word counting tool. You will determine the number of words in your text by using this tool. Then you can determine if there are enough words or if they have exceeded a specific limit.

The Importance of Using Word Counter Tool

Knowing the number of words in a text is useful. For example, suppose a student is required to write a certain number of words for an assignment, essay, report, story, book, or paper. The Word Counter will help ensure that the word count meets specified criteria or remains within a set limit. It also help to analyze that how many references should be suitable for the specific word count.

Why Would Students Need to Do A Word Count?

Imagine having to manually count the words while composing a poem! Not only would it take hours, but there's a chance you won't get everything right.

This tool can also be used to determine your typing speed in words per minute. Simply set a five-minute timer for yourself. Fill in the blanks in the online word counter's box. Divide your overall word count by five when the timer goes off to get your average words per minute rate.

If you're familiar with Microsoft products , you'll know that Word has a feature that allows you to count words. Furthermore, Google Docs includes a word counter that can also count the number of characters. Although word counters are incorporated into programs like Microsoft Word and Google Docs, there is a clear advantage to using a free online application like Word Counter Tool instead.

How to Count Words in Google Docs

How to count words in microsoft word.

Microsoft Word also has its own built-in word counting. The word count is commonly displayed on the status bar, next to the page counter. If it does not appear there, just right click on the status bar and select Word Count. Simply go to the Menu Bar to get more complete detail of your word count, which includes characters, paragraphs, and even sentences. Click on Tools and then Word Count, and there you go.  

Word Counter Tool Users

Bloggers and content creators

If you're writing an article for someone else, the word count is vital, but even if it's for your own site, this tool can help with SEO. To rank effectively, the body of the text should be at least 300 words long, and the title should be less than 70 characters long.

Teachers or Students

As a student, you will be expected to complete projects and need assignment help w ith limited word restrictions regularly. Although some leniency is normally provided, if you are significantly off the word count, you may lose marks. So, to avoid this mistake, you can use our word counter.

Other individuals'

Many jobs, such as lawyers and secretaries, require you to write articles of varying lengths occasionally.

Q-1 Is the word counter free?

Yes, you can use the word counter for free with no restrictions.

Q-2 Will there be any limitations when I use the tool?

Never! We will not impose any restrictions on your use of the tool because it is free.

Q-3 Is it possible to count sentences and paragraphs?

Yes, the number of phrases and paragraphs in your content will be shown.

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