english essay writing practice

english essay writing practice

Determining the Length of an English Essay

1. Importance of Essay Length

By allocating a grade the least adequate essay deserves and the best essay deserves, the grade middle student essays should receive can be determined, and the essence of the grade can be pinpointed. This important fact is overlooked by educators who claim they should never limit a student’s thoughts by prescribing the length of an essay. If the method for determining this grade is reliably applicable to each student and is fairly merciless, the grading of essays, especially for standardized tests, will no longer be done by human beings but by easily programmable computers. However, this ultimately entails that standardized test essays will have no real importance. Therefore, the length of an English essay being determined will ultimately serve to limit thought.

When writing an English essay, it is extremely important to know the length of the essay required by your instructor. For this reason, students regularly ask their instructors, “How long should my essay be?” Sadly, many instructors are unable to answer this question. When they are pressed for more details, many simply reply, “I can’t tell you how long your essay should be. I should not have to put a limit on your thoughts.” There are several reasons why an essay should have a pre-decided length. The most basic reason is to make sure students do not write just a single page when they are supposed to write at least two. Furthermore, the length of the essay has a significant impact on a student’s grade, so it should be arbitrarily determined.

2. Factors Influencing Essay Length

English essays can be shorter than in the other two languages, without impacting the candidates’ knowledge level. Our exploratory study has limitations related to the examined segment of the study’s population and the total number of examined items. Further research on larger populations should be carried out before generalizing the results. The conditioning of possible cross-lingual differences related to the examination type was observed in previous research and is still an issue to be clarified. Later researches explored the style of English essays written by native and non-native speakers of English and showed that nonnative students made some pragmatic errors, trying to write according to the British model of an essay, proneness to overuse of similes and metaphors, use of routine words and phrases and paraphrasing.

The main factors which influence the length of an essay are its type (argumentative, descriptive, narrative, reflective or other), purposes, subject, the degree of criticality of the examination and the length of preparation allowed for the candidate. Counting words will eliminate these potential discrepancies. However, given the varying meanings and effects on the reader of words in different languages and tongues, two essays tightly packed with words may convey less meaning than one by the same writer. The essays in English were much longer, even if their average words/gram ratio was the same as for the French and Dutch essays. Given this consideration and the extra cost for papers longer than 800 words, and also because language certainly is an issue, it could be wise to consider descriptions in both number of words and number of pages, in line with the usual traditions of the scientific community.

3. Guidelines for Essay Length

3.2 Long Essay Lengths – In longer essays, the instructor may want you to write on a subject at great length and depth. In those cases, the minimum word count for those still in junior high is 1,500 to 1,800 words, while high school and adult writers will need at least 2,000 words — one to three handwritten pages for middle-schoolers, while a high-school or adult essay must be 10 to 11 handwritten pages long. You are likely to be scheduled over many days or weeks to write, revise, proofread, and double-check the final fragment. Such research essays should always keep the words of the main plan in mind, ensure proper organization, contain both primary and secondary content, and bring in the characters texts and summaries that express your point of view.

3.1 Regular Essay Length – Regular essays, from junior to adult, will probably be 800 to 1,200 words long — about four to six handwritten pages. If there’s no required length, decide on an essay length that suits you. Most likely, you will spend one period researching and brainstorming; one period creating your essay outline and thesis statement; a period testing your outline; the next period entering your library, books, and notes into the essay’s first draft; a period (or another session) proofs, revising, and enclosing a last draft; and maybe 10 minutes if the administrator judge asks for a rough or final outline-description. It’s the word count — perhaps 800 to 1,200 words — that tells you how much you need to compress, focusing on the needs of the planned audience and cultural elements, bearing proper paragraphs, syntax, proper language, and punctuation in mind and fighting with an appropriately slender thesis statement.

4. Tips for Meeting Length Requirements

If you are given an essay topic, try to become interested in the topic. If you show real interest, you may be more willing to write on it when the time comes. Also, draft a general outline before you start. Sometimes, an outline will guide you through the essay so that you do not have to constantly digress. Choose a work cited that is easy to find and introduces your topic well. Remember, length requirements refer to the body of the essay, not the work cited. If you find you are quickly reaching the length requirement, focus on paper then adding details to two of the points listed for each smaller point you make. For example, if discussion your second point has brought you to a third of the way mark, try waiting until your argument only takes up two thirds of one page. Then maybe, expand upon this fervor that allows your essay to exceed the length requirement on so much it has a negative impact on the text itself.

Most of the time, you have no choice in the matter. If you are given an essay topic, you have to write the essay. If an English teacher assigns an essay for a grade, or an instructor assigns an essay for discussion in class, you have to write the essay. The only time you are likely to choose an essay topic at will is when you are unlikely to choose an essay topic at will is when you have to write a college application essay. Still, there are times when you have a say in the matter. These might occur when you need to select from the following essay topics provided by a teacher, choose an essay topic from among a few options a college admissions committee gives you, or an instructor asks you to suggest your essay topic. In these, do not fall into the trap of choosing an essay topic you are not familiar with simply because you think you can write a longer essay in a short amount of time.

5. Conclusion

English teachers often forget this, because they are the ones who can typically read the one-pagers without difficulty. But an essay requires a well-formed idea, carefully considered points, a well-organized structure, and a strong finish. It is much harder to do these things in a single page. Consequently, most papers are expected to be approximately two pages in length. This doesn’t mean every single response must be exactly 400 words. Student writing should be evaluated in the context of the purpose it ultimately serves. The only result of giving you a word limit and not a page limit is that if you write a lot more than 400 words, you will go on longer than necessary.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for length, with the exception of no fewer than two pages, but the ideal length is likely to be one page only for most students in order to avoid a negative perception. Students should only take the risk of writing a “too short” essay if it has a clear research question that can be reasonably assessed in a short space, and adequate data and discussion are presented to illuminate this. Generally it is good to create a “middle length” essay of about two pages, but even essays that are near a page and a half would be acceptable, and look better than a 0.75 page essay. Trust your natural instincts and creativity, and have a little more confidence in what you can produce.