how to make a thesis less wordy

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How to Avoid Wordiness

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Cut Adjectives and Adverbs

This is something Ernest Hemingway became famous for. While working as a reporter, he learned to cut unnecessary words and get to the point of a story as fast as possible, claiming that all those extra adjectives/adverbs could be filled in by readers’ imaginations and the context of the story.

Take this sentence: “The frightened woman quickly ran away from the drooling, crazy, rotting zombie.” Is all that necessary? What about: “She ran away from the zombie.” Is this really any different? Or can you just assume the woman is frightened, she’s running fast, and the zombie is hideous?

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Eliminate Redundant Words and Phrases

Here at ProofreadingPal , there are whole classes of words and phrases we delete right away because they are redundant including:

• Introductory words such as “basically” or “truly.” These don’t really add anything to your writing and thus get cut.
• Qualifiers such as “very”, “really,” and “quite.” These don’t add anything either. They’re too vague and easily replaced by better words. Take “I’m really hungry,” for example. Is this a good sentence? Or is “I’m starving” better?
• Linking phrases such as “in order to.” Look at, “I need money in order to buy a trip to Jurassic Park,” as opposed to “I need money to buy a trip to Jurassic Park.” Same meaning, fewer words.
• Unnecessary phrasing such as the “person who…” construction. Look at, “He is a man who delivers mail,” instead of simply, “He is a mailman.”
• Finally, some cases involve removing whole sentences. For example, when writing academic essays, some people like to write “In the next paragraph, I am going to discuss the method section.” But, if the next section starts with the heading “Method,” do you really need to say the above sentence? Not at all. It’s clear from context.

Don’t Use Unnecessary Prepositions

Avoid Passive Voice

Carve it in stone: You should avoid passive voice wherever possible. For our purposes, passive voice is another way that wordiness creeps into your writing. Take the sentence. “I ate lunch.” A nice simple, clear sentence, right? Well, if you want to say the same thing in passive voice, it would be “Lunch was eaten by me.” Three words become five. Pretty much every “was/is + verb” construction is wordy, and switching to active voice improves the phrasing.

Use Simple Past/Present Instead of Present/Past Perfect and Present/Past Continuous

This is a similar issue. From essays to business documents to novels, it’s much more succinct to use simple present/past tense over any other tense, especially present/past perfect and present/past continuous. Why? Because doing so cuts down on unnecessary words, and, most of the time, you don’t need any of those other tenses because they’re clear through context. For example, change, “I have worked there,” to, “I worked there.” Change, “He was surfing,” to, “He surfed.” Nothing is different, right? There are exceptions, of course, but keep an eye on this issue, and you’ll find lots of instances where you just don’t need those extra modifiers.

Now, let’s look at all of these together. Take the sentence: “The kind of person who eats lots of ice cream in order to feel good is me.” Lots going on in that sentence. Or maybe not. From above you know we don’t need “lots of” because it’s an adverb. We don’t need “kind of person who” or “in order to” because they’re redundant. And we need to change the sentence to active voice and to use simple verbs. So what are we left with? “I eat ice cream to feel good.” This is much simpler and more succinct, and your reader easily understands what you mean, which is the point of communication, right?

Try these tips in your writing. Practice makes perfect (as opposed to, “In order to achieve perfection, you should take the time to practice”). And, for extra help, send it to us at ProofreadingPal , and we’ll sort you out!

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Conciseness and Eliminating Wordiness

Writing concisely is one way to capture and retain readers' interest. By writing clearly and concisely, you will get straight to your point, so your audience can easily comprehend it. There are several techniques that can help you learn to write clearly and concisely.

The table below shows some commonly-used elaborate words and their simple alternatives.

Replace Vague Words with Specific Ones

Vague or abstract words tend to conceal your meaning. On the other hand, specific words precisely and shortly convey your meaning.

• Vague: The Acme Corporation is developing a new consumer device that allows users to communicate vocally in real time.
• Specific: The Acme Corporation is developing a new cell phone.

Avoid Overusing Expletives at the Beginning of Sentences

Expletives are phrases of the form it + be-verb or there + be-verb.

Example #1:

• Wordy: It is the governor who signs or vetoes bills.
• Concise: The governor signs or vetoes bills.

Example #2:

• Wordy: There are four rules that should be observed.
• Concise: Four rules should be observed.

Avoid Overusing Noun Forms of Verbs

Use verbs when possible rather than noun forms known as nominalizations.

• Wordy: The function of this department is the collection of accounts.
• Concise: This department collects accounts.

Eliminate Unnecessary Words

Unnecessary words can come in many forms like excessive detail, repetitive words, or redundant words.

Excessive Detail

• Before: I received and read the email you sent yesterday about the report you’re writing for the project. I agree it needs a thorough, close edit from someone familiar with your audience.
• After: I received your email about the project report and agree it needs an expert edit.

Repetitive words

• Before: The engineer considered the second monitor an unneeded luxury.
• After: The engineer considered the second monitor a luxury.

Redundant words

• Before: The test revealed conduction activity that was peculiar in nature.
• After: The test revealed peculiar conduction activity.

Replace Multiple Negatives with Affirmatives

Affirmatives, instead, convey concise meaning that needs no interpretation.

• Before: Your audience will not appreciate the details that lack relevance.
• After: Your audience will appreciate relevant details.

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Bloated Language aka Wordiness

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• Our Mission and Core Values

There is a common misconception that a verbose writer is a great one. While supplementary sentences or words can seem to add “smartness” to an essay, unnecessary fluff can only frustrate a reader. Good news: there is some telltale signs of wordiness that can help both tutors and tutees tighten up an otherwise long-winded paper.

 In Paragraphs:

2. combine shorter, abrupt sentences. .

Choppy sentences become repetitive after awhile and can begin to bore the reader. Usually, these can be merged easily, especially if both sentences speak to the same idea.


In this paragraph, the author uses metaphors. These metaphors depict the volatility of the character’s mood swings.

A Better Example:

In this paragraph, the author uses metaphors that depict the volatility of the character’s mood swings.

1. Do not repeat ideas. 

While some ideas do need more than one sentence to be fully explained, many essays can often get redundant in this regard. If you re-read a sentence and realize that it adds no additional value, it probably should be removed (despite any writer’s attachment you may have to it).


The poem contains devices that suggest the audiences in Shakespeare’s time were relatively educated.  In other words, those who saw and appreciated Shakespeare’s plays were well read.

In Sentences:

1. use active voice..

Passive voice usually leads to longer phrases, complicated syntax, and indirect meanings. Sometimes passive voice can appear more academic or objective. However, when used frequently, it could cause confusion on the reader’s end.


Common passive verbs: is, are, was, were, am, be, been

In her essay, there are many passive verbs being used.

Her essay uses many passive verbs.

2. Get rid of wordy phrases.

In the English language, there are many phrases that could really be said with one or two words. Below are some examples.
Note: this is not an exhaustive list.

Due to the fact that → Because

With regard to → About, Concerning

Have the capability to → Can

A majority of → Most

Subsequent to → After

In the event that → If

 Caveat: Although a writer should be cognizant of his/her wordiness, there is a fine line between expressive and rambling. Thus, while these tools can be useful for wordy essays, be careful to not take them to an extreme. Rule of thumb: moderation is key.

Christine Hou

Student Learning Center, University of California, Berkeley

©2009 UC Regents

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution

How to Reduce Wordiness

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Written by  Scribendi

Do you find yourself writing sentences that are far too long?

Have you ever re-read a sentence and struggled to finish it in one breath?

If so, you may be suffering from something called prolixity, or in layman's terms, wordiness. Wordiness is one of the most  common ESL mistakes . It happens when a writer, either intentionally or unintentionally, uses far too many words or unnecessarily complex or abstract words.

Wordiness can seriously detract from the coherency and quality of your writing and frustrate your readers. Below, we suggest several ways to help you reduce wordiness and increase quality.

How to Reduce Wordiness: 4 Key Considerations

1. eliminate filler words.

One easy way to avoid wordiness is to limit or eliminate the use of "filler words." Filler words sneak between relevant words, and though they may sound good, they are essentially useless.

Take the phrase "It is commonly believed that . . .," for example. The filler in this phrase is "commonly," as it serves no purpose. Leaving this word out would not change the meaning and would actually improve the sentence.

Often, it is during revision that wordiness becomes apparent. For example, the phrase "Some experts commonly believe that . . ." could be revised to "Some experts believe that . . ." to make the sentence more concise.

2. Remove redundancies

Redundancies are another cause of wordiness. Redundant writing can take two forms: writers may include redundant words or redundant information.

Redundant wording is most often found in descriptive writing. This occurs when writers attempt to describe something and overuse synonyms. Take this sentence: "Mark is a funny, hilarious, and comical person." Here, three words that basically mean the same thing are used to describe Mark.

The second form of redundancy is likely familiar to students worldwide. Redundant information occurs when writers say the same thing many times but in different ways. Readers are forced to read more and yet learn nothing new.

Redundant information often crops up in essays: "Scientists have found that cancer cells can be repressed through the twice-daily consumption of carrot juice. Carrot juice, when consumed on a twice-daily basis, has been found to repress cancer cells."

The two sentences, while written differently, contain the same information. Redundant information should be avoided in order to reduce wordiness in your  essay writing .

3. Avoid overusing qualifiers

Qualifiers come directly before an adjective or  adverb  and are used to either increase or decrease the quality of the modified word. For example, in the phrase "John is very cool," the qualifier is "very." The overuse of such qualifiers can distract readers.

Qualified words can often be replaced by a single more potent word. For example, "Sue is extremely angry" could be shortened to "Sue is furious."

When every adjective or adverb is preceded by "very," "extremely," "barely," or "hardly," the qualifiers begin to lose their meaning. Always try to use one good word rather than two or three mediocre ones. This will instantly improve your writing.

4. Resist logorrhea

This form of wordiness can be the most frustrating. Logorrhea is the intentional use of long sentences or overly abstract wording.

If you've ever read a postmodern novel,  lab report , or law journal, you've likely encountered it.

An author could say something succinctly in three words, but instead they've composed a sentence so laden with adjectives and qualifiers that readers will simply be confused by the time they reach the end. All of these extra words could unnecessarily complicate  expository writing .

Here is an example of logorrhea by a famous writer, George Orwell. He was deliberately satirizing the use of logorrhea in political discourse and wrote this as an example of a sentence with many words but little meaning:

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

If your writing resembles this example, you may want to put down the thesaurus and remember that writing is about conveying a message. Your readers should always be able to understand what you're saying.

Parting Advice

With these four considerations in hand, you should have no trouble reducing wordiness in your writing. 

Image source: iqoncept/bigstockphoto.com

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Words and Phrases to Avoid in Academic Writing

Published on February 6, 2016 by Sarah Vinz . Revised on September 11, 2023.

When you are writing a dissertation , thesis, or research paper, many words and phrases that are acceptable in conversations or informal writing are considered inappropriate in academic writing .

You should try to avoid expressions that are too informal, unsophisticated, vague, exaggerated, or subjective, as well as those that are generally unnecessary or incorrect.

Bear in mind, however, that these guidelines do not apply to text you are directly quoting from your sources (including interviews ).

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Table of contents

Too informal, too exaggerated, too subjective, generally incorrect, other interesting articles.

Academic writing is generally more formal than the writing we see in non-academic materials (including on websites). It is also more formal than the ways in which we normally speak. The following words and phrases are considered too informal for a dissertation or academic paper.

Informal sentence starts

Some words are acceptable in certain contexts, but become too informal when used at the beginning of a sentence. You can replace these with appropriate  transition words  or simply remove them from the sentence.

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Using vague terms makes your writing imprecise and may cause people to interpret it in different ways. Always try to be as specific as possible.

Academic writing is usually unadorned and direct. Some adverbs of frequency (such as always and never ) and intensifiers (words that create emphasis, such as really ) are often too dramatic. They may also not be accurate – you’re making a significant claim when you say something is perfect or never happens.

These terms do sometimes add value, but try to use them sparingly.

Some words and phrases reveal your own bias. For instance, if you state that something will obviously happen, you are indicating that you think the occurrence is obvious – not stating a fact.

Expressing your opinion is appropriate in certain sections of a dissertation and in particular types of academic texts (such as personal statements and reflective or argumentative essays ). In most cases, though, take care when using words and phrases such as those below – try to let the facts speak for themselves, or emphasize your point with less biased language.

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Certain words and phrases are often used incorrectly, even by native speakers of a language. If you’re exposed to such mistakes often enough, you may start to assume they are correct – but it’s important that you don’t let them creep into your writing.

You should also bear in mind that some of these mistakes relate to things we all frequently mishear (for instance, we often think the speaker is saying would of instead of would have ).

In general, you should also try to avoid using words and phrases that fall into the following categories:

• Jargon (i.e., “insider” terminology that may be difficult for readers from other fields to understand)
• Clichés (i.e., expressions that are heavily overused, such as think outside of the box and at the end of the day )
• Everyday abbreviations (e.g., approx. , ASAP, corona, stats, info )
• Slang (e.g., cops , cool )
• Gender-biased language   (e.g., firemen , mankind )
• Generally unnecessary (e.g., redundant expressions that do not add meaning, such as compete with each other instead of simply compete)

Reflective reports and  personal statements  sometimes have a less formal tone. In these types of writing, you may not have to follow these guidelines as strictly. The preface or acknowledgements of a dissertation also often have a less formal and more personal voice than the rest of the document.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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Vinz, S. (2023, September 11). Words and Phrases to Avoid in Academic Writing. Scribbr. Retrieved August 7, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-writing/taboo-words/

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Sarah's academic background includes a Master of Arts in English, a Master of International Affairs degree, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She loves the challenge of finding the perfect formulation or wording and derives much satisfaction from helping students take their academic writing up a notch.

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Writing Concisely

What this handout is about.

This handout helps you identify wordiness in your sentences, paragraphs, and essays and offers strategies for writing concisely.

Identifying and addressing wordiness in sentences

If you are a student, pay close attention to your instructors’ comments on your essays. Have they written things like “wordy,” “passive voice,” “filler” or “irrelevant”? By learning to write concisely, you will be able to fill your papers with more substantive information. Getting to the point promptly can help you become a clearer thinker and a more engaging writer.

Outside of school, writing concisely can help you create more effective business letters, email messages, memos, and other documents. Busy readers appreciate getting the information they need quickly and easily.

Here are some strategies to help you identify wordiness and decide whether, and how, to revise it. At times, you may choose to keep a sentence just as it is, even though there are more concise ways to express your idea: you might, for example, use repetition to emphasize a point or include a redundant pair of words (a subject we’re just about to discuss) to create a certain rhythm. What’s important is that you make a conscious choice.

1. Eliminate redundant pairs

When the first word in a pair has roughly the same meaning as the second, choose one.

Common examples of redundant pairs include: full and complete, each and every, hopes and dreams, whole entire, first and foremost, true and accurate, always and forever.

Example: For each and every book you purchase, you will receive a free bookmark.

Revision: For every book you purchase, you will receive a free bookmark.

2. Delete unnecessary qualifiers

Often we use qualifiers that really aren’t necessary to express our meaning (such as “really” in this sentence). By deleting unnecessary qualifiers, you can often eliminate one or two words per sentence. Tweaks like this may not seem like much, but they can add up.

Common qualifiers include: actually, really, basically, probably, very, definitely, somewhat, kind of, extremely, practically.

Example: Because a great many of the words in this sentence are basically unnecessary, it would really be a very good idea to edit somewhat for conciseness.

Revision: Because many of the words in this sentence are unnecessary, we should edit it.

3. Identify and reduce prepositional phrases

Overuse of prepositional phrases (which begin with words like “in,” “for,” “at,” “on,” “through,” and “over”) can make a sentence clunky and unclear. To locate this problem, circle the prepositions in your draft and see whether you can eliminate any prepositional phrases without losing your meaning. Sometimes the easiest way to revise a wordy sentence is to ask yourself “What do I really mean here?” and then write a new sentence; this approach can be more efficient than just tinkering with your existing sentence.

Example: The reason for the failure of the basketball team of the University of North Carolina in the Final Four game against the team from Kansas was that on that day and at that time, some players were frequently unable to rebound the ball.

Revision: UNC’s basketball team lost the Final Four game against Kansas because it could not consistently rebound the ball.

4. Locate and delete unnecessary modifiers

Sometimes the meaning of a word or phrase implies its modifier, making the modifier unnecessary.

Example: Do not try to anticipate in advance those events that will completely revolutionize society.

In this example, “anticipate” already implies that something is in advance, and “revolutionize” already implies that something will be completely changed.

Revision: Do not try to anticipate revolutionary events.

5. Replace a phrase with a word

Many commonly-used phrases can be replaced with single words. These phrases often crop up in writing that requires a formal tone, but they detract from, rather than add to, meaning.

“The reason for”, “due to the fact that”, “in light of the fact that”, “given the fact that”, and “considering the fact that” can be replaced with because, since, or why.

“In the event that” and “under circumstances in which” can be replaced with if.”It is necessary that” and “cannot be avoided” can be replaced with must or should.

“For the purpose of” can often be replaced with an infinitive verb (the “to ____” form of the verb).

Example: In the event that going out for the purpose of eating with them cannot be avoided, it is necessary that we first go to the ATM, in light of the fact that I am out of cash.

Revision: If we must go out to eat with them, we should first go to the ATM because I am out of cash.

For more examples of common phrases that can be replaced with a word, see the Writing Center’s handout on style .

6. Identify negatives and change them to affirmatives

Expressing ideas in negative form means you must use an extra word; it also makes readers work harder to figure out your meaning.

Example: If you do not have more than five years of experience, do not call for an interview if you have not already spoken to human resources.

Revision: Applicants with more than five years of experience can bypass human resources and call for an interview.

Passive voice

In an active sentence, the subject (the person or thing doing the action) comes first. In a passive sentence , the order of the words is different-the object (the thing that is receiving the action) comes first, and the subject appears at the end of the sentence or isn’t included at all. To spot the passive voice, look at the main verb of each sentence-if there’s a form of “be” (am, is, are, was, were) and a past tense verb (many end with -ed), the sentence may be passive. The passive voice is not a grammatical error, and it can be useful, especially in scientific writing. But writing in the passive voice often leads to using more words than necessary. Passive sentences can also frustrate or confuse your readers, who must wait patiently to find out who or what did the action of the sentence.

Example: The 1780 constitution of Massachusetts was written by John Adams.

In this passive construction, the meaning of the sentence is clear, but there are more words than necessary. To make this sentence more concise, move the subject to the front and get rid of the “to be” verb (in this case, “was”).

Revision: John Adams wrote the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution.

Another example: The letter was taken to the mailbox by Sally.

Revision: Sally took the letter to the mailbox.

Writing concise papers

Now that you know how to avoid wordiness at the sentence level, you may want to try some additional strategies to use the space in your papers efficiently.

Think about your argument

What is the thesis of your paper? What exactly are you trying to accomplish? And what components of your paper are necessary to prove your argument? In a thesis-driven essay, every part of your paper should be geared toward proving that argument. Sometimes this proof will come in the form of direct evidence supporting your thesis; other times you will be addressing counterarguments.

Every paragraph in your essay must have a purpose. When revising, critically examine each paragraph and ask yourself whether it is necessary to your overall thesis. You may decide to cut some paragraphs. This process could be painful, especially if you have done a lot of research you’d like to include or need more words to meet a page limit, but it will strengthen your paper.

Think about your audience

Not all types of writing are thesis-driven, but all writing has an intended audience. When writing, you should always have your readers in mind and consider what they need to know.

For example, when writing a paper for your psychology class on Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, you probably do not have to start by saying “Sigmund Freud is one of the most famous psychiatrists of all time.” In most college papers, you should imagine that your audience is composed of educated readers who are not taking your class and are not experts on your current topic. Most educated readers will know who Freud is and will not need such a general reminder.

For another example, when applying to the business school and working on your one-page resume, rather than using a small font and trying to include every job and activity you took part in, think about your audience and the information they will most need to evaluate your application.

Knowing how to write concisely will serve you well in many situations. For more information on writing concisely, please consult the works below.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Cook, Claire Kehrwald. 1985. Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing . Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Lanham, Richard A. 2006. Revising Prose , 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman.

Williams, Joseph, and Joseph Bizup. 2017. Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace , 12th ed. Boston: Pearson.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Avoid Fillers and Unnecessary Words in Writing

Whether you are writing a research paper , a dissertation , or another kind of academic writing , creating sentences that are strong and concise is important in conveying your message and arguments to your audience. In this article on writing and editing for wordiness (i.e., how to reduce word count), we focus on something you may not know you are doing: using too many filler words.

Why You Should Avoid Filler Words in Writing

Filler words are unnecessary words that many writers use, either intentionally or unintentionally, that do not contribute to clarifying their points or arguments. For example,  take a close look at this very sentence because there are some things we did here that you probably weren’t aware were problematic!  By reading this article, we hope you realize how toxic fillers are to your writing. So, if you want to draft more powerful sentences, read on!

Removing Fillers & Unnecessary Words

If you look at the last sentence of the preceding paragraph, you’ll find us guilty of our category 3 wordiness offense! That is, we used many filler words that we should have eliminated. (By the way, if you’re wondering what our other categories are, we’ve written about two others so far— nominalizations  and  preposition errors —and we’ll share a few more with you over the next few weeks!)

What are unnecessary words (filler words)?

Fillers are words that add no substantive meaning to a sentence and merely “fill the space.” Why are we discussing fillers (typically a habit from spoken language) when we’re writing about editing? Simply put, more often than we realize, we write how we speak. Take our blog, for example. We’ve intentionally written this in a conversational tone. (Have you found some of the fillers we’ve used?) While it’s okay for us to do so (since we’re not worried about word count and are aiming to deliver you informative and fun editing advice), if we were writing an academic or research paper, however, we would be more careful to write concisely.

For general and academic writing purposes, avoid fillers and other unnecessary words and phrases.

Let’s look at the following examples:

• There is an octopus sitting on top of my car.
• This is actually an interesting question.
• In order to apply the new method to our entire system, perhaps we should perform a local test.

Can you spot the fillers and other unnecessary words in the above sentences? Grammatically, these sentences are correct, but they would be shorter if we remove some unnecessary words.

• There is  an octopus sitting on top of my car. [10 words]
• This is  actually  an interesting question. [6 words]
• In order to  apply the new method to our  entire  system,  perhaps  we should perform a local test. [18 words]

Let’s look at the revisions below.

• An octopus  is sitting on my car. [7 words]
• This question  is interesting. [4 words]
• We should perform a local test  before applying  the new method to  our system . [14 words]

As shown in the examples above, eliminating filler words can significantly reduce your word count! On average, we’ve cut the word count of the sentences above by 25-30%. Look at your most recent writing. Now imagine it 25-30% leaner by eliminating fillers alone. Amazing, right? Wait until you apply our other word-count reduction rules!

How to Identify and Revise Fillers

To help you strengthen your writing and editing skills, we have compiled  a list of common fillers and other unnecessary words and phrases, below. While you can revise words and phrases in many ways, we’ve prepared some suggestions that work well in most situations.

Can you think of any other filler words you use regularly? After seeing our examples above, how would you edit your fillers? An even better way to ensure that your academic work is ready for submission to journals for publication is to receive  English editing services  from a professional editing service like Wordvice.

In the meantime, if you’d like to try a few more exercises, please see the example sentences below and see if you can remove the filler words.

• In the end, we’d like to choose option A.
• We just need to move on to the next task; otherwise, we’ll really run out of time.
• While we believe this project can be completed in three months, in order to do so, we will need to incur additional costs.
• In the event that I don’t make it on time, please start without me.
• With reference to the new project, it is possible that we will start next month.
• It is important to note that you can apply to the program at any time you want; however, due to the fact that we admit participants on a rolling basis, we may have no room left if you wait too long.

Answer key:

• We’d  like to choose option A.
• We need  to move on to the next task; otherwise,  we’ll run  out of time.
• While this  project can be completed in three months,  to  do so, we will need to incur additional costs.
• If  I don’t make it on time, please start without me.
• We can start  the new project next month.
• You  can apply to the program at any time; however, if you wait too long, we may not have any room  because  we admit participants on a rolling basis.

Wordvice Resources

In addition to filler words, writers often have questions about many other writing issues, such as what verb tenses to use in academic writing , how to use the active and passive voice , and various sentence structure rules . You can find answers to these and many other writing and grammar questions by visiting Wordvice’s Academic Resources and Writing & Editing Guide . 

Wordvice offers a full suite of English editing services and professional proofreading services . If you produce writing for business, check out our business editing services , which include report editing and document editing , before publishing those important documents or forwarding them to your clients and coworkers.

Additionally, before submitting your writing to your professor or journal for publication, be sure to receive academic editing services by professional editors , including dissertation editing and thesis editing to make sure your document is polished and ready for submission.

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The goal of concise writing is to use the most effective words. Concise writing does not always have the fewest words, but it always uses the strongest ones. Writers often fill sentences with weak or unnecessary words that can be deleted or replaced. Words and phrases should be deliberately chosen for the work they are doing. Like bad employees, words that don't accomplish enough should be fired. When only the most effective words remain, writing will be far more concise and readable.

This resource contains general concision tips followed by very specific strategies for pruning sentences. For more help, visit the Purdue OWL's vidcast on cutting during the revision phase of the writing process .

1. Replace several vague words with more powerful and specific words.

Often, writers use several small and ambiguous words to express a concept, wasting energy expressing ideas better relayed through fewer specific words. As a general rule, more specific words lead to more concise writing. Because of the variety of nouns, verbs, and adjectives, most things have a closely corresponding description. Brainstorming or searching a thesaurus can lead to the word best suited for a specific instance. Notice that the examples below actually convey more as they drop in word count.

2. Interrogate every word in a sentence

Check every word to make sure that it is providing something important and unique to a sentence. If words are dead weight, they can be deleted or replaced. Other sections in this handout cover this concept more specifically, but there are some general examples below containing sentences with words that could be cut.

3. Combine Sentences.

Some information does not require a full sentence, and can easily be inserted into another sentence without losing any of its value. To get more strategies for sentence combining, see the handout on Sentence Variety .

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Avoiding Wordiness: How to Improve Your Writing

Texts can be weak and powerful - they can inform, convince, scare, warn, or calm. And, to achieve the purpose of a certain text successfully, you should know the basic rules on how to avoid wordiness.

One of them says that to make your narration resonate with the audience, you have to make it clear and precise. It is interesting to note that the study shows that there are some examples can be left in, yet we will go over the most common rules.

In this article, we would like to provide you with several recommendations on how to avoid redundancy in your texts, refine them easily, and turn everything wordy concise. Since it is a school/college where you face various text-related assignments most frequently, our guide will be focused mostly on academic papers, and we will offer a set of useful advice and tips for students.

The Issue of Wordiness

Getting rid of wordiness is one of the toughest parts of writing and proofreading, especially when you're creating something academic.

When you're struggling to just get words down on the page, using too many words is often the last thing on your mind. But no matter what you're writing, using fewer words to say more is always better than using more words to say less.

Each word can decide your fate when it comes to scholarly writing. Usually, students are given a set of must-meet requirements to get a high grade, and one of them is a word count. That can bring you to fill the text with phrases involving redundant information, provide the facts or some examples that aren't important or interesting, and turn your assignment into a wordy illogical mess.

Next time you're about to hand in a research paper, essay, or lab report, take the time to edit for conciseness and clarity using our amazing guidelines.

If you are working on a text for the assignment, the primary task is to:

• Make your statement clear
• Provide relevant support for your arguments
• Help the target audience understand the core idea of your paper

That will help you avoid any "What if's" and extra-questions about the content of your work. That is why it is crucial to eliminate any overdoing with words - to create an understandable and refined A-grade text. To stop beating around the bush in your writings, we have prepared a set of recommendations!

5 Aspects of Wordiness

All the mistakes and cases can be completely different, but there are some patterns of wordiness the professor would like for you to get rid of. Here, we will look through some of them and provide you with effective text-fixing strategies.

#1 Ready-made phrases

It's a common mistake to believe that adding more words will make your paper sound more formal and important.

Phrases like " concerning the matter of... " and " in light of the fact that... " might sound impressive, but they're just taking up space that could be devoted to more concrete ideas. That's why the first rule of wordiness is to never use two (or three, or four) words when one will do. Half the phrases made up of a bunch of words have short and precise analogs.

• " it's possible that... " (replace with " might " or " maybe ")
• " there's a chance that ..." (" might " or " maybe ")
• " has the capacity to ..." (" can ")
• " it is necessary that ..." (" must " or " should ")
• " it is important that ..." (" must " or " should ")
• " in light of the fact that ..." (" because ")
• " under circumstances in which ..." (" when ")
• " with regard to ..." (" about ")
• " at this point in time ..." (" now " or " yet ")
• " as a result of ..." (" because ")
• " in the event of ..." (" if ")
• " in order to ..." (" to ")
• " with reference to ..." (" about ")
• " in the near future ..." (" soon ")

Here are some instances of using this technique in action!

There's a chance that the author of the article was merely mistaken, but in light of the fact that he has not fixed the mistake at this point in time, it is unlikely. (33 words)

The author of the article might have been mistaken, but because he has not fixed the mistake yet, it is unlikely. (21 words)

As a result of exposure to the smoke, there's a chance that many of the firefighters will need to go to the hospital. (23 words)

Because of exposure to the smoke, many of the firefighters might need to go to the hospital. (17 words)

#2 Logorrhea

Another common place to find extra words is in small, choppy sentences that repeat the same information. This is a wordiness type that stands for using extra long sentences filled with abstract language and overlaid with conjunctions. A short sentence contains information that doesn't need to stand alone and can instead be combined with the surrounding clauses to create new sentences that use fewer words.

For instance, " It is interesting and important to note that in spite of the fact that Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' is called the most powerful love story, different aspects of the tragedy have considerable implications for perception of the people's relationships, the psychology of behavior, etc. " There is a chance you've stopped reading after the first five words. Don't resort to this type of narration unless you are dealing with lab report or law-related assignment.

The main character in Heart of Darkness is Marlow. Marlow is a ship captain. He is hired by a Belgian company to captain a boat that is headed into the Congo. The goal of his mission is to locate the missing Kurtz. (43 words)

The main character in Heart of Darkness , a ship captain named Marlow, is hired by a Belgian company to captain a boat that is headed into the Congo to locate the missing Kurtz. (33 words)

Be on the lookout for sentences that start with " this ," " these ," or " that ," as these types of sentences can usually be combined with other clauses.

The couch and the table belong to my roommate. These won't be sold in the garage sale.

My roommate's couch and table won't be sold in the garage sale.

Many students also tend to remind the reader about something that was already mentioned or obvious, and that is the wrong path. That is not only about repeating the same information several times throughout the writing, but also the pointless bifurcation (simple/elementary, concept/idea), redundant phrasal verbs or adjectives (return away, fall down, final result), and so forth. We suggest you consider the use of more precise words and combinations to make the text understandable.

#3 Useless words and phrases

When you're writing, there's no need to say the same thing twice, but a lot of common phrases do just that. When you say something is a " true fact ," you're using two words that mean the same thing. If it's a fact, then by definition it's true; if it's true, then by definition it's a fact. There's no need to use both together - it's redundant and distracting. Here are some other common redundant phrases:

• unexpected surprise
• vast majority
• currently at this time
• brief summary
• famous celebrity
• continue on

Be careful about modifying words that don't need it. I.e., " really ", " very ," and " positively " are usually included for emphasis or to intensify, but they don't add any new meaning to the sentence.

Lincoln thought it was very important that Congress pass the bill before the end of the year.

Lincoln thought it was important that Congress pass the bill before the end of the year.

Expletives are phrases with " it " or " there " followed by a " to be " verb, i.e., " it is " or " there are ." While these can sometimes be used for emphasis at the start of a sentence, it's probable that they're unnecessary and are just adding extra bulk to your paper. To get rid of expletives at the beginning of sentences, eliminate the " to be " verb and make the object of the expletive phrase the subject of the sentence.

It is the teacher who needs to grade the exams.

The teacher needs to grade the exams.

There are three people who know the combination to the safe.

Three people know the combination to the safe.

Stringing together infinitive verbs (unconjugated verbs with the " to " still attached) makes sentences challenging to read and wastes valuable space on the page. Usually, those infinitives can be turned into action verbs to shorten the sentence and make the meaning clearer.

It was her job to check participants into the conference and to hand out gift bags.

She checked participants into the conference and handed out gift bags.

My roommate wanted to have a party, but I told her the noise would cause our landlord to be angry with us.

My roommate wanted to party, but I told her that the noise would anger our landlord.

Know your audience and trust them to be able to fill in obvious and implied information in a sentence. Prepositional phrases that tell the reader things they already know can be cut.

When we ate at the restaurant, I ordered salmon from the waiter and my friends and I split a piece of cheesecake between us. (The reader knows that you eat at a restaurant and that you order from the waiter - you don't need to tell them. " Between us " is redundant since the word "share " has already been used.)

At the restaurant, I ordered salmon, and my friends and I split a piece of cheesecake.

#4 Transparency and conciseness

A lot of unnecessary words are used in student essays to hedge, backpedal, or imply uncertainty. When you're writing a paper, you should be firm, and not dance around your argument with unnecessary additions like " might " or " seems " or with phrases designed to cajole the reader, like " it should be obvious " or " as you can see ."

When you're writing, stay away from iffy words and just say what you mean.

As you can see from the studies, students are much more likely to complete their homework if they are allowed to have an extra hour of sleep. (27 words)

The studies show that students are more likely to complete their homework if they are allowed an extra hour of sleep. (21 words; also notice that an extra infinitive verb was edited out.)

The author might be using nature imagery to show how the characters connect with their spirituality.

The author uses nature imagery to show how the characters connect with their spirituality.

#5 Be ruthless

The last step in proofreading your paper for conciseness is to go back through it line by line and ask yourself whether each word is performing a unique and important task in the sentence. Find all the words that you don't need.

This is the hardest part of proofreading. Once you've put in all that effort getting sentences down on the page, it can be painful to erase them, but it's important that you be ruthless in your editing.

If you find phrasing that's repetitive or vague, take it out or rewrite the sentence to get rid of wordiness. It might make it more difficult if you're trying to meet the word limit, but it will improve the quality of your writing.

If you think that sentences are still wordy, the monotony of your text can help you fix it. Always keep in mind that three long (less than 10 words) or short (more than 10) sentences in a row are hard to perceive. While proofreading and revising the assignment, pay attention to the coherence and cohesion. Your text can be polished like a shiny diamond but complicated for a reader.

Thank you for stopping by and reading our article on avoiding wordiness. Hope our guidelines on this topic will help you with writing only perfect texts!

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7 Tips for Clear and Concise Writing

Written by MasterClass

Last updated: Aug 23, 2021 • 3 min read

Readers and audiences treasure concise writing. Concise sentences and paragraphs grip your reader’s attention and help them focus on your main point. More concise writing will also help you, the writer, organize your ideas and streamline your overall writing process. Works of creative writing, persuasive writing, business writing, and academic writing are all elevated by clear writing that is free from wordiness and distended sentence structure.

Tidy up wordy phrases

Make sentences concise by eliminating wordy phrases.

Wordy: In a situation in which a class is overenrolled, you may request that the instructor force-add you. Concise: When a class is overenrolled, you may ask the instructor to force-add you. Wordy: I will now make a few observations concerning the matter of contingency funds. Concise: I will now make a few observations about contingency funds. Wordy: There is a need for more careful inspection of all welds. Concise: You must inspect all welds more carefully. Inspect all welds more carefully. (Williams, 1985, p. 79)

Words to use

Here are some words you can use to de-clutter wordy phrases:

Instead of . . .

• the reason for
• for the reason that
• due to the fact that
• owing to the fact that
• in light of the fact that
• considering the fact that
• on the grounds that
• this is why
• because, since, why
• despite the fact that
• regardless of the fact that
• notwithstanding the fact that
• although, even, though
• in the event that
• if it should transpire/happen that
• under circumstances in which
• on the occasion of
• in a situation in which
• in reference to
• with regard to
• concerning the matter of
• where . . . is concerned
• it is crucial that
• it is necessary that
• there is a need/necessity for
• it is important that
• it is incumbent upon
• cannot be avoided
• must, should
• has the opportunity to
• is in a position to
• has the capacity for
• has the ability to
• it is possible that
• there is a chance that
• it could happen that
• the possibility exists for
• may, might, can, could
• in anticipation of
• subsequent to
• following on
• at the same time as
• simultaneously with
• before, after, as

Improving Your Writing Style

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Clear, Concise Sentences

Use the active voice

Put the action in the verb

Reduce wordy verbs

Reduce prepositional phrases

Reduce expletive constructions

Avoid using vague nouns

Avoid unneccessarily inflated words

Avoid noun strings

Transitional Words and Phrases

Connecting Ideas Through Transitions

Using Transitional Words and Phrases

How to Shorten an Essay: 4 Techniques to Reduce Word Count

If you need to shorten your essay by 100-500 words, or even more, you can use one or more of four techniques. You can clean up your sentences, remove repetition, summarize your examples, and/or cut out an entire section.

One of my subscribers recently asked me, “ How do I compress an essay of 700-1000 words, or even more, to just 300 words? ”

In this tutorial I will show you four easy ways to shorten your essay by as much or as little as you wish. I am giving them to you in the order you should try them out.

Here are four techniques to shorten your essay:

Technique #1: Sentence Cleanup

When I taught essay writing in college, I noticed that students wrote sentences that were just too wordy. 

They used 20 words where 10 would have probably done the trick. If you examine your sentences, you’ll often find that you can say the same thing in much fewer words.

“In my opinion, there are many people who want to lose weight.”

This sentence contains 12 words. 

Here’s how we can shorten it by performing a Sentence Cleanup.

First, you never have to say, “ In my opinion, ” because if it were not your opinion, you wouldn’t be stating it. Okay? So, let’s cross out “ in my opinion. ”

“ In my opinion, there are many people who want to lose weight.”

We just cut out three words. 

Next, the phrase “ there are ” is usually unnecessary, and if you take it out, your sentence will become more elegant. So, let’s do it. Let’s just cross it out.

“ There are many people who want to lose weight.”

We also have to cross out the extra word “ who ” because it is only needed if you use “ there are. ”

We just got rid of three more words. 

And so our sentence becomes:

“Many people want to lose weight.”

How many words is that? That is now a six word sentence. Guess what – we just cut this sentence in half. 

Do this enough times in your essay, and it will get a lot shorter.

“How do I cut out 200 words from my essay to make it shorter?”

This sentence contains 14 words. Let’s perform a Sentence Cleanup.

Notice that it is pretty obvious that to cut out 200 words from an essay will make it shorter. Therefore, stating that you want to do it “ to make it shorter ” is unnecessary. 

If we get rid of that phrase, we’ll cut out 4 words from this sentence and make it a lot more elegant. 

“How do I cut out 200 words from my essay to make it shorter ?”

Technique #2: Removing Repetition

Repetition can be found on all levels – in a sentence, in a paragraph, or a section. When you reduce or eliminate repetition in your essay, you are making it less redundant. “Redundant” just means repetitive and therefore useless.

In the last example we just did, we eliminated a redundancy from a sentence. And that’s part of a Sentence Cleanup. But you can also find and eliminate entire redundant sentences.  

Look for repetitive phrases, sentences, and even passages in your content and remove them. 

Students often repeat things over and over, using different words, thinking that they’re writing great content. Those are your opportunities to significantly shorten your essay while improving it at the same time.

Here’s an example from a fictitious student essay. Let’s say the student writes about his trip to Paris and states:

“ I found that Parisians are very nice if you talk to them in French. ”

And then, in the same or even a different paragraph or section, the following sentence would appear:

“Parisians can be very nice people, but they really prefer that you speak French with them.”

Well, the two sentences say the same thing, just using different words. 

So, what do you do? 

Pick the longer sentence and just delete it.

Sometimes you will find a whole paragraph in your essay that is repetitive and can be removed without the essay losing any meaning. If you find such a paragraph, just delete it.

Technique #3: Zooming Out

Make sure that you go through your essay using the first two techniques before you employ this and the next one. 

The only case where you would do Zooming Out first would be if you had to shorten your essay drastically – by 30% or more. 

If you’ve cleaned up all your sentences and removed all repetitive content, and you still need to lose hundreds of words, the Zooming Out technique will really help. 

Here’s how it works. 

You may have heard that in essay writing, you are supposed to proceed from general to specific. Whether you stick to this rule really well in your essay or not, I want you to notice something. 

In your essay, you make statements that are:

• very general
• less general
• somewhat specific
• very specific

The most general statement in your essay is the thesis because it summarizes the entire essay. And the most specific parts of your essay are examples .

So, in order to shorten your essay, you can summarize your examples. I call this Zooming Out because you are taking something that was very specific (zoomed in) and making it more general (zoomed out). 

Let’s say you’re writing about the harms of second-hand smoking. And in one of the sections you provide an example of your friend or someone in the news who became seriously ill because she lived with a smoker for a long time:

“My friend Isabelle was married to a chain smoker. Her husband refused not only to give up his habit but even to reduce it. As years went by, Isabelle began to notice some respiratory symptoms. At first, she developed a light but persistent cough. Then, she started to feel out of breath more and more often. When she finally went to a pulmonologist, a test revealed that she had COPD, a serious lung disease.”

This example is 74 words long. And this is your opportunity to shorten your essay dramatically. 

You can simply contract this example into one short sentence and write something like this:

“A friend of mine developed lung disease after having lived with a chain smoker for twelve years.”

Now, this sentence contains only 17 words. We just cut out 57 words just by Zooming Out on one example. 

We are Zooming Out because we are no longer exploring this example in detail. We simply provide a fact without giving a lot of specific information. 

So, look for these detailed examples in your essay and just summarize each of them into one short sentence.

Technique #4: Cutting out a Section

This technique works very well to cut out a big chunk of your essay in one fell swoop.

Let’s say that you wrote an essay in which you have four supporting points to prove your main point, your thesis. 

If this is a 2,000-word essay, then each section is approximately 500 words long. But do you really need four reasons/sections to support your point?

Is it possible that if you provide only three supporting points, your essay will still work very well?

For example, if you argue that apples are a great food, you could have four supporting points, claiming that apples are:

But what if you simply took out one of these points? Let’s say that you eliminate the section about the portability of apples.

Will your essay still work? Sure it will. It will work just fine with the three remaining supporting points. And you just cut out 500 words (in a 2,000-word essay). 

After you have cut out a section, make sure to go back to your thesis statement and edit it to reflect the change.

I’ll leave you with one final tip. When trying to choose which sentence, paragraph, or section to cut out from your essay, go for the content that you know is not the best.

For example, you may have a section in your essay where you quote too much. Or, perhaps you were not very careful in paraphrasing, and your passage sounds too much like the original source. These would be great bits of content to get rid of.

I hope this was helpful. Now go ahead and shorten your essay to your heart’s desire!

How to Write a 300 Word Essay – Simple Tutorial

How to expand an essay – 4 tips to increase the word count, 10 solid essay writing tips to help you improve quickly, essay writing for beginners: 6-step guide with examples, 6 simple ways to improve sentence structure in your essays.

Tutor Phil is an e-learning professional who helps adult learners finish their degrees by teaching them academic writing skills.

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Examples of wordy sentences – and how to correct wordiness

Sentences which are too long and wordy decrease the readability of your content. What are some examples of difficult sentences and how do you go about fixing them? 

What does it mean to be too wordy .

“Wait a minute,” you might be thinking, “isn’t it a good thing to display a good vocabulary?” And you’d have a point. As word nerds, we agree to an extent. It’s a great thing to use words sometimes that aren’t in the everyday conversation. Our language is full of rich and beautiful words and phrases which can make an ordinary sentence extraordinary. Up to a certain point, it's good to be wordy.

This doesn’t mean there’s not a line to be drawn. There’s a difference between showing creativity and merely trying to stuff your writing with synonyms to look impressive. And chances are if you’re doing the latter, it’s obvious to your reader. This is the opposite of plain language and conciseness, and there’s a word for it - verbosity. 

Let’s look at some examples of this fatal flaw in writing and consider a more no-nonsense alternative. 

Academic wordiness 

Essays are particularly prone to wordiness . Here’s a passage sourced from San Jose State University on the topic of pruning prose. They used the below as an example of wordiness:

There is currently a lively, ongoing controversy among many sociologists and other professionals who study human nature : theories are being spun and arguments are being conducted among them about what it means that so many young people—and older people, for that matter—who live in our society today are so very interested in stories about zombies.

According to Readable’s new ‘reach’ metric , this is only easily readable by 25% of the general public. 

Not only is this paragraph one really long sentence - but it’s also self-indulgent in using more words than are needed to make the point. It also uses unnecessary qualifiers (so very) where a stronger adjective would do the trick.  

This is how I would reword it:

A lively societal debate rages among the human sciences. The contentious issue is: why are so many people fascinated by zombie fiction?

The reach has shot up dramatically to 80% of the general public. Huzzah! Among other tweaks, I’ve replaced ‘so very interested’ with ‘fascinated’. Using too many adverbs can slow your writing down , whereas using a stronger adjective instead keeps your writing dynamic. 

Redundant expressions

A redundant expression is another type of wordy expression and it means you’re saying the same thing twice to fill space. 

For example, if you reference an ‘empty void’, you’re using a redundant expression, or ‘doublespeak’. A void is by its definition empty. 

The synonymous or related words aren’t always right next to each other in redundant expressions. Here’s an example of a paragraph full of doublespeak:

She opened the envelope, which contained a confidential document inside . After reading it with close scrutiny , she discovered it was written in the exact same handwriting as the mysterious note she’d received before; the reason she knew this was because of handwriting studies in her past history .

I’ve bolded the repetitions in the sentences phrases which make them superfluous and too wordy. Here’s the corrected version:

She opened the envelope, which contained a confidential document. After reading it with scrutiny, she discovered it was written in the same handwriting as the mysterious note she’d received before; she knew this because of handwriting studies in her past. 

All you have to do is identify where you’re using two synonymous words where one would do. 

Passive phrases

The passive voice makes your writing look indirect and less trustworthy.

You’ll recognize the passive voice from any document you’ve ever read which tries to shift responsibility from the party in question and put a distance between themselves and the action. 

It refuses to get to the point and doesn’t add clarity to the situation it’s describing - sometimes this is deliberate, and sometimes it’s a misguided attempt to sound more intellectual. 

Monzo is a great example of a company who are actively making an effort to clarify their terms and conditions for their customers. Instead of saying, “a refund will be given to you”, they say “we’ll give you a refund” as part of their tone guidelines. 

By w riting in the active voice in their terms and conditions , they give a strong and trustworthy impression. 

Here’s a quick guide to active versus passive voice:

Go forth and edit!

Don’t forget that clarifying your content and cutting out the fluff isn’t about dumbing down your content. It’s about opening it up. Got a question about how to improve readability? Let us know in the comments or get in touch .

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Laura Kelly

Laura is a freelance writer and worked at Readable for a number of years. Laura is well-versed in optimising content for readability and Readable's suite of tools. She aims to write guides that help you make the most out of Readable.

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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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