How To Make An Essay Longer

There's nothing worse than staring down an essay with a large word count. It feels like you'll never be able to reach it, and get the passing grade you need. The good news is, there are several ways in which you can ensure you hit your word count without waffling or adding unnecessary details.

Why Make Your Essay Longer?

When you're assigned any essay topic by your school, there will usually be a word or page count that you need to reach. That may seem fine when you start, but as you include everything you think should be in your essay, you find you're nowhere near the word count given.

For some students that can feel impossible to reach, and they may try and do things like changing font sizes, margins, and so on. However, the fact is that those word counts are given for a reason. If you're finding it hard to reach them, then there may be something important that you haven't yet included. The good news is, it's fairly simple to work out what that is and start making your essay longer with ease.

Ways To Make Your Essay Longer

Looking for ways to make your essay longer? Here's the steps you should take to ensure that you're including everything that should be in your paper.

Check the assignment: The very first thing you should do is take a look at the assignment you were given. Before you started writing, you should have checked the assignment carefully.

In a lot of cases, your essay isn't as long as you need it to be because you're actually missing part of the essay. For example, you may not have included a counter argument that you were meant to, or there's a section that you forgot to include.

Also, take a look at the thesis statement you made at the start of the essay. Have you covered everything that you were meant to in that statement? You may need to bring in another piece of evidence or argument to cover this.

Include examples: When writing any essay, bringing in examples to illustrate your points is often necessary. If you're finding that you're not meeting your word limit, it could be that you're not using enough of them.

You don't want to use too many, as that will artificially pad out the essay without adding anything constructive. As a rule, for every point you make, adding an example will help you make that point. If you haven't added an example to a point, do so now.

Check you're adding quotes where needed: If you're writing an essay, you should be able to back up points from the sources you're using. That can be done using quotes from the text. If you haven't been including them, these should be used.

Remember you're not looking to do this just to lengthen the word count. Any quote you use should be relevant to the point that you're making at the time.

Try creating a reverse outline: Do you feel the essay is finished put it's still not reaching that word limit? A good technique is to write a reverse outline. This is when you read through your essay, and then write a summary of it.

When you do this, you may uncover sections that have yet to be included, or just need fleshing out. It's easy to not realise this when you're in the midst of writing, so it's worth a try.

Have someone proofread the essay: If you're still not sure what you're missing, have someone else proofread it. Again, it's very easy not to see the wood for the trees when you're working on the essay. Having a fresh set of eyes look at it helps a lot.

An Example Of A Lengthened Essay

Not sure how to increase the word count without damaging the quality of your essay? Let's look at the following example:

Right now a large percentage of teenagers own smartphones, and that gives them greater access to the internet than ever before. As it's in the palm of their hand, parents are concerned about what their children are accessing online.

This piece is in need of an example and a source to back it up, so these can be added in like so:

"As of 2023, 95% of teenagers have access to their own smartphone" says Harper (2023). "As such, parents are concerned about the things they could be accessing on their own device." For example, many teenagers can find themselves the target of internet bullying. Having access to smartphones allows bullies to target victims away from the eyes of adults, which can result in harm that their parents aren't even aware of.

If you think your essay is too short, don't worry, as there are several ways you can improve that word count. Use the tips provided here to ensure that you're meeting the word count and still writing a top grading paper.