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6 Hacks to Lengthen Your Essay

Writing an essay sometimes can be mind-boggling and sometimes your paper may fall short of the instructions given and you have to figure out ways to make it longer. So, there are a couple of ways of increasing your word or page count to achieve this and they are described below.

Divide it into more paragraphs

Writing in long continuous prose limits your word count and reduces spaces between lines. The space between each paragraph if increased by subdividing the essay into more paragraphs. This trick can significantly increase word count. Subdividing the essay into more paragraphs also leaves room to reintroduce more content. For each newly added paragraph try to add new topic sentences and transitions to the subsequent paragraphs. This trick is guaranteed to not only increase the word count but the length of the essay eventually.

Include long quotes

Quoted content is part of the word count. It is likely the most legal and creative way to increase word count effortlessly because the instructions mostly do not necessarily stipulate the length of quotes. Thus, you take advantage of this loophole and exploit it by including long quotes. Use quotes that are longer than seventy words as they require block quotes. Include the block text as they are and cite appropriately. Additionally, explicate on the blockquote in length. If possible, paraphrase it and show how it is relevant to your argument. The sentences that stem from the block text as they expound it and contextualizing the information also add to your essay length.

Elaborate

An essay is just about stating a thesis and discussing it exhaustively. Most essays have the structure of a topic sentence and several support sentences for each body paragraph. To use this structure to your advantage, explain everything in detail. Rephrase some sentences to elaborate on each point such that it carries the maximum amount of words possible. Add any filler information in these paragraphs to add to its length. Since there is no definitive number of appropriate support sentences, exploit this opportunity to your favor by writing as many support sentences as possible with long sentences. Add examples and elaborate them too as you contextualize them in the argument. You can add quotes too and also contextualize them in the argument you are presenting. Use any means to convince your readers that your points are valid and include any information that could help explicate the argument to lengthen your essay.

Increase spacing /larger font

The formatting of any document determines its length. A double-spaced document is twice as long as a single-spaced document. Therefore, you can come up with ingenious ways of using formatting techniques to increase your word count. First, you can increase the page margin slightly that the required measurements. Typically, it is usually one inch; however, an addition of just a quarter is almost invisible but goes a long way into giving your essay an illusion that it is longer. You can also increase the font size slightly.

Typically, most instructors require a 12-sized font but you can use 12.5. This minute difference can almost lengthen a 1000-word essay by almost three lines. Additionally, you can tweak the character spacing and the line spacing slightly to increase your essay length.

Your periods and commas also can add to your length but make sure you do not make your essay look ridiculous. You can also include cover pages and separate references page that adds to your page numbers. However, be careful when using formatting tricks to lengthen your essay as they do not work if your instructor is after word count. However, you can trick them by adding any information after your conclusion and changing the font color to white. The word processor can ‘read’ it but he/she cannot see them.

Avoid acronyms

Acronyms are your enemy if your word count is below par. Write them out and repeat them continuously in your essay. Acronyms condense several words sometimes over five words into a single word. If you have an acronym that stands for over five words and spells it out and if you use it 10 times, it will have added an entire paragraph worth of content for you. If the acronyms are several, it is no brainer that you could have a page which literally is made up of acronyms. The best thing about using them is you just need to use the Ctrl +F feature in word processors to find all the acronyms and replace them with their elongated version. Then your essay magically lengthens significantly!

Minimize pronouns

Pronouns are often short and they replace possibly longer words. Writing out the proper nouns help in wordiness of the essay. A single pronoun can replace several words which are necessary to add the page count. For example, you could use “Mike, Tony, and Steve’ instead of ‘they’. For each time you use the pronoun, you lose three words and cumulatively they can have a big impact on your writing.

Wrap-up

Concisely, writers from Essay Zoo recommended the afore-described hacks to lengthen your essay. In this article, we have discussed them in detail to simplify the process for an essay writer to ensure they beat the penalties that could stem from failing to meet essay-length requirements.  

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