ARGHH! cutting words out of essay

i'm soooo annoyed. i need to cut 200 words out of my essay which is meant to be 1000 words. i need everything. i don't know what to do!!

i'm so frustrated and stuck. so i'm going to whine on this thread until i can think of some plan........

sorry i just need to vent my frustration...arghhhhhhhh WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?!

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Reply 1

Alive

Delete all the e's and pretend your keyboard is broken.

Or even better, pretend your spacebar brokewhenyouhit2000words,soyoucan'tseperatewords.

do you waffle?

I bet a good quarter of the words are entirely unnecessary to establish your point.

Reply 4

rottcodd

I bet there are some words in there which are superfluous and which you could afford to cut out without losing the meaning of the sentence.

Edit: Lib beat me to it.

Reply 5

Natasha X

hmmm i know how you feel especially when you've worked hard on it.
try to cut down words like 'i am' to 'im'

Reply 6

rottcodd

Natasha X

hmmm i know how you feel especially when you've worked hard on it.
try to cut down words like 'i am' to 'im'

You can't really use 'I'm' in an academic essay.

Reply 7

joeydeacon

Natasha X

hmmm i know how you feel especially when you've worked hard on it.
try to cut down words like 'i am' to 'im'

that is bad grammar in terms of writing essays

Reply 8

Natasha X

joeydeacon

that is bad grammar in terms of writing essays

in that case, it wasn't me that said it! :smile:

Reply 9

CatatonicStupor

Is it a strict word limit, like will you lose marks for being 200 words over?

To be quite honest, I've got a piece of coursework due in, and it's meant to be 1500 words, with 1000 words coming from the main body. So far, I'm 300 words over, but I'm not panicking:

a) because I don't think someone would sit there and count ALL 1800 words in the end and say "Good essay. Excellent points made. blah blah BUT, 300 words over. C."

and B) because I can lose words in other places.

In your situation, I'd say hand it in as-is. Nobody is going to sit there and individually count words. 200 words is like a paragraph, or two, so you're not exactly going to be penalised for something that pathetic are you?

Reply 10

Tommy Jet

You're usually allowed 10% of the word count either way. I don't think anyone's counting.
Delete anything you've said more than once. Use short and to the point sentences.
Good luck!

Reply 11

*stars and stripes*

I always have to cut words out of essays/ coursework! I find that if you rearrange any sentences that are written in the passive form it helps to cut words but other than that, look for explanations/ points that have been unnecessarily repeated and reduce the word count a little at a time by e.g. as a result becomes consequently

Hope this helps! xxx

Reply 12

fairycakes

no that's 200 words to cut out with 10%. i haven't repeated myself anywhere i don't think. i asked her today to clarify some things on what to put in and leave out, and she was like 'its your own judgement' she said that to basically every question i had. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I DON'T KNOW enough to make a judgment...

and she wants a word count written on the essay.

Reply 13

Sandhu

Youcouldalwaysdoahubertpooandtypelikethis?

Or, cut out crap that you don't 100% need, 200 words isn't a lot...

Reply 14

fairycakes

now it's 189!

189 out of 1289 is a lot!!

Reply 15

eDDeboo

Its harder when you write personal statements

Reply 16

Tommy Jet

Just keep going over your sentences. Really long ones with plenty of commas can probably be simplified.
You'll just have to suck it up and get rid of little things that don't add to the essay.

Reply 17

Teao the Cat

eDDeboo

Its harder when you write personal statements

Oh, goodness, personal statemnts, dont remind me, that was hell! the characters, and everything! grrr! I am so pleased all that is behind me!

Reply 18

buttons_andbeads

have you had someone else read it over?
After reading my essays a few times I tend to skim over them without realizing!
try showing it to a parent or someone and they may be able to suggest what you could get rid of!
that's all I can suggest I'm afraid :smile:

Reply 19

Dramatic Star

I hate doing that as I'm always over. I'm allowed 10% -/+ the word limit but still go stupidly over & then I feel like I'm ruining the essay when I attempt to reach the word limit. I suppose its better than being under!