The Student Room Group

Word count

My essay is meant to be 2000 words, but the tutor has said it doesnt matter if its a couple of hundred over. I am currently on 2300 and can get rid of nothing, and still need to put another 100 words in, so do you think i can get away with having 2400 and putting 2200 down?
its submitted on paper not electronically

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Unlikely. They'll notice it's at least 200 words more than everyone elses.
Reply 2
No, they'll notice that. They'll be marking essay after essay and it'll be obvious that yours is longer.
No. Not unless you want to be given a zero on your assignment. You can always cut down. Try harder.
(edited 13 years ago)
make the font smaller thats what i did with a piece of coursework they didnt notice :smile:
Reply 5
I think it's okay if it's 10% or something over usually?
2400 is pushing it a bit..
just cut it down, most essays benifit with a good trim...
Reply 7
in another email i have got he has said 'dont worry too much about going over, as long as its not drastically over'
he seems fairly layed back
Reply 8
Original post by miss_sporty
make the font smaller thats what i did with a piece of coursework they didnt notice :smile:


It's a bit different at uni :wink:
Going that far over the word limit would gain you a big fat zero for your coursework in my department.

If you can't find anything to cut out, you're not looking hard enough.
+/- 10%

Unless hmm you write something like: word count excluding appendices, references etc.

Then bung words in tables.
Original post by History123
My essay is meant to be 2000 words, but the tutor has said it doesnt matter if its a couple of hundred over. I am currently on 2300 and can get rid of nothing, and still need to put another 100 words in, so do you think i can get away with having 2400 and putting 2200 down?
its submitted on paper not electronically



For my history coursework you couldn't go over the 2000 limit at all, if you did, they would just draw a line under the 2000th word, and not mark any after that. 'apparently' they have some machine that scans the papers and counts the words. at least this is what the edexcel board and my teacher said.....BUT i don't know what subject you're taking, so maybe it's different!
Reply 12
History, but its not edexcel its the university
Original post by Edmund Darling
For my history coursework you couldn't go over the 2000 limit at all, if you did, they would just draw a line under the 2000th word, and not mark any after that. 'apparently' they have some machine that scans the papers and counts the words. at least this is what the edexcel board and my teacher said.....BUT i don't know what subject you're taking, so maybe it's different!
This is University level not A level. :colonhash:
Original post by Stricof
This is University level not A level. :colonhash:


so it is, silly me :facepalm:
Reply 15
Finish it and then lose 200 words. Don't risk losing marks for word count, anything over 2200 ain't good. You can ALWAYS edit stuff out.
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 16
use 1.5 spacing instead of double spacing... tbh a few hundred words is nothing really. i never used to put my actual word count at undergrad.. i was always over. never got penalised.

this could backfire on you though, i guess it depends on your dept.


edit: you said your tutor is cool about it? then defo lie about the word count and go over. its really not a major thing, a few hundred words is nothing really. dont think tutors are bothered by them... i did an essay last term that was 1500 UNDER and still got 65. they didnt even mention it.
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 17
Don't lie. What happened to academic honesty? Be concise! If other people can write an essay within the word limit and get a good mark then you can too.
Reply 18
You can summarise and 'signal' to the marker that you've had to skip briefly through somethings you could have gone into greater depth on... they seem to quite like that.

We're told refs/biblo doesn't count as part of your wc, I do the typing for those in a separate document anyway and just join them when I'm absolutely finished - but that could just be me being weird.
Better to cut down a few unecessary adjectives than get a big, fat zero on your paper.

Try using some of these tricks, they're actually really useful. I managed to cut down a couple of hundred words from my coursework just getting rid of some words that don't actually contribute very much to the flow of the writing:

http://writetodone.com/2008/09/26/trouble-sticking-to-your-word-count-try-these-editing-tricks/

Quick Reply

Latest