AS English coursework - word count?

In the Edexcel English Literature AS 3a coursework (Shakespeare in Context) there is a word count guideline of 1500 words.

My word count is 2247 (including quotes from the text, critics, etc). I've tried cutting it down to the minimum in terms of 'wordiness', but now if I take any more out I lose points that I'm making. (I also found some sentences that stopped making grammatical sense when I got careless...)

I'd like to know how harsh the penalty for being over word limit is - for example, how many marks are taken off, or if they just draw a line after a certain number of words and refuse to mark past it.

Thanks for any help.

Reply 1

Ywiss

15

helyxzero

In the Edexcel English Literature AS 3a coursework (Shakespeare in Context) there is a word count guideline of 1500 words.

My word count is 2247 (including quotes from the text, critics, etc). I've tried cutting it down to the minimum in terms of 'wordiness', but now if I take any more out I lose points that I'm making. (I also found some sentences that stopped making grammatical sense when I got careless...)

I'd like to know how harsh the penalty for being over word limit is - for example, how many marks are taken off, or if they just draw a line after a certain number of words and refuse to mark past it.

Thanks for any help.

Okay, well, I'm doing AQA, and we're told to cut our coursework down as far as we possibly could so that it wasn't over the word limit. The absolute maximum for us is +10% - so for you it would be 1650 words. The moderators are told to stop marking over-long work, so we're always advised to make sure we cut it down - even if it means losing points we made. Of course, we could always be lucky - not all the pieces were sent to the moderator - but it's a chance you have to risk. It might be different for you though, I don't know.

Reply 2

cumoots

you have to take out quotations...

Reply 3

Wildebeest

13

I'm doing AQA and studying the Great Gatsby; we have to write two essays which give a combined 1500 words! And you expect AS English Literature to give you essay-writing practice...

More than 700 words over the limit will be noticeable to any moderator, though even my coursework totalled over 2000 words overall! From what I have heard, nothing is too strict at AS level, though you need to be careful because A2 is quite the opposite.

Reply 4

kellywood_5

17

cumoots

you have to take out quotations...

Once you've done that, you should be closer to the word limit. I'd personally take out critics as well because you don't need them for AS level (I got a decent A in the coursework without using a single one) and it's better to take those out than your own ideas.

Reply 5

aminalia89

13

i am doing the same coursework at the moment and encountering the same problems. everytime i cut down i end making really bad grammatical mistakes and forming incomplete sentence every where. back to the question my teacher said that we could go 50/70 words over. doesn't seem like alot. oh by the way the word count excludes quotes and criticism so the 1500 words is allocated to the things that you write

AS English coursework - word count?

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