Best Tips for Reducing Your Essay Word Count

September 30, 2024| Category: Writing Tips

How often have you put a lot of effort into your essay, feeling sure about your submission but then realizing you haven’t reached the required word count yet? Or maybe you’ve written too much and are now finding it difficult to identify sections to remove. How can you add more words without repeating yourself or cut down on words without compromising your main points? If you need to increase the word count, please check our useful recommendations here. Besides, we have already provided some tricks to reduce the number of words successfully, and we’d be happy to help you out with more!

Certainly, one can use AI tools to cut or summarize the text. But it’s crucial to use a scalpel rather than an axe when attempting to make your essay shorter. That is, you shouldn’t remove a lot of content from your work in order to stay under the word limit. Rather, you should look for minor yet meaningful methods to reduce the number of words you write. Please have a look at the second part of our suggestions for bringing down the paper’s word count without sacrificing its quality.

Change Passive Voice into Active Voice

It is recommended to prefer the active voice in academic writing. In most cases it’s clear and direct, but it can also help you use fewer words.

Passive voice: The dramatic play Romeo and Juliet was composed by William Shakespeare in the 16th century. (14 words)

Active voice: William Shakespeare composed a dramatic play Romeo and Juliet in the 16th century. (12 words)

You must identify the subject of the sentence in order to change the passive voice to the active one. After that, reorganize your sentence to make the performer the main subject. Writing in the active voice can reduce word count while also improving the argument’s potency and clarity.

Remove Repetitive Prepositions

A further easy method to cut down on words is to avoid using prepositions, like “of” or “for,” in your writing.

Original version: For a large number of people, the reality of entering a new field of work is a reason for a lot of anxieties. (23 words)

Revised version: Many people feel anxious about changing careers. (7 words)

The great thing is that you shouldn’t read the whole text, but just use the program, such as MS Word, to find all the instances of a preposition. To use this method, all you have to do is to enter a space before and after the needed word in the left navigation panel. You will therefore be able to check how frequently you use this word in the text.

At the same time, you should understand that these kinds of prepositions can be helpful at times since they make a relationship between things more clear. However, there are instances where the word “of,” for example, is frequently appearing in a sentence, so you can prevent its excessive usage. This way removing prepositional phrases makes the sentence briefer, more straightforward, and easier to comprehend.

Eliminate Unnecessary Transitions & Running Starts

Transitions indicate the relationships between sentences or their parts, helping the reader to follow your ideas. Despite that, finding the balance is crucial to using transition phrases successfully. A document without transitions is hard to understand, but one in which nearly every sentence starts with linking words will seem overwhelmed. So, some transitions (e.g., then, indeed, that is to say, in any case) can be easily removed or changed.

Original version: Indeed, multiple studies have validated this theory. (7 words) 

Revised version: Multiple studies have validated this theory. (6 words) 

In spite of the fact that -> Although

In the event that -> If

Besides, you can check if there are phrases, like “the reason is that,” “as a matter of fact,” “this is because,” or “it has been found that”, at the beginning of your sentences. It’s always possible to erase them, making writing clearer.

Original version: It has been reported that treatment with the medication has caused the cells to migrate more quickly. (17 words)

Revised version: Treatment with the medication has caused the cells to migrate more quickly. (12 words)

Thus, it is important to substitute needless transitions as well as sentence starters to make your text shorter.

Omit Coordinating Conjunctions & that

Coordinating conjunctions (so, yet, or, but, and, nor, for) often connect two independent statements, so it’s possible to rewrite them as two distinct sentences.

Original version: Patients treated with medication X showed no symptoms after 4 days, and those treated with medication Y did not show any symptoms after 8 days. (25 words)

Revised version: Patients treated with medication X showed no symptoms after 4 days. Those treated with medication Y did not show any symptoms after 8 days. (24 words)

“That” is one more common conjunction, which is not always required in sentences.

Original version: I think that Britney Spears was the most famous pop singer in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. (19 words)

Revised version: I think Britney Spears was the most famous pop singer in the late 1990s and early 2000s. (17 words)

Still, you should differentiate where you can omit the word “that” and where you should keep it. As in the example above, “that” can be omitted with the verbs of thought or speech, e.g. “think,” “believe,” “hear,” “claim,” “know,” or “say.” They are referred to as “bridge verbs.” On the contrary, non-bridge verbs sound worse when you remove the word “that.” The reason is they typically have additional meaning beyond the idea of speaking or thinking something. As an illustration, the non-bridge verb “whisper” indicates to say something in a certain way rather than just to speak it.

“That” can also be deleted after some nouns, like “feeling” and “possibility.” Yet, “fact” is one of the nouns that will sound strange if you remove the word “that” after it. Similar to verbs and nouns, adjectives can easily accept or reject the deletion of “that.” For example, widely-used adjectives, like “sad” and “glad,” sound great without “that.” But you should keep “that” when adjectives have a more precise meaning and are less prevalent. Both “We are delighted that you got this job” and “She is angry that you haven’t called for a long time” would sound better with the word “that.”

Look for Redundant Info

The best recommendation is to be concise and clear in writing. It means you must follow the particular purpose and delete any excessive or repetitive points. If there is still too much text, do the following:

• remove/reduce quotes;
• take away additional arguments and examples;
• shorten your introduction/conclusion if they make up more than 10% of the paper.

Summary

Cutting words is one of the biggest challenges in writing. We’ve all been there! But there is one helpful rule – ensure the words you use contribute to the meaning. Otherwise, you can simply remove them. We also encourage you to use active voice, limit prepositions, like “of” and “for,” eliminate excessive transitions and running starts, remove unnecessary phrases, like “the reason is that,” to improve conciseness in writing. What’s more, coordinating conjunctions and the word “that” can often be omitted in sentences, except with certain verbs, nouns, and adjectives that require it for clarity and meaning.