Don't stress over it, it happens to the best of us—you've been given an essay assignment and have procrastinated, leaving you with three pages of writing that should be closer to six pages. A quick Internet search for advice produces questionable suggestions, including changing your font size to 12.5 (don't do it!), adding spaces between words and paragraphs, or increasing the margin size—all tricks that your professor has likely seen multiple times and will notice immediately.
Before you start going through and doing something so drastic as adding spaces where they shouldn't be, let's look at some more natural (and therefore, less obvious) ways of adding word count to your essay. Here are five tactics that will add word count to your essay quickly and correctly.
Include more transitional words
You should already have transitional words or phrases at the beginning of each paragraph in your essay. If you don't, add them as part of improving the overall structure and organization of your writing. But a lot of academic writers don't realize that these transitions can work within paragraphs, as well, to add more logical structure within the paragraphs (instead of simply between them). For example, consider the following paragraph, which is 83 words in length:
Example 1
In order to create an essay that flows logically, you need to include transition words at the beginning of each paragraph. These transitions aren't limited to only the beginning of each new paragraph and can be used throughout the rest of the paragraph to show how each sentence is connected to the one that precedes it and follows it. Including multiple transitions helps readers maintain focus on what they're reading and helps ensure that the writer focuses on one major idea per paragraph.
Now, let's look at that same paragraph with transitional words added, both at the beginning and throughout the rest of the sentences.
Example 2
To begin adding additional length and in order to create an essay that flows logically, you need to include transition words at the beginning of each paragraph. However, it's important to note that these transitions aren't limited to only the beginning of each new paragraph and can be used throughout the rest of the paragraph to show how each sentence is connected to the one that precedes it and follows it. As a matter of fact, including multiple transitions helps readers maintain focus on what they're reading and additionally, helps ensure that the writer focuses on one major idea per paragraph.
By adding transitions throughout, I have taken a paragraph from 83 words to 101 words through a relatively simple process. If you do this to each paragraph, you can add a significant number of words without doing much extra writing. Note that if you are being graded on the succinctness of your writing, your professor might argue that adding so many transitions makes your writing wordy. However, a teacher with even the most stringent grading policy must take into account that transitions at the beginning of paragraphs are necessary.
Here is a list of some commonly used transition words that can be used for this purpose:
- …when in fact
- Above all
- Accordingly
- Additionally
- Admittedly
- After (this)
- Afterwards
- All else being equal
- All the same
- Also
- Although
- Altogether
- And yet
- Anyway
- As
- As (was) mentioned earlier/above
- As (was) stated before
- As a consequence
- As a final point
- As a matter of fact
- As a result (of this)
- As for (this)
- As well as
- As/So long as
- At any rate
- Be that as it may
- Because (of the fact that)
- Because (of this)
- Besides
- But
- By the same token
- By the way
- By way of contrast
- Coincidentally
- Concerning (this)
- Consequently
- Considering (this)
- Conversely
- Despite (this)
- Due to (the fact that)
- Either way
- Equally
- Especially
- Even more
- Even so
- Even though
- Eventually
- Finally
- First of all
- First/Second/Third
- For
- For example/instance
- For the purpose(s) of
- For the reason that
- For this reason
- Furthermore
- Given these points
- Granted (that)
- Granting (that)
- Hence
- However
- If so
- If…then
- In a similar way
- In addition to
- In any case
- In any event
- In conclusion
- In contrast
- In fact
- In order that/to
- In other words
- In particular
- In spite of (this)
- In summary
- In that case
- In the (first/second/third) place
- In the event that
- In the hope that
- In the same way
- Inasmuch as
- Incidentally
- Indeed
- Initially
- Instead (of)
- Last
- Likewise
- Looking at (this information)
- More/Most importantly
- Moreover
- Namely
- Nevertheless
- Next
- Nonetheless
- Not only…but also
- Notably
- Notwithstanding (this)
- On the contrary
- On the other hand
- On the subject of (this)
- Once again
- One example (of this is)
- Only if
- Or at least
- Or rather
- Otherwise
- Overall
- Owing to (the fact)
- Particularly
- Previously
- Primarily
- Provided (that)
- Regarding (this)
- Regardless (of this)
- Regardless (of)
- Returning to the subject
- Secondly
- Significantly
- Similarly
- Since
- So as to
- So much (so) that
- Specifically
- Still
- Subsequently
- Summarizing (this)
- That being the case
- That is (to say)
- The fact that
- Therefore
- Thirdly
- This means (that)
- Thus
- To conclude
- To illustrate
- To put (it) another way
- To repeat
- To resume
- To start with
- To sum up
- Ultimately
- Under those circumstances
- Unless
- What this means is
- Whatever happens
- Whereas
- While
- With (this fact) in mind
- With regards to (this)
Write a reverse outline
After the bulk of your paper has been written, going back through and creating a reverse outline can help you find gaps in your writing that could be further developed and filled by additional information or examples. It's as simple as reading back through what you've written and creating an outline of the major ideas, topics and subtopics you've included. If you've provided an example, include that on your reverse outline, as well.
Reverse outlining also helps you find paragraphs that might contain more than one major idea. When this happens, you'll need to divide the paragraph into more than one paragraph and further develop the points within them, ensuring that each paragraph has a topic sentence that matches what the rest of the paragraph is about.
Use expert quotes
One of the easiest ways to add to the word count of an essay is by including expert quotes. Not only do such quotes show that you have considered the thoughts and opinions of others who are well-read on the topic you're writing on, it also can add considerable length to a paper, especially if you include multiple quotes from several different sources.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing quotes and adding them to your essay:
- Be sure that the quote is applicable to the topic in general, and to the paragraph you're adding it to, in specific.
- Include quotation marks and the proper citation for each quote. Not doing so is plagiarism.
- If a quote is more than three lines, put it in block quote format.
- Separate multiple quotes with your own writing in between, perhaps as commentary on the substance of the quote previously noted.
Use multiple examples to back up your argument
In the same sense that using expert quotes adds to your essay's word count as well as the thoroughness of your research, using examples and anecdotes to expand on your hypotheses is a great way to provide proof for your argument. However, this doesn't have to be limited to one example per point you're making. Consider this: if you are writing a sociology paper about the dangers of social media use for adolescents, you should be able to find several anecdotes of how teenagers have been put in danger in various ways through their social media use. Along with these anecdotes, you can provide expert quotes (or quotes from the teenagers, themselves) to make your argument more solid and add word count to an essay that's too short.
Read your writing aloud
Finally, and after all of the above tactics have been used, read your essay out loud. This achieves two purposes. First, it allows you to proofread and check for any obvious mistakes that might remain after the initial first draft writing phase. Second, reading it aloud helps you to check for any areas that might not flow well (this is easier to hear than see) so you can add to them to achieve a better flow and organization to your writing.
