If you use the passive voice where you describe how the object is acted upon, then your sentences will be longer and contribute to the unwanted length of the essay. We got rid of 15 words, more than half of what we got first. “Used” implies success; one would never say “nanoparticles have been unsuccessfully used.”. My wish for you today: empowerment to know when advice isn't going to work for you, and permission to ignore it when that happens. To illustrate how you can reduce the word count in your paper without impairing its integrity, we will use sample sentences and go through a list of techniques you can apply. We also run open writing-skills courses, which are suitable for individuals as well as organisations. Accessed October 15, 2016. Subscribe and get curated reads that will help you write an excellent manuscript. Rohrman N. The role of syntactic structure in the recall of English nominalizations. Some grammar and readability checking tools call a preposition-riddled sentence sticky or bogged down. First, revise to emphasize the important point, which in the context of the paper was not the variety of protein functions but the precise control of those functions. http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/view content.cgi?article=1475&context= faculty_ scholarship. In your essay, the most specific parts are the examples, and contracting them is an excellent way of shortening your paper. But word reduction is never easy, and it often takes reading through the entire manuscript in several passes to be able to identify all possible areas allowing for conciseness. I am back in school, and editing my own papers; this will be invaluable for tightening up written-at-the-crack-of-dawn paragraphs. Company registration number: 3588428 Company address: Emphasis Training Ltd, 130 Queen’s Road, Brighton, BN1 3WB, Tailored courses High-impact business writing Report writing Writing to customers Bid and tender writing Grammar and punctuation Better business letters Writing for the web Effective email writing Business case writing Technical writing course, Browse our online courses for individuals, I would have kept this shorter, but I didn’t have the time. 1982;74 :733-48. 1, left panels) and 24 h later (Fig. If you identify such unnecessary arguments within your essay while editing, eliminate them so that you can focus more on your main point, and achieve the target word count. As a custom writing service we provide custom services for assistance purposes only. Again, eliminate unnecessary prepositional phrases, and don’t repeat words unnecessarily: the second instance of “change” does not need a modifier to indicate that you are referring to the morphological change. To avoid this and reduce the essay’s length, carefully select the most relevant and strongest points. Instead, use the active voice whenever possible, especially if it’s critical to know who or what acts. I also often struggle to fit my essays into the word count confines. The sentence above conveys the same meaning but is much shorter. Seventeenth-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal once made a quip in a letter along the lines of, ‘I would have kept this shorter, but I didn’t have the time.’ Editing yourself is a skill. Example: If you are writing a study about AIDS, avoid starting the introduction with a statement like “AIDS is a life-threatening disease.”. Typically, we speak with longer sentences than in writing. Therefore, it is important to avoid the passive voice in an essay. 5 min read, How to write an effective title and abstract and choose appropriate keywords The following are some of the most effective techniques for making your essay shorter. The bottom line is that when you are told to write a specific number of pages or meet a particular word count, it is imperative to meet the requirements because you will lose some points. (12 words). It’s best to keep the journal requirements in mind and try to write concisely when you are drafting your manuscript itself. Although it can help the reader better understand emotions or situations in nonfiction, it’s unwelcome in academic writing. Victoria White (Tampa, Florida, USA) Email. Register for comprehensive research tips and expert advice on English writing, journal publishing, good publication practices, trends in publishing, and a lot more. You can remove “I provided” because you specify that the essay is yours, so it’s only logical that those quotes were provided by you. The number of sources needed depends with the length of the paper. Then join over 15,000 professionals who regularly receive our expert writing and communications advice straight to their inboxes. By ranking the importance of the arguments you make in the essay, you can drop … With keen editors and friendly support, we guarantee quality, ORIGINAL papers and essays that score high. Read on for a comprehensive guide 7 ways how you can shorten your essay but still make the points you intended to keep in the paper. Document design: a review of the relevant research. The paper was already quite short and contained little extraneous information. AMWA J. Other common tactics to steer clear of are reducing spacing between lines (which can make text dense and uninviting) and shrinking font size. Thank you so much for this entry. Instead, place the values within parentheses. Full disclosure: Editage Insights is a product of Editage, a global provider of world-class scientific communication solutions. This sentence is in the active voice because John (subject) performs the action of playing basketball (object). That way you don’t need to fret about losing anything important. We are an online custom writing service to provide products tailored for customers to use in their own way. All Rights Reserved. That’s usually overkill – you could demonstrate your point with just one or two examples. They give a mere summary of the body paragraphs when instead, you must tie them together and provide a broader context without sending the reader back. Let us know if you liked this page so that we can improve our content. We allow free revisions to ensure that our customers are satisfied and that the papers respond to the instructions. Please how can I reduce the similarity…, 6 Unnecessary comma errors to avoid in your research paper, Did you know that most comma errors you make in while…, This 2-minute video gives a quick overview of how a…. Second, prepare a detailed outline that will define the ideas you want to include. So it’s better to have two-and-a-half pages of readable font than one page of 7-point font spread across long lines. English grammar allows for repeated verbs in a sentence to be eliminated by using something called “elliptical constructions.”, Original: Group A was given cyclosporine, Group B was given FK506, and Group C was given chlorambucil. This is the point where things can easily go […], Do you ever feel like you’re always in a face-off with your word processor – and losing? When it comes to reducing the word count, most learners find it quite hard. Create a free account and get unlimited access to all resources & a vibrant researcher community. Our service guarantees to be very confidential and professional in all our essay writing tasks. So opt for hyphenated terms wherever possible. It is also important to vary the length of your sentences. Scientific writing: Avoid starting sentences with a number or…, How to write an effective title and abstract and choose appropriate keywords, A vocabulary lesson for clear writing: commonly confused words, How to effectively use active and passive voice in research writing, Common errors in the usage of abbreviations in scientific writing. However, you should always try to stay under the limit indicated in the requirements, especially for a college application essay. When writing, always use the perfect verb rather than one that’s close, but not perfect to the actual verb. (12 words). The editing process should be the last step in writing your essay. Sword H. Zombie nouns. In this case, you might have some words that you need to get rid of in the essay. Authors tend to add such statements especially at the beginning of the introduction and discussion. +44 (0)1273 732 888 gtag('config', 'AW-1070966643/h1OgCJ3Z-tgBEPPO1v4D', { 'phone_conversion_number': '+44 (0)1273 732 888' }); 3 ways to shorten any document (and one you should ALWAYS avoid), You’ve finally made time to sit down and write that key document. But it’s also a huge favour to your readers – and more likely to result in your document being read, absorbed and acted on. It depends, but a 10% margin should be fine. You might want to make the text more detailed or get so inspired when writing that you can’t stop filling your sentences with adjectives and adverbs. But as you give it a final once-over before hitting ‘send’, don’t forget one crucial question: ‘Is it too long?’. 2002— Eliminate any extra information or words that do not add value to your point or overall argument. Don’t be too precious about making sure that paragraphs fit neatly into each other at this stage. These guidelines will help you in reducing the length of your manuscript considerably without altering the content. Luckily, you don’t need to wait for thunder and get your essay struck by lightning to do that. [Read: Why You Should Care About Readability Statistics] Count the commas. Original: The economic destabilization is the consequence of the government’s failure to implement effective economic policies. When it comes to adjectives, they do not add meaning to the sentence and therefore they are unnecessary. Striking out with readability formulas. Sentences carrying product names can be shortened by shifting the product name within parentheses. By this, I mean writing something like ‘make a recommendation’ rather than simply ‘recommend’ – this is called a nominalisation. Washington, D.C.: American Institutes for Research, Document Design Center; 1980. Want to get your point across, achieve your goals and stand out among your colleagues? Writers might use longer equivalents of phrases in scientific papers or nonfiction, but you should simplify them in essays to reduce word count. Such sentences should be accompanied by reference citations, which make the above phrases redundant. Original: Due to the fact that the majority of papers have to fall in line with length limitations, students are necessitated to gain an understanding of how to put their thoughts into words clearly. A private safe space for researchers around the world to be themselves, learn from and motivate each other, and have some fun! This can result in unnecessary words and sentences that go beyond the required word count. Better still, use the first three techniques here to lose the excess length, and you won’t need to lower yourself to such tricks ever again. Wordiness implies using phrases that can be replaced with one-two words without changing the meaning or choosing a sentence structure with too many articles and prepositions. © 2020 GradeBees.com. Reducing the number of words in a text without losing information is easier than you might think. Duffy TM, Kabance P. Testing a readable writing approach to text revision. var d=new Date(); yr=d.getFullYear();document.write(yr); Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Educational Technology Publications, 1982:317-40. Using the active voice while constructing your sentences will help you achieve this while keeping them brief. Wordy phrasing also falls under this section. Many phrases that are separated with a comma can be safely removed from your essay (e.g., “to be honest” or “in fact”). Why Revisions? In fact, conforming to a given word count limit is difficult for native English speakers as well because they usually have so much to say and have to remember to keep it short. Our original resources for authors and journals will help you become an expert in academic publishing. When you use the passive voice, the subject receives the action, and the action doer is often unknown. You move the large pieces of furniture around first and get the broad layout right before worrying about small details. Edited: Because most papers must meet length requirements, students should learn how to express their thoughts clearly. When you’re restructuring, it’s a bit like arranging your belongings when you’ve just moved house. Instead of first-person, or second-person language, always use a third-person approach. If you learn to write without being wordy or using a lot of fillers, the quality of your text will rise a lot. (Basic and…, 10 Tips to reduce the length of your research paper. Avoid linking to previous information in an essay — it’s a waste of time. Cactus Communications. With over 10 years in academia and academic assistance, Alicia Smart is the epitome of excellence in the writing industry. Illogically structured documents are often long documents. Check the list below for the most common words and phrases of these types. Therefore, you can see that writing in the active voice shortens your essay. Look out for typical wordy phrases that can be replaced with less wordy options. As for what we deleted, the word “certain” doesn’t require a modifier because if you’re not completely certain, you are not certain anymore (if that makes sense). Students may find themselves accidentally going out of topic and including other unnecessary wordings and arguments to make their essays appear “smarter” or well-written. J Verbal Learning Verbal Behav. They find those that are close instead of using the perfect verb. You might get away with writing a bit less text, whereas more will just annoy the reader. Original: As it was mentioned earlier, we can improve our education system by…, Edited: We can improve our education system by…. Activate this on your computer and it’ll do the counting for you. 1 Comment on Need to shorten your paper? (5) Nanoparticles have been successfully used to carry probe molecules into cells. They disorient the reader’s and prevent them from moving forward. Charrow PR, Charrow VR. Lang TA. Original: After rehabilitation, the patients came to rely on themselves. Concise writing presents ideas clearly and does not use more words than are truly necessary. The best answer for How to shorten an essay is use the best suitable verb in your writing. “I struggle to shorten my essay without ruining it.” If your thoughts are similar to that, we will try to help you solve this problem. Besides the things we cover in our article, you can also try to replace phrasal verbs with their one-word versions (e.g., “get back” -> “return”). Nanoparticles have been used to carry probe molecules into cells. If you found that your word count is maximum than the specified value, then the first thing you have to do is to rank the points you have used to support your argument. Become a great peer reviewer! [CDATA[// >