How To Make An Essay Longer and Other Useful Things to Know about Paper Writing

One of the biggest challenges students face when writing long papers is meeting the requirements to the word count. Stress, multiple assignments at a time, and lack of knowledge of the topic are just few of the factors that make you keep asking ‘How many pages is 1000 words? Have I already written what is required?’ and constantly use words to pages converter. However, writing a thousand-word (or more) paper should not be a challenge if you are aware of some smart ways that can help you make it longer. Besides, this does not mean that a paper will be filled with redundancies – you can add length without compromising depth and quality of the discussion.

How To Make An Essay Longer

If you are wondering how to make an essay longer, check out the guide below. These simple tips will help you produce a long paper even if the deadline is really tough!

Keep the Essay Prompt and the Grading Rubric at Reach

How to make a paper longer if you are running out of time? Do not forget about a valuable resource that you can use to your advantage – the essay prompt and the grading rubric. As you write your essay, read and re-read the prompt and answer the following questions:

• Have I covered all the questions, including the implied ones?
• Have I backed up all the claims with supporting evidence?
• Maybe I forgot to mention some important details that might contribute to the reader’s understanding of the topic and my argument?
• Have I met all the professor’s requirements?

In most cases, students answer ‘no’ at least to one question. If this is the case for you, revise the essay.

Polish the Introduction and Conclusion

If the introduction was the first paragraph you wrote, you can now revise it because sometimes new ideas appear as you write. At this point, you might notice that you forgot to include an important definition or decide to add one more element to the background. Do the same with the conclusion – re-read it to see if you have summarized all the key ideas, linked the issue at hand to the broader context, mentioned the implications, or provided a solution to the problem. If you do not know how to lengthen an essay, the introduction and conclusion might give you the answer. 

Ask Someone to Read Your Paper and Give the Feedback

Even if your friends do not know everything about academic papers, such as what ideas to discuss or what the best font for essays is, they still can offer you invaluable help. How, you wonder? By providing you with a feedback on your essay! Even if the deadline is fast approaching, ask your friend to read your paper and tell you which parts were difficult to understand. After that, go back to those passages and revise them by providing a more in-depth explanation of what was unclear. This technique is extremely helpful because as I writer, you have a better understanding of the subject (and your own arguments, of course). However, what seems clear or self-explanatory to you might be confusing to the reader.

Include Quotations

Students are usually eager to include quotations because this is one of the easiest ways to support a claim and increase the word count without formulating the ideas with your own words. How long is an essay without quotations? Try not to add direct quotes if they do not contribute to the argument. In fact, many teachers give preferences to paraphrase rather than direct quotes, so you have to use them sparingly. However, if you are wondering how many pages is 1000 words and how to reach the page requirement, you can go through the literature once again and pick some good quotes. Even though long direct quotes are not necessarily good ones, you can still use them to save your essay. 

Go Back to Your Outline

If you bothered to create an outline for your paper, it can be a real saver in the moments when you do not know what else to add to the discussion. Take the initial outline and cross out all the ideas you have included. Is anything left out? Now use the omitted ideas to better your essay. 

Use More Transitions

Unlike students, instructors always pay attention to transitional words and phrases, such as ‘although’, ‘nevertheless’, ‘moreover’, etc. because they improve the flow and make the paper more coherent. However, they perform one more function – increase the word count! When you proofread the paper, pay attention to the sentence flow and transitions use. If some passages seem disorganizes, just add some transitions. Apart from getting closer to the word count requirements, you will also make sure that the essay reads easier. 

Ask for Instructor’s Assistance

Of course, this tip will work only in case you have enough time, because if you reach out to your instructor the night before submission, this might send a wrong message. As a rule, teachers and professors like reading their students’ drafts before the final deadline. If your professor offers such an option, find out the office hours and make an appointment. Obviously, you shouldn’t ask your professor how many pages is 1000 words, but they can share some pretty useful advice on how to look at the topic from a different perspective and increase the word count. 

Include Copious Examples to Support your Claims

Sources on the reference list are not only a proof of your pre-writing research, but also a place where you can find an abundance of examples to support your arguments. By including illustrative examples, you not only drive up the word count, but also establish credibility and show the reader that you have considered various sides of the topic before making conclusions. 

You might also be interested in Expository Essay

Easy Format Manipulations that Increase the Essay Length

Now, let’s look at formatting options, such as the best font for essays, margins, spacing, etc. that provide a viable solution to ‘how to make your essay look longer’ issue.

The Game of Fonts

• Try a font that is little bit larger. If there are no specific requirements to the font type and size, go for the fonts that are larger than Times New Roman, for example, Arial or Cambria. However, if the instructions say to use TNR, try a little trick – replace it with Bookman Old Style, which is very similar but is the best font for papers that must seem longer.
• Change the size of your font. Typically, teachers tell their students to use 12 pt. font, however, they will not notice if you increase the size just slightly, let us say, to 12.1 or 12.2. This undetectable manipulation can make your essay look significantly longer.
• Adjust the size of punctuation marks, such as commas and periods. By holding F and Ctrl on your keyboard, you will be able to replace all 12 pt. punctuation marks with the bigger ones in a second.

Adjusting Margins and Spaces

• There are numerous manipulations with text that are known only to experts, for example, unique words statistics. However, sometimes professionals let us in on a secret. One of them is spacing and margins manipulations that can make a text appear longer. Use the number to words calculator to see the difference. Click ‘Paragraph’ and choose ‘multiple’ in line spacing. Insert 1.1 under the box ‘At.’
• Make the right margin ¼ shorter. If you experience word count difficulties while writing a research paper, this tip might help. Reduce the margin to .75 inches. To do this, go to ‘Format’, select ‘document’ and type the number you need. Usually, the change is not easily noticeable, but in case it is, you can try a bigger margin. However, be careful not to change the left margin. Since the text is left justified, a reader can easily spot the discrepancy between the requirements and the format of the paper. Always resort to right margin manipulations to be on the safe side.
• Increasing the bottom margin in the same manner will also produce the desired effect. Repeat the same manipulations but select ‘Bottom’ in the ‘Document’ box. Many students like this strategy because it helps create the impression of a longer paper without the risk of being revealed.
• Another change you can make is choosing bigger character spacing. Usually, people do not pay much attention to the distance between words (if it stays within reason, of course), so you can expand it without hesitation. Select the text that will be changed, then click ‘Font’ and ‘Advanced’. You can type the spacing you need by clicking ‘Expanded’ in ‘Spacing’.

Changes in Header and Footer

• Sometimes acknowledging the power of formatting is as vital as knowing the power of words. You can make the header longer by including more details, such as your name, submission date, course, etc. 
• Although this information can also be included in a research paper title page, add the title below the header. You can increase the font, as well.

Making the Content More Voluminous

• Some numerals can be spelled out, for example, numbers from one to ten. Although these are not some creative words, they make your paper look more professional (and longer).
• Writing paper for academic purposes means that you must avoid contractions. This is a good thing because it means that the word count will automatically increase. Therefore, replace all ‘it’s’ with ‘it is’, ‘don’t’ with ‘do not’, and so on.
• Reduce the use of personal pronouns to a minimum and replace them with common and proper nouns. For example, you say Thomas and Annette, but not ‘he’ and ‘she.’
• Go through the body paragraphs again and make sure all of them have topic sentences. These are the sentences that announce the topic of a paragraph. Not only do they make your paper seem longer, but also improve the coherence. 

It is difficult to disagree with students who say that reaching a minimum word count requirement is a daunting challenge, but there are numerous tricks that teach how to make it wisely. We hope that these tips will help you submit the paper on time. Good luck!

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