Writing a complete essay means providing succinct details and extensive research to gather all required details. The final essay must have a complete introduction, detailed body paragraphs, a summarized conclusion, and references.
Most students often need help gathering all this relevant information and meeting the expected word count set by the instructor. Some opt to add fillers or unnecessary information to lengthen their college assignment. Others seek services from an online essay writing service to fill in this added information while maintaining context.
You don’t have to struggle to make your essay longer when running out of ideas during the writing phase. Here are several strategies to employ in your writing process to lengthen your essay and avoid fluff.
Ways to Elongate Your Essay
Several strategies to elongate your essay include changing the essay’s structure and editing. These tips allow for adding more details or context to meet the expected word count. Here are a few strategies to employ:
Lengthening Text Through Structuring
One loophole in lengthening your essay is through improving your essay structure. Re-structuring your essay increases your word tally without compromising your essay’s fluidity. Here are several ideas to lengthen your work:
Extend Introduction
Begin with a logical, naturally flowing, and descriptive introduction. A detailed introduction provides a dynamic context to give your audience more details about the topic. Also, it creates a perspective about the topic that gets broken down in the body paragraphs. End the introduction with a thesis statement. Experts recommend the introductory paragraph to range between 10%-12% of the total word tally.
Develop Sections
Another technique to employ when structuring your essay to meet word tally is breaking down your essay into sections. Dividing your topic into sections makes it easier for your audience to understand the thesis. For example, you can break down an essay about climate change into different sections, such as ozone layer destruction, global warming, or anthropogenic human activities. Use the added sections to provide more details, hence lengthening your paper.
Reworking Paragraphs
A paragraph should contain a central idea surrounded by supporting sentences and followed by dividing ideas into small bits. If your assignment researches about AI revolution, create short paragraphs about the technological effects or impact on specific industries. Add more text to each paragraph to elongate your paper.
Including Lists
Some papers require certain page numbers instead of word count. One way of meeting the expected page numbers is to include a list in your paper. For example, a paper about living a healthy lifestyle can include a numbered list of potential life changes, such as:
- Walking
- Running
- Dieting
- Yoga
- Swimming
Varied Sentence Structure
Another tactic to lengthen your text while keeping your audience engaged with varied sentences. Try combining simple, compound, and complex sentences for a dynamic experience.
A simple sentence can contain one major idea or concept presented to your audience. For example, climate change is rapidly evolving. A compound sentence contains two separate ideas, like, climate change is rapidly evolving and causing major environmental changes. A complex sentence contains more than two concepts in the same sentence. Also, it can form an entire paragraph depending on your assignment.
Lengthening Your Essay With Editing
Source: blog.suny.edu
The second alternative to elongate your paper is through the editing phase. This happens when revising your paper and looking for alternative ways to edit your paper. Here are various ways to lengthen your piece during the editing phase:
Defining Key Terms
Sometimes, we gross over terms our audiences might not relate to. Hence, it is the perfect time to elaborate more on various terms to keep your viewers engaged. Therefore, look for topic-specific terms to make your essay lengthy. This includes giving definitions when introducing a term to your audience.
Using Descriptive Language
Descriptions break down concepts or ideologies to make them more digestible to your audience. For example, when explaining a tour experience, be more descriptive while noting sights, sounds, feelings, and emotions. A descriptive sound gives a personal touch that showcases the writer’s perspectives on the subject matter.
Additional Examples
Some instances require giving examples to your audience to support your central argument. For example, a research paper about climate change can divulge real-life examples such as glaciers melting fast, rising sea levels, catastrophic storms, long drought periods, or severe fires. Ensure to give examples from your point of view to give it a dynamic and unique approach.
Professional Tips to Extend Text
Apart from re-structuring and editing tactics, there are other special terms to elongate your paper. Here are special ways to add more text to your essay:
Synonyms
One way to avoid repetitive statements during your writing phase is to capitalize on the power of synonyms. Fully analyze your paper and find instances or terms to replace with synonyms. The end goal is a naturally flowing essay that keeps your audience hooked. However, ensure that the chosen synonym maintains context with the rest of the essay.
Transition Words
Source:pinterest.com
These phrases help connect ideas to achieve a natural flow of ideas and concepts that connect with your intended audience. Also, it helps elevate your thoughts forward while proceeding from one to another. These phrases link sentences and paragraphs together for a smooth, crisp, and natural-flowing piece.
Eliminate Contractions
Any formal essay calls for a professional outlook that connects with your audience. Therefore, it is advisable to avoid contractions when writing your piece. Avoid using general terms such as won’t, don’t, cannot, or shouldn’t. Go for the long forms such as ‘do not,’ should not,’ ‘will not,’ or ‘I have.’ This makes your writing more conversational and connects the reader.
Final Takeaway
Struggling to write a paper after running out of ideas or feeling exhausted is a repetitive phenomenon for most students. Failing to meet the expected word count or number of pages means missing out on important grades. However, you can adopt these simple tactics to make your writing journey less stressful and straightforward. Revise the final draft for any inconsistencies, typos, or grammatical errors before submitting it for review.
