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Wednesday 21 November 2007

2500 words

Doesn't sound like a lot, does it. But I'm sure you're all familiar with that soul-crushing sense of dismay you feel when you hit the word count button after entirely reworking and fleshing out your essay, only to find that it's gone up by a paltry 300 words. I know I am. And after that, I go over it again, desperately adding adjectives anywhere I can, changing "it's" to "it is", and other such desperate measures. Even in this blog post, I keep going back to add words every time I think of one.

I'll write a better post when I can. In the meantime, there's 760 words waiting for me that aren't going to write themselves.

10 comments:

  1. Umm, Anna, do you think lecturers sit there and actually count the words? LOL

    To within 1 standard deviation either side is probably fine, so 2000-3000 is fine for a 2500 word essay.

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  2. I think the accepted margin is 10% either way, so for a 2500 word essay it would be 2250-2750. Ish. Like Gav said, they don't sit and count, just go by what that amount of writing looks like. Ish.
    I'm doing a thing called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) at the moment - writing a 50K novel in a month. Not that the story will finish at 50K and I started before so I'll count myself as having succeeded if I hit 56 or 57 thousand before the end of the month. It's hard but it's so much harder with essays. At least with stories you can make it up.
    *sending hugs and Caffeine*
    Katie xx

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  3. hey anna :)
    yeah i agree 10% either way is acceptable.
    i understand the frustrations of essay writing, am happy to be out of that if only for a year!
    praying for you xx

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  4. hey, how goes the essay? (poke...us readers need new posts!) hope uni's ok x

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  5. i believe the essay was finished and handed in on time.
    but i agree, more posts are needed. :)
    er...please?

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  6. She got it done :) Well done Anna!

    Anna's interwibblywobblies are currently dead, some problem with the internet provider, but she'll be back online soon

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  7. Hang on... What subject are you studying? I've never hit the word count button and found myself under... Usually over by 1000 min. Can't wait for my dissertation! Get some extra to play around with.

    Get back online soon. x

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  8. English and creative writing... I am fully aware of the irony.

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  9. ... want to swap? I can fill 2500 words easy.

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  10. "English and creative writing... I am fully aware of the irony."

    Ironic though it may be, in Eng/CrWr the main focus is on the words themselves, which can make it incredibly hard to choose ones to fill out an essay >.<

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