essay word count shortener

Reduce Word Count Generator

Cut your word count without reducing the content. This tool is very easy to use:

• Paste the text.
• Mind that there is a 15,000-character limit.
• Choose text reduction options.
• Click the button.
• Copy the text to the clipboard.

⭐️ Word Count Reducer: the Benefits

• ✒️ What Is Cut-Down-Word-Count Generator?
• ✂️ How to Cut Down Words?
• 👍 Word Cutter Do's & Don'ts

🖇️ References

✒️ reduce word count generator: what is it.

Cut-Down-Word-Count Generator is a free online tool that summarizes texts and reduces sentence and word count. It cuts out unnecessary words , phrases, and sentences but doesn't change the sense of a text. This is a helpful instrument for students, journalists, and other people who work with loads of written information.

Besides reducing your writing, you can also use the tool to summarize books, short novels, and articles on any topic. Artificial intelligence finds keywords and decides which sentences and words are the most essential.

The tool is also fully compatible with Grammarly – you can edit the text on our page if you have an extension.

✂️ How to Cut Down Words in My Essay?

Automatic tools are great when you need to work with extensive text . However, consider manual summarizing for more flexibility.

Here's how to reduce your word count manually:

• Find and highlight the key messages . If you do it thoroughly, you will preserve the initial sense of a text.
• Cut out adjectives and adverbs . Many of them are just filler words that serve only the aesthetic features of a text. That is why you won't lose the main points if you delete them.
• Look for synonyms and synonymic collocations . To avoid plagiarism in academic papers, use synonyms when referring to another author's thoughts. And you will still need to give them a reference.
• Change structures . Simplifying sentences is another way to reduce the word count. Just rewrite lengthy and overcomplicated grammar.
• One paragraph – one idea . Each section should focus only on one idea or answer one question. Keep your paragraphs at 200-300 and sentences at 15-25 words.

Words and Phrases to Avoid

You will also need to work on vocabulary . In this part, we will explain how to avoid excessive wording and bring your essay to academic standards.

👍 Word Cutter for Essays: Do's and Don'ts

This list of practical recommendations will help you use the word remover to its max.

• Don't paste long texts . The word limit allows us to summarize extensive passages, but we don't recommend it. Instead of cutting the whole text, work with each part separately.
• Don't simply copy and paste the results into your essay . You will likely need to modify the reduced text to create a smooth final version.
• Divide texts into logical parts . The AI will identify the main points quicker and have fewer error risks. It will also make it easier for you to navigate and spot mistakes.
• Check the results . It will be easier for you to manually correct inaccuracies at the very first stage. The tool is fast, but the human brain is more capable of understanding writing subtleties.
• Remove plagiarism . This is not a paraphrasing tool , so you must work on plagiarism. If it is just for personal use, you can leave the text as it is. Otherwise, you will need to quote or paraphrase the text to avoid plagiarized content.
• Work on word choice . Some texts you use might not be suitable for academic writing or your instructor's requirements. Devote some time to put the vocabulary in order.

📝 Word Reducing Example

Check out this example of a text summarized by our word reducer.

Original text

In the current study, several limitations of the research are necessary to mention. While random sampling will ensure representativeness and a low level of bias, there is a risk of limited outcomes in quantitative analysis. Since the questionnaires use structured and close-ended questions, there is a possibility of limited outcomes, which means that the results cannot always represent the actual occurrence in generalized forms.

Since respondents have limited response options that the researcher designed, the outcomes thus ultimately depend on the perspective taken by a scholar when creating the questions. Another significant limitation of the study is the limited availability of secondary data that can be applied to the research context. While the subject matter is widespread, there has been little research on implementing a sports education instructional program at educational facilities. Finally, data may not be robust enough to make conclusions regarding study findings.

Full text: Jeddah University: Sports Health Education Instructional Program - 4403 Words | Free Paper Example

Reduced version:

Since the questionnaires use structured and close-ended questions, there is a possibility of limited outcomes, which means that the results cannot always represent the actual occurrence in generalized forms. Another significant limitation of the study is the limited availability of secondary data that can be applied to the research context. While the subject matter is widespread, there has been little research on implementing a sports education instructional program at educational facilities.

• 10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count | The University of Adelaide
• Top Words to Avoid in Academic Writing | Useful Advices & Tricks
• Summarizing: How to effectively summarize the work of others | SFU Library
• The Writing Center | When to Summarize, Paraphrase, and...

Free Text Shortener Tool

Text Compactor

Free online automatic text summarization tool.

Follow these simple steps to create a summary of your text.

Click the Summarize! button.

Read your summarized text. If you would like a different summary, repeat Step 2. When you are happy with the summary, copy and paste the text into a word processor, or text to speech program , or language translation tool

© 2010-2016 Knowledge by Design, Inc.

You can Choose category

Essay Word Cutter - Reduce a Text in an Instant

Input your essay to reduce word count

Reduced version length:

Here is your summary:

Our free word cutter for essays uses AI technology to shorten texts in these easy steps:

• Paste the text you want to shorten. It should be a maximum of 18,000 characters in one go.
• Indicate the length of the text you want to receive as a result of summarization.
• Click “Shorten the text” and get the results.
• 🖋 The Tool’s Benefits

✂️ How to Cut Words in an Essay?

• 🖇 References

🖋 Essay Word Cutter Benefits

Text summarizing is a crucial process in academic writing. It demonstrates your capacity to organize and deliver the key facts, story points, ideas, etc. A person can easily understand a decent summary without reading the original material. Thus, students love our essay shortener for the following reasons:

If you need to summarize your hard-won draft essay to fit the word count requirement and are pressured to fulfill a fast-approaching deadline, you can make a few adjustments to your content. Follow these guidelines to reduce your word count in a shorter time:

• Remove conjunctions
• Eliminate adverbs and adjectives
• Omit unnecessary articles
• Decrease wordy phrases
• Use an active voice
• Choose shorter words

Remove Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words or phrases that connect two independent sentences, words, or phrases that can often be rewritten into separate statements.

The most common conjunctions are and , but , or , because , and however , among others.

These conjunctions increase the word and character counts in an essay.

Eliminate Adverbs and Adjectives

Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, prepositions, or other adverbs in sentences. Adjectives describe and qualify nouns and pronouns. Using adjectives and adverbs in an essay reduces the quality of your writing, while omitting superfluous adjectives and adverbs makes the text more concise .

Omit Unnecessary Articles – The/That

Avoid overusing the words “ the ” and “ that ” in your essay since they increase the wordiness of your content.

Decrease Wordy Phrases

Identify the needless words and lengthy phrases that clutter your essay and eliminate them or replace them with more functional words and phrases. Avoiding complex terms and long sentences makes it easy for anyone to understand the topic easily .

Use an Active Voice

Articles written in an active voice use fewer words than those in a passive voice. An active voice makes the essay clearer and more compelling , thus delivering a convincing argument.

Choose Shorter Words and Avoid Unnecessary Transitions

To reduce the character count of your essay, replace long words with their shorter synonyms.

For instance:

The word “utilize” can be replaced by use.

Additionally, the use of transition words is essential to maintaining a proper flow in your writing, thus making the article engaging to the reader. However, transitions make a text wordier . That’s why it’s vital to strike the right balance between coherence and reasonable word count.

Thank you for reading this guide!

Check the other study tools we’ve prepared: paper rewriter , poem meaning generator , and project topic maker .

📍 Essay Word Cutter – FAQ

📍 how to cut words from an essay.

The most efficient and effective way is to use our free online essay cutter to do the heavy lifting. However, if you have time and prefer to summarize your own, you can apply the tips shared in this article to reduce the word count in your essay.

📍 How to reduce word count in an essay?

You can use the tips highlighted above to trim your essay’s word count. If you’re strained with time, you can utilize our free summary generator to shorten your essay and achieve impeccable results quickly, within the click of a button.

📍 How to check word count on Word?

Check the status bar when you need to know how many words, pages, characters, paragraphs, or lines are in a Word document. For a partial word count, select the words you want to count. The status bar shows the word count for that selection and the entire document.

Updated: Apr 9th, 2024

🔗 References

• How to effectively summarize the work of others - SFU Library
• Summarizing - Academic Integrity at MIT
• How to reduce word count without reducing content
• How to Increase or Decrease Your Paper's Word Count
• 10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count

• Call to +1 844 889-9952

Word Count Reducer

Have you exceeded your assignment word limit and now wonder how to cut your essay length? Try our word count decreaser! It will shorten your paper while preserving its meaning.

Create a summary of any academic text with this summarizing software! It will generate a synopsis for you in 3 simple steps:

How often do you exceed the word count by more than 10%? How often do you lack the required amount of words? In many cases, writing a text of the exact size is difficult. However, teachers assess your ability to squeeze all required content into a particular volume, especially in admission essays.

Use our handy free online tool – a word decreaser – if you’re clueless about what to cut out from your writing.

• ✂️ How to Use the Word Decreaser?

✅ Word Cutter: the Benefits

• 🕰️ When to Use the Tool?
• ✍️ How to Cut Words?
• 🤩 Why Choose This Tool?
• 🔗 References

✂️ Word Count Decreaser Guidelines

When you realize that your text requires reduction, you may follow two paths – edit it on your own or take advantage of modern technology. Our smart word count decreaser will do the job for you! The entire process is automated and lets you submit an essay with an exact word count without losing the important content.

Here’s how you can use the decrease word count tool:

• Paste your text into the first window;
• Select the number of sentences you want the summary to have;
• Choose to see the keywords of the text;
• Press “Decrease” and review the result.

The best about our tool is that you won’t spend hours editing your writing masterpiece. You can quickly decrease word count online and experiment with several word combinations to find the best match.

🕰️ Word Cutter – When to Use It?

Let’s discuss the propriety of using the decrease word count generator and explain the cases when you’ll find it useful.

Exceeding the Word Count (Essay, Research Paper, Thesis)

Each academic assignment has a specific word count based on the contents and depth of the research.

• A standard essay usually ranges from 500 to 2000 words;
• A research paper is rarely smaller than 2,500-3,000 words;
• Theses and dissertations have more extended word counts, from 10,000 to 25,000.

So, if you’ve hopelessly run out of the required word count and still need to cover some vital sections, turn to our word count reducer. The tool will cut words from the essay or dissertation to let you meet the word limit. You can stipulate the number of sentences it should contain and highlight the keywords to preserve the core content.

Making a Book Review

A book review is a detailed yet concise analysis of the book’s contents, main plot twists, and characters. Students of humanities departments, especially Literature, often need to make book reviews and reports based on the studied material. But do you have time to read all the books and then write reviews? If not, our word count reducer can help you receive a short, manageable summary in a few seconds. Read it, get the book’s content, and write a review in one go without spending several days on full-size book reading.

Writing an Abstract

You may often need to complete an abstract for an essay, dissertation, or other academic manuscripts , which should not exceed 200-250 words. Producing such a concise summary is often challenging, as your work is large and contains many valuable facts you might want to cover. Our word reducer will do the job for you. Just instruct it on what to focus on, and the tool will generate a brief, informative abstract, keeping the data you need.

Paraphrasing

Students often have to read, process, and synthesize dozens of scholarly works when writing academic papers, like essays or coursework. The challenge here is to refer to sources in a non-plagiarized way , so you should dedicate enough time and effort to paraphrasing. Though our keyword reducer will not make the summarized content unique (paraphraser will), it will identify the key facts and points for further paraphrasing .

In this section, you’ll find the key advantages of this word reducer.

✍️ How to Reduce Word Count?

Many students ask, “how can I reduce my word count?” This task requires careful editing and content review so the process may take hours. We’ve compiled some handy tips to guide you in this process and hone your word-count-reduction skills.

🤩 Why Choose This Reduce-Word-Count Generator?

As you can see, reducing the word count can be a tedious task. Our free online tool can do the job for you by speeding up the process of word cutting.

• You can shorten the text without losing its quality and key information.
• You stay in complete control of the word reduction process.
• You can compare the original text’s word/character/sentence count with in the output section.
• You can see keywords for a quick review of the core content.
• You are able to copy the result with one click.

What’s more, the tool comes with a detailed, user-friendly interface that will make your experience a breeze. It’s free to use, and you can enjoy it without limitations for any academic challenge.

Updated: Apr 19th, 2024

📎 References

• How to Reduce Your Essay Word Count – Word Counter Blog
• 10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count – the University of Adelaide
• Paraphrasing – Purdue OWL® – Purdue University
• Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper; The Writing Center; UW–Madison
• Research Paper Structure

8 Proven Methods to Reduce Essay Word Count, AI Included

Table of contents

Yona Schnitzer

We all know how hard it is to write long essays with a minimum word count.

But sometimes, we're faced with the opposite challenge - keeping our essays under a maximum count.

How to Reduce Essay Word Count

1. Use an active voice instead of passive 2. Spot the fluff 3. Eliminate redundant words 4. Shorten wordy phrases 5. Stop using "What" and "There" as subjects 6. Drop the conjunctions 7. Forget the running starts 8. Use shorter words

Anyone who has ever tried covering complex topics with a maximum word ceiling can tell you that it can be challenging to reduce the word count without sacrificing the meaning or flow of your piece. 

In this article, I’ll give you 8 easy tips to help you reduce the word count in your essays without compromising the quality of your writing.

Instantly reduce your word count with this FREE AI tool > Instantly reduce your word count with this FREE AI tool >

Get Wordtune for free > Get Wordtune for free >

So, without further ado, here are 8 proven methods to reduce essay word count:

1. use an active voice instead of passive.

Using an active voice makes your writing more direct and concise. Passive voice often adds unnecessary words and can make your writing sound less engaging. For instance:

By switching to the passive voice, we’ve reduced our overall word count, while also making the sentence more engaging. 

Be sure to check out our full guide on how to nail the active voice .

2. Spot the fluff

One of the easiest ways to reduce word count is to identify any unnecessary or redundant information in your piece. Whether it’s drawn out introductions, or repetitive information, there’s always something that you can do without. Some tools, like Wordtune can actually help you identify areas where you can afford to shorten your writing, or even entire paragraphs that you can cut out.

3. Eliminate redundant words

Many sentences contain words that don't add any value to their meaning and can be easily removed. Very, for example, is a very common offender (see what I did there?). Instead of writing It was very cold outside, just write It was cold outside.

Here are some more examples of redundant words to help you get the idea:

4. Shorten wordy phrases

Another way to reduce word count is to identify and shorten wordy phrases. 

For example, instead of writing "due to the fact that, " you can write "because."  

Once you get in the habit of shortening your phrases, it will be like second nature. There are also some tools that can help you with that, like Wordtune's "shorten" feature, which can suggest shorter ways to write a sentence without sacrificing clarity.

5. Stop using "What" and "There" as subjects

Using "What" or "There" as the subject of a sentence will add unnecessary words to your writing. Instead, you can rephrase the sentence to make the subject more specific. 

For example: 

6. Drop the conjunctions

Conjunctions such as "and," "but," and "however" can be used to connect two independent statements, but they also add unnecessary words to your sentence. Instead of creating one, long sentence that is put together by conjunctions, try writing two separate sentences instead. Usually you’ll find that these end up using less words overall. 

For example:

This may seem like a small difference, but over the course of an entire paper, these small changes will really add up.

7. Forget the running starts

In writing, a "running start" refers to a sentence that begins with a word or phrase that does not provide any useful information and can be easily removed without affecting the meaning of the sentence. Common examples of running starts include words like "it," "there," "here," "this," and "that." These words often add unnecessary words to a sentence and can make the writing sound less direct and less engaging. Removing them can help to make your writing more concise and to the point.

Pro Tip: Wordtune's "Shorten" feature is great at eliminating running starts.

8. Use shorter words

Sometimes, an assignment has a page limit rather than a word count, in this instance, it can be worth it to identify words that can be replaced with shorter words of the same meaning. For example, instead of writing " utilize ," you can write " use ." 

Here are some other common words that can afford to lose a few letters:

Less is more

‍ If you’re looking for tips on how to INCREASE word count, check out this article . 

There are plenty of ways to reduce your word count without sacrificing the quality of your writing. Use these tips and tricks the next time you find yourself desperately trying to squeeze too many sentences onto one page. Keep in mind that whenever you shorten a text, you’re usually improving it by making it more readable and accessible to a larger audience. 

Remember, when it comes to writing - less, is usually more. 

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How to Make an Essay Longer or Shorter

Table of contents

What is word count?

7 ways to reduce word count, 6 ways to increase word count, word count faqs.

How many times have you worked hard on a research paper or essay , felt confident in your argument, and decided you were ready to turn it in, only to notice that you’re still behind on the word count? Or perhaps you wrote too much, and now you’re struggling to find parts to cut.

How do you increase the word count without being redundant or reduce the word count without sacrificing your key arguments?

You take a deep breath and continue reading our suggestions on the best ways to increase or reduce word count without compromising the quality of your paper.

Give your writing extra polish Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with Grammarly

Word count is the number of words in a writing sample or document. Word counts exist for many reasons—print publications, for example, have them to ensure stories can fit in a defined space in a newspaper, magazine, or book.

But when it comes to research papers and essays , word counts are used to level the playing field: Each student has the same number of words to get their point across. A strong writer can do this without using unnecessary words to reach the minimum word count, while also avoiding rambling and exceeding the maximum word count.

One of the biggest reasons some students run into problems with word count requirements is that they may be too focused on it. The writer can become more focused on the number of words than on getting their point across clearly and concisely.

When trying to reduce word count it’s important to use a scalpel and not an axe—meaning you don’t want to delete large portions of your paper to ensure you’re below the maximum word count. Instead, you want to find small but significant ways to bring down your word count.

1 Look for redundancies in your argument

Look to see if you’ve repeated any information in your paper, and delete any redundant points.

If your paper has to do with climate change and you mention the rate at which the polar ice caps are melting twice, delete the second mention (unless it’s related to a separate point you’re trying to make). If you find yourself reiterating the same point in slightly different language, choose the one that is written more clearly and eliminate the other.

2 Eliminate unnecessary or ancillary information

Find any details that don’t serve your argument and delete them. For example, if you’re writing a paper about George Washington’s policy positions, you don’t need to mention his personal life unless it directly impacted his political career.

3 Get to the point

The best arguments are clear and direct, and your paper should strive to be the same.

We could’ve built up that last sentence by talking about the different styles of communication or the pros and cons of being direct, but instead, we got to the point.

Trying to build up your argument not only adds more words but may also weaken it, especially if you’re using unnecessary words.

4 Delete the and that

We often use the while speaking, but in writing, there are times when the can be removed without changing your sentence’s meaning.

That is another common word we use, which may be unnecessary in some sentences. An example is in the sentence you just read—the writer instinctively put that before we and then realized it was unnecessary.

• Original: We knew that he was active in the 1960s and the 1970s.
• Edited: We knew he was active in the 1960s and 1970s.

5 Eliminate unnecessary prepositional phrases

This is yet another example of separating how we speak from how we should write. Too many prepositional phrases can be a sign of excessive wording.

• Original: For many people, the reality of an entry into a new area of employment is cause for a host of anxieties.
• Edited: Changing careers makes many people anxious.

Getting rid of the prepositional phrases forces you to tighten up the sentence. The result is shorter, more direct, and easier to understand.

6 Use an active voice

Writing that utilizes an active voice tends to use fewer words than writing that uses a passive voice. Let’s show you what we mean:

• Active voice: Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440.
• Passive voice: The printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440.

Writing with an active voice not only helps reduce your word count but can also help you communicate your argument in a more effective and clear way than using a passive voice.

7 Avoid unnecessary adverbs and adjectives

Adverbs and adjectives add extra words to your paper, and depending on their usage they may weaken or not add any value to your argument.

• Original: Thomas Jefferson’s entire presidency was undoubtedly controversial.
• Edited: Thomas Jefferson’s presidency was controversial.

The word count may make up a significant part of your paper’s grade, but your final mark will likely rest on how well you write and the clarity of your argument.

For that reason, you don’t want to use more words merely to reach your word count even though using more words is an easy way to reach the word count.

That last sentence is a perfect example of what not to do. Here are some ways to extend your word count without resorting to adding unnecessary words.

1 Investigate the paper’s topic more thoroughly

Read through your paper and see if there are ways in which you can further discuss your topic without adding redundant or unnecessary information. Two ways you can accomplish this are:

• Providing statistics: If applicable, use data from a reliable source to back up your argument. This could be a poll or a scientific study.
• Discussing your topic’s history: Whether you’re writing about politics or philosophy, it might be a good idea to write about your topic’s origins and how that subject has evolved over time.

2 Explore all angles of your paper’s thesis

Check to see if you’ve explored all angles of your thesis statement , which will not only increase your word count but will likely strengthen your argument as well. For example, if you wrote a paper on why people should exercise but only discussed physical health reasons, you could also discuss its psychological and economic impacts.

3 Include alternative points of view

Introducing alternative points of view can help increase your word count and show that you’ve thoroughly researched the topic.

For example, if you’re writing about capitalism, you could also discuss Karl Marx’s critiques of the economic system.

4 Flesh out thin body paragraphs

It’s important to note that you can flesh out thin body paragraphs without introducing redundant or unnecessary information. Instead, you’ll want to write detailed sentences to support your topic sentence , which can be accomplished by introducing facts, quotes, examples, or anecdotes backing up your point.

• Original: Fight Club deals with the theme of consumerism, such as when the main character criticizes people’s desire to buy new things.
• Edited: Fight Club deals with the theme of consumerism, such as when the main character criticizes people’s desire to buy new things. “Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don’t need,” he says.

5 Find another primary or secondary source to include in your writing

Including additional primary and secondary sources is yet another tactic that can increase your word count and give your argument more legitimacy.

As a reminder, primary sources are anything that provides a firsthand account of an event (autobiographies or diaries, photos, artifacts, or videos). Secondary sources are descriptions, interpretations, or analyses of such events (textbooks, research papers, or documentaries).

6 Expand quotes

Writers will often paraphrase quotes in an effort to keep their argument concise, but there are times when you can expand on them to increase your word count and further illustrate a point.

Let’s revisit the Fight Club quote we used just a bit ago. If we wanted to expand the quote, we could’ve included the main character’s next sentence, which is, “Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don’t really need.”

When expanding quotes, it’s important that they add value to your argument. If the next part of that quote dealt with soap making instead of consumerism, it would not have been a good idea to include it.

Word count is the number of words in a writing sample. Word counts are used for many reasons, but in research papers and essays they’re used to level the playing field: Each student has the same number of words to get their point across.

How do you decrease word count?

• Delete unnecessary words, such as “that” and “the”
• Erase unneeded adverbs and adjectives
• Eliminate redundancies
• Use an active voice
• Remove unnecessary information

How do you increase word count?

• Investigate all angles of your topic
• Explore your topic in more depth
• Include alternative points of view
• Flesh out thin body paragraphs
• Find additional primary and secondary sources
• Expand quotes

Free Essay Shortener for Students

Looking for a tool to shorten an essay or research paper without throwing the arguments out? Try our essay shortener!

This free online instrument will reduce word count in seconds.

Have you written an essay that is way past the number of words recommended by the professor? Need help summarizing it without losing the context of your content? Try our free essay shortener tool!

• 🛠️ How Does This Tool Work?

🤔 Do I Need to Shorten My Essay?

• ✂️ 7 Ways to Shorten an Essay

🔗 References

🛠️ how does this essay shortener work.

Summarize your research paper or article using these easy steps:

• Open the document or website you would like to summarize.
• Highlight and copy the entire text you would like to process (it shouldn't exceed 15,000 characters).
• Paste the copied text into the blank field of our essay shortener.
• Specify the desired number of sentences in your final text.
• Click the "Shorten" button and enjoy the results.

Typically, an essay is shorter than a research paper , or thesis and may vary in length depending on several parameters, such as the level and subject of study, course requirements, and departmental guidelines.

Usually, your assigned essay will have clear guidelines on the required number of words or pages. The most common range is 10 to 12 pages or 2,500 to 3,000 words .

If you have exceeded your assignment's requirements, our free essay shortener is here to rescue you.

Essay Word Count Guidelines

✂️ 7 ways how to shorten an essay effectively.

You have worked hard on your assignment and spent countless hours researching, formatting the paper properly, and building your argument . Now that you are ready to submit your essay, you realize that you have exceeded your word count by a huge margin and are struggling to shorten it without losing your essay's credibility or key debating points.

Otherwise, the article may be too short, and you're running out of time to bring it to the expected word count. Our "shorten essay" tool is here to sort that headache out for you. If you want to perform the task by yourself, we’ve prepared a guideline for you.

Check for Redundancies in Your Essay

Scan your essay for any repeated points or phrases and delete them. For example, if your essay focuses on the ways to solve the issue of global warming and mentions planting trees for oxygen purification twice, you should remove one point. If you emphasize the same point in several different phrases, choose the one expressed more clearly and delete the other.

Delete Unnecessary Information

Check for any details that do not support the argument and eliminate them. For example, if you are writing about the achievements of Martin Luther King , then you don't need to write his childhood history in detail. Redundant and irrelevant details can load your essay with too many extra words.

Eliminate Unnecessary Articles

There are some elements of spoken grammar that translate poorly into written language. They make your article appear wordy and cumbersome. Using articles of speech such as "the" or "that" multiple times in a sentence becomes unnecessarily lengthy and makes your work hard to comprehend.

For instance:

"It is recorded in history books that Dr. King was active in the 1950s and the 1960s."

can be shortened to:

"Dr. King was active in the 1950s and 1960s."

Get to the Point

Be as precise as possible as you are building your argument. Getting to the point brings clarity to your argument by avoiding unnecessary deviations and reducing the wordiness of your essay.

Use an Active Voice in Your Essay

Articles that use an active voice tend to use fewer words than those with a passive voice approach. Writing your essay in an active voice also communicates your argument more effectively.

Look at the difference:

Active voice : John Snow conquered the Empire in 1510 AD. Passive voice : The Empire was brought down by John Snow in the year 1510 AD.

Remove Unnecessary Prepositions

Prepositional phrases make your essay wordier and may even reduce the quality of your argument.

Look at the difference between these two phrases:

"For most people, the reality of moving into a new city is a cause for a host of anxieties." "Moving to a new city makes most people anxious."

Avoid Redundant Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs sound convincing in spoken debates but may water down your arguments in written format.

Let's look at the difference between a sentence with adverbs and adjectives and one without.

"Bill Clinton's entire presidency was absolutely scandalous and majorly controversial." "Bill Clinton's presidency was controversial."

Undoubtedly, the second sentence makes a stronger argument since it goes directly to the point. Our online generator tool can help you create such statements.

Thank you for reading this article!

Now you have learned the standard word count for various assignments and understand how to reduce word count on your paper. Still, you probably need more time to edit your paper down to the required word count. Use our online essay shortener tool to polish your paper in a few minutes.

Check the other writing tools we’ve prepared: paragraph changer and heading generator .

❓ Essay Shortener FAQ

❓ what is the minimum word count for a college essay.

College essays vary in length and topics depending on the study area and the professor's requirements for the assignment. However, the word count is often specified in the assignment description.

❓ How to Shorten an Essay?

There are several ways to shorten an essay, but the most effective way is using our online summarizer, which condenses the word count in minutes.

❓ Is There an App to Decrease Word Count?

You can use our free online essay shortener tool to reduce the word count on your essay. The tool can also be used as a rewriter to assist with phrases you are unsure of.

❓ How Long Is a Short Essay?

Essay length is determined by the nature and purpose of the essay, as well as the word count requested by your professor.

• Word Count | IOE Writing Centre - University College London
• How to reduce word count without reducing content
• Summarizing - Academic Integrity at MIT
• Guidelines for Writing a Summary - Hunter College - CUNY
• How to Shorten Your College Essay Without Ruining It! - Patch

Free Essay Reducer

Summarize any text with this essay reducer in 3 steps:

• Enter the text you want to shorten.
• Choose the length of your summary.
• Click on "Reduce" and get your new text.

Number of sentences in results:

Original ratio

100 % in your summary

Working within a specific word count limitation is often problematic for a student. Sometimes you go far beyond the limits during writing and then don't know how to cut down the content to avoid grade reduction.

How can you squeeze all information into the assigned 500 or 1,000 words?

If you need to submit a shorter essay but don't understand how to shorten the word count effectively, welcome to our essay reducer . Our online, free tool can help you quickly and easily, giving you the exact word count you need for submission.

• ✂️ How to Use the Tool

📐 How Long Should an Essay Be?

• 🔢 Reducing the Word Count

🔗 References

✂️ how to reduce words in essay online.

Now, let's say a few words about our word reducer for essays – here, we show how it works and how it can help you improve the essay's word count and free you from unnecessary wordiness. You need to take only a couple of steps to receive a neatly reduced essay from our generator:

• Copy the text you want to work on.
• Paste the text into the tab at the center of the main page – the maximum you can insert in the excessive word remover is 17,000 characters.
• Stipulate the number of sentences you want to have in the resulting text.
• Tick or untick the box "show keywords depending on whether you want to specify the keywords that need to be preserved in the text.
• Click the “Reduce” button.

Once you click the button, your text will be processed with the smart tool to give you a condensed variant of the content that meets your sentence quantity requirement.

There is no single standard for an essay's word count. Students receive various assignments from their professors, ranging from around 1 page (250-300 words) to large-scale works for 10 pages or more (3,000+ words).

So, you should be ready for any essay project when you start your study process and prepare for the rising word count of essays at higher study levels.

🔢 How to Reduce Essay Word Count

Depending on your circumstances, you may need to engage various word count reduction techniques in writing.

Here's what we recommend for quick, hassle-free word count minimization :

• Remove articles,
• Get rid of unnecessary adverbs,
• Write clearly,
• Use active voice,
• Revise your transitions,
• Delete unnecessary intros.

Below we’ll explain all the details.

Remove Articles

Many students use the article "the" in places where it can be mostly skipped. So, by working on removing "the," you can bring the word count significantly down without large-scale content rework.

Oust Adverbs and Adjectives

In most cases, adverbs and adjectives are used as elements of figurative language and do not add any vital content to your text. Thus, by removing them altogether, you don't undermine the meaning of your essay and deliver the same facts and arguments, though in a far more concise form.

Manage Wordiness

When you write an essay, the temptation is very high to use well-known, sophisticated language forms, such as "in order to," "in the course of," etc. But the fact is that they don't make any sense and steal the vital space for important data. So, it would help if you cut them out of the text to keep only meaningful words.

Opt for Active Voice

According to statistics, passive-voice constructions are always longer and harder to comprehend than active voice. So, revise your use of passive voice in the text and transform all passive phrases into active voice to see how much your proper use of space improves.

Work on the Transitions

Transitions improve the flow of any academic writing but may also be redundant if overused in places that don't need binding with transitions. We recommend going through these phrases and removing some of them from the text to help manage your word count.

Delete Unnecessary Intros

The "running start" use is a common problem among students. Revise your sentences' beginnings to see where you abuse this technique and remove these running starts to ease the reading and shorten the word count.

Thank you for reading this article! Note that you can also use our free paraphraser and title generator at different stages of work on your assignment.

❓ Essay Reducer FAQ

❓ how to make an essay shorter.

You can use many methods for shortening an essay, such as reducing the number of redundant articles, conjunctions, transition phrases, and introductory words. You can also use shorter and simpler words to reduce the essay's overall page and character count.

❓ How does this tool reduce words in essay online?

Our automatic tool applies all the principles we've mentioned above. It reviews the use of articles, conjunctions, and transitions and removes all the unnecessary clutter in your sentences, leaving only the gist. This way, you manage to deliver the same message in a shorter form.

❓ What is a good word count for an essay?

There's no optimal word count for an essay, as tasks differ in length depending on your level of study. It's okay to write an essay of up to 1,000 words at school and 300-500 words for an admission essay. Undergraduate and graduate essays, however, should be a minimum of 2,000 words to present an in-depth examination of your topic.

❓ How to increase the word count of an essay?

Increasing the word count is simpler than reducing it. You only need to pick separate facts and arguments you've given in the body of your essay and expand them with additional evidence and interpretations. As a result, you receive a well-informed discussion without wordiness or redundancy.

• Writing Concisely - UNC Writing Center
• 7 Tips for Clear and Concise Writing - 2022 - MasterClass
• 10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count
• Summarizing - Academic Integrity at MIT
• Summarising - Academic Writing in English

5 Best ways to Make an Essay Shorter

If you are like me, you will find that you often struggle to stay within the word count in your essays.

In this article, I will show you exactly how to reduce your word count in your essay.

If you go over the word count in an essay, there are some strategies to make your essay shorter that make sure you keep your marks high and, sometimes, make them even higher.

The trick to going over the word count is seeing this as a positive: you now have the chance to only present your absolute best arguments.

This is a luxury other students in your class just don’t have. Reducing your word count is actually your chance to get even further ahead!

The best essays have no dull, irrelevant or sub-par content. Every paragraph is on-point and designed to win you more and more marks. When editing your work, keep this in mind.

Below, I introduce five important strategies that will help you to reduce your word count in a way that will actually increase your mark!

• Delete your three Worst Paragraphs. …
• Listen for Weaknesses using Google Translate or Microsoft Excel Read-out-Loud.
• Re-Read the Marking Criteria.
• Shorten Paragraphs over 7 Sentences Long.
• Delete Irrelevant Words.

1. Delete your three Worst Paragraphs

I usually aim to go over my word count intentionally so I can creatively make the essay shorter in a way that increases my marks.

If I go over the word count, I can look back over my piece and find my worst performing paragraphs and remove them.

This not only helps me to ensure I present my best work to the teacher, it also forces me to admit that some of my writing is better than others. It keeps me critical of myself and always aiming for improvement.

Removing the worst paragraphs of an essay also ensures there are less boring, pointless or unanalytical sections of an essay. It means that the paragraphs I submit are the best sections – and that the teacher will be impressed throughout the piece.

To assess which paragraphs are best and worst, I do the following things:

• Find the paragraphs with the least or worst references in them. Teachers will scan over a paragraph to assess the quality of the references in them. Paragraphs with minimal referencing, too much referencing of just one source, or only references to non-academic sources, instantly get marked down by the teacher before they’re even read. These are also often the paragraphs that provide the least depth of information. That is because finding sources to reference in a paragraph often leads to adding detail that the source has provided.
• Find the paragraphs that are least convincing. When I re-read my paragraphs, sometimes I just think ‘the argument here is my weakest’. These are the ones I want to cut: they’re ones that won’t get me top marks. Teachers will lower your marks for any paragraph that doesn’t shine – so you’re best removing it.
• Rate your paragraphs out of 10. I often tell my students to delete their three worst paragraphs and they say ‘I like all of them!’ In this case, you will have to get brutal with yourself: rate every paragraph out of 10. This will help you make the hard decisions about which to lose.
• Combine two paragraphs into one. Sometimes I really like one sentence from a paragraph but don’t like the rest. If this is the case for you, have a go at extracting those good sentences from one paragraph and placing them in another one. Then, you can delete the not-so-good sentences from the original paragraph. If you do this, make sure all paragraphs still cohere around one key point.

2. Listen for Weaknesses using Google Translate or Microsoft Excel Read-out-Loud

Google Translate and Microsoft Excel both have read-out-loud options. Google Translate’s option is the easiest.

For Google Translate, simply search for ‘Google Translate’ on your internet search engine (or just click here ) to access it. Then, copy and paste the text into the translate box and press the ‘listen’ button:

For Microsoft Excel, you will need paste the whole essay into any cell and then activate the read out loud option.

This procedure is somewhat more complicated than Google Translate, but if you want to give it a go, you can get instructions from the Microsoft help website and go from there

Hearing your paper read out loud back to you can help you to identify which paragraphs or sentences are worth removing.

Here are some things to keep in mind while listening to the computer read your paper out loud to you:

• If a sentence feels like it’s too long and exhausting to listen to, you can bet your teacher will be exhausted, too;
• If a phrase seems awkward to hear, it will be awkward to read;
• If the paper seems to have lost its focus on the topic area, you’ll need to remove that section or edit it to ensure it links to the essay question.

Pause the read-out-loud each time you find a sentence long or awkward and work on shortening it.

Too often, students think long, complicated sentences with fancy-sounding words will get them marks. In reality, it’s the opposite.

Being able to describe complex concepts in a very easy, understandable way is a skill all top students learn to master.

The read-out-loud option can help you to see your paper from your marker’s perspective. Use it to your advantage and listen out for anything that sounds complicated, confusing, awkward or exhausting. Delete it or shorten it immediately.

Remember, the goal is to have your paper sounding short and clear.

3. Re-Read the Marking Criteria

When editing your work, it is best to have the marking criteria by your side at all times.

The marking criteria is the list of things the teacher is looking for when marking your essay. Sometimes it’s also called:

• Marking Criteria;
• Indicative Content;
• Marking Rubric;
• Learning Outcomes

These should be easy to find. Go to your course webpage (usually on Blackboard, Canvas, or Moodle depending on your university) and find where your teacher has provided details about your assessment. If there are marking criteria, this is where it would be.

Sometimes, teachers don’t provide marking criteria.

If the teacher has simply provided an essay topic or question, that means the chances are they don’t have a list of outcomes they are marking your piece against. In these instances, you will have to simply rely on the essay question.

When you have your marking criteria or essay question by your side, read each paragraph then look back to your marking criteria.

You need to ask yourself:

• Does this paragraph directly answer the essay question or marking criteria?
• Does this paragraph add new information that helps me answer the essay question?

If your paragraph is not linked directly to the essay question or marking criteria, you’ve just identified the paragraph you need to remove to reduce your word count.

4. Shorten Paragraphs over 7 Sentences Long

Teachers hate long paragraphs. Teachers are just like you and me. They get bored very fast.

Chances are, any paragraph over 7 sentences isn’t being fully read. The teacher might have only read the first three sentences and made their judgement about your work based on those three sentences!

That’s why the ideal paragraph should be between 4 and 7 sentences long. This length helps to ensure:

• You haven’t gone off on a tangent;
• You have provided some explanatory or example sentences, but not too many;
• You have focused only on one key idea in the paragraph.

Your paragraphs that are more than 7 sentences long will be your low-hanging fruit for reducing your word count. Read through each of these paragraphs and try to find a way to reduce it to only 6 sentences. Find those sentences that seem to drag on or add nothing useful to your discussion and delete them.

By reducing all paragraphs over 7 sentences long, you won’t only bring your word count down. You will also make your essay much clearer and easy to read.

In this way, you’re both reducing your word count and increasing your mark.

5. Delete Irrelevant Words

Going through your paper and deleting irrelevant words can often save you several hundred words and could shorten your essay enough to get you back within the required word count.

Irrelevant words are words that are overly descriptive, redundant, too emotive, or in first-person. These words tend to get the same point across in far more words than necessary.

Furthermore, you will find that in removing overly descriptive, redundant, emotive and first-person words, your work will be much improved.

This is because academic writing is supposed to be formal and direct. Writing too many words can make your marker think you have poor communication skills and do not understand academic writing requirements.

Check below for examples of how to reduce your word count by removing overly descriptive, redundant, overly emotive and first-person language.

• Overly Descriptive: The amazing thing about the industrial revolution was that it brought about enormous changes to the ways people transported themselves and communicated across the globe in such a short amount of time.
• Alternative: The industrial revolution brought about rapid changes in transportation and communication globally.
• Redundant: The sum of five hundred dollars.
• Alternative: $500
• Redundant: It was quite unique.
• Alternative: It was unique.
• Redundant: It was triangular in shape.
• Alternative: It was triangular.
• Too Emotive: The disgusting thing about communism is that it refuses to allow poor everyday people to improve their lives by creating their own businesses that might flourish and really help our their communities, too!
• Alternative: Communism prevents citizens from starting businesses that can help bring people and their communities out of poverty.
• In first Person: In summary, I believe that the Industrial Revolution was good for the whole world.
• Alternative: In summary, the Industrial Revolution was good for the world.
• In first Person: This author argues that Thomas Edison was the greatest mind of his time.
• Alternative: Thomas Edison was the greatest mind of his time.

Making your essay shorter can sometimes be an absolute nightmare.

By following the above five steps, you can find easy ways to reduce your word count while also improving your work.

If you are an advanced or ambitious student, you might find that you always go over the word count. This isn’t necessarily a problem.

Try to look at going over the word count as a positive thing. Going over the word count means you have the freedom to only present your best work. You have the chance to delete anything that isn’t absolutely focused on gaining you marks.

In the end, your final submission will be cleaner, easier to read and easier to mark. Hopefully, this will see your marks growing even more!

Let’s review one more time the five top ways the best students reduce their word count in an essay:

Five Top Ways to Make an Essay Shorter

• Delete your three Worst Paragraphs
• Use Google Translate or Microsoft Excel to Read your Paper out Loud
• Re-Read the Marking Criteria
• Shorten Paragraphs over 6 Sentences Long
• Delete Irrelevant Words

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 5 Top Tips for Succeeding at University
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 50 Durable Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 100 Consumer Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 30 Globalization Pros and Cons

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Edited Words and Edited Characters

0 words +0 edited     0 characters +0 edited start over.

Many people assume good writing is found when you write. The truth is for most writers, good writing appears when you edit. You know you have become serious about your writing when you're proud of the number of words you're able to reduce from your rough drafts when editing. To help you see how well you've been editing, we wanted to create a counter which encourages writers to reduce their word count through editing, and the result is the Edit Counter.

This is a bit different than Word Counter in that in addition to telling you the word count of your writing, it'll keep track of how many words you have managed to add or remove from your writing. Word Counter tells you how many words you have written. Edit Counter allows you to put in a finished first draft and see whether you increase or decrease your word count while editing.

The tool is easy to use. Simply paste your writing into the text area, and then hit the "Start Over" button on the top right of the tool. This will still show you the number of words written, but it will reset the "edit" word and character counters to +0. When you begin editing your writing, the Edit Counter will show how many words your writing had decreased or increased through your editing.

Editing is an important part of the writing process, and it usually doesn't get the respect it deserves. If you're able to get your point across more succinctly, that's good writing. While many writers strive to up their word count as much as possible, it's essential to remember that word count is only important if the words written actually count. Getting rid of those filler words and tightening up your writing should be a celebrated and encouraged exercise, not something to be dreaded.

For those who are writing essays for a class which has a word count minimum or maximum, you likely fall into one of two types when trying to meet the writing parameters. You either have trouble reaching the word count needed, or you write far more than you're allowed to write. For those who never seem to be able to write enough, there are some simple ways to increase your essay word count . For those who seem to write too much, there are some steps that can be taken while editing to help reduce the number of words in the essay without removing vital information. Often the writing is improved in the process.

Using Edit Counter is also a great way to see the effect editing has on your writing, especially over time. When using the tool on a regular basis, you may begin to see a trend that your editing decreases or increases your word count a certain percentage for every 1000 words written. If you become attuned to this trend, you will know how much you need to write in your first drafts to meet the required word count once you have finished editing.

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Essay Extender for Students

Have you ever struggled to reach the specific word count while writing an essay? Our online essay extender can help you get the desired word count with just a few simple steps. All you have to do is:

• Copy and paste your essay.
• Choose how many words you need in your paper.
• Click the "Extend" button.

💎 5 Key Advantages of the Essay Extender

🙋 when to use the ai essay extender, 📜 essay extender free examples, 🖇️ essay word extender tips, 🔗 references.

Our essay word extender offers a range of benefits that can enhance your writing experience. Here are some of them:

With its user-friendly interface, our online essay extender can assist you in various ways. Check out these ideas on how you can use the tool.

1. To Increase the Word Count

One of the most common uses of our essay extender is to increase an essay's word count. You add words to the entire text or a specific part, for example, introduction, conclusion, or body paragraphs. This gives you more control over where you want to expand an essay and helps you tailor the extension to the academic requirements .

Our tool adds words without compromising the quality of their writing. Since it uses advanced AI algorithms, it extends the text while maintaining the coherence and flow of the original content.

2. To Add a New Part

AI essay extender can also help you add a new part to your essay. For example, if you have already written the introduction and body paragraphs but are struggling with the conclusion, our tool can generate it.

Similarly, if you need to add a new body paragraph to support your argument , our essay extender can generate a paragraph based on your prompt. This feature is particularly useful when you are short on time and need to complete your essay quickly.

3. To Get New Ideas

Sometimes, you only need a fresh perspective to improve your writing. Our essay extender can generate unique ideas by developing a body paragraph on any topic. This feature is helpful for those who are stuck with their writing and need some inspiration to continue. You can use this generated paragraph as a starting point and further develop it according to your ideas and arguments.

Wanna see how essay extender generator works in practice? Let's try it together. Imagine you're writing an argumentative essay on "Should all internships be paid?" We'll use our tool to add some words to a body paragraph and then develop an effective introduction.

All internships should be paid for the simple fact that interns are providing valuable work and skills to the company. It is unfair to expect young workers, who are often already struggling with student debt, to work for free. Interns are not just shadowing or observing; they actively contribute to the company's operations and success. By not compensating them, companies are perpetuating a cycle of unpaid labor and exploiting the enthusiasm and eagerness of young workers. Furthermore, paying interns shows that their time and contributions are valued, allowing them to gain practical experience without financial strain.

All internships should be paid for the simple fact that interns are providing valuable work and skills to the company. It is unfair to expect young workers, who are often already struggling with student debt, to work for free. Interns are not just shadowing or observing; they actively contribute to the company's operations and success. For example, a student who is completing an unpaid internship at a marketing firm may be responsible for creating social media content, conducting market research, and assisting with client meetings. These tasks require time, effort, and skills, and the intern should be compensated for their contributions. By not compensating them, companies are perpetuating a cycle of unpaid labor and exploiting the enthusiasm and eagerness of young workers. Moreover, unpaid internships often come with hidden costs that can be a significant burden for students. For instance, a student interning in a different city may have to cover transportation, housing, and other expenses on top of working for free. Furthermore, paying interns shows that their time and contributions are valued, allowing them to gain practical experience without financial strain. Companies should recognize the contributions interns bring to their organization and compensate them accordingly for their hard work.

Internships have become a common way for students to gain practical experience and valuable skills in their chosen field. However, the issue of whether these internships should be paid or not has sparked a debate. While some argue that unpaid internships provide valuable learning opportunities, others believe that all internships should be paid to ensure fair treatment of young workers. In this essay, we will explore why all internships should be paid, including the value that interns bring to organizations and the hidden costs of unpaid internships.

Check out these helpful tips to work on your academic writing skills and extend an essay manually.

• Expand your arguments . Instead of simply stating your point, provide more detailed examples to support your ideas.
• Use transitional phrases . Transition phrases such as "in addition," "furthermore," and "moreover" can help you connect your ideas and add more depth to your essay.
• Include relevant statistics and data . Adding statistics and data from reliable sources can boost the credibility of your essay and help you expand your arguments.
• Incorporate quotes . Including quotes from experts or authoritative individuals adds depth and weight to your essay.
• Provide background information . If you feel that certain concepts need more explanation, you can provide background information to help the reader better understand your points.

Remember, when expanding on your arguments, it is essential to do so smartly. This means providing detailed explanations and relevant examples that add length to your essay and strengthen your points.

❓ Essay Extender FAQ

Updated: Apr 12th, 2024

• How to Increase or Decrease Your Paper’s Word Count | Grammarly
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On this page, you can find a free essay extender for students. With the help of this tool, you can increase the word count of any text – paste it into the related field and add the necessary details. The essay extender can add particular paragraphs or double your words in two clicks! Don’t miss the helpful tips and examples of text expansion.

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How to Shorten an Essay: Reduce Word Count but keep Points

Shortening an Essay

When writing an essay, you may need to shorten it by reducing its word count to the number required by your instructor. In this case, you might have some words you need to eliminate in the essay. Also, you may have to shorten the paragraphs.

Read on for a comprehensive guide on 7 ways how you can shorten your essay but still make the points you intended to keep in the paper. If you need help to shorten your essay, just get in touch with our online essay writers, and the team will help you score an A

Let us Write your Essays! No Plagiarism

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How Do I Make My Essay Shorter

It is possible to shorten your essay or reduce the word count to meet the requirements during the editing process. The editing process should be the last step in writing your essay. The following are some of the most effective techniques to shorten your essay.

When it comes to writing essays, there are two types of students; those who write beyond the word count and those who write below the word count.

For those who write beyond the word count, you can use simple techniques to shorten an essay.

1. Rank your Arguments’ strengths and weakness 

The first technique for making your essay shorter is by ranking your arguments. If your essay is longer than the requirement, rank the points used to support your arguments.

A good essay should contain only the most vital and valid points.

If you find some of your weak supporting points, eliminate them while removing the unnecessary wording.

Students will often be tempted to present a multifaceted point of view to support a single point.

While this may demonstrate your knowledge of the subject, it will add unnecessary content to your essay.

To avoid this and reduce the essay’s length, carefully select the most relevant and vital points.

However, if you still want to include all the points, you can minimize the details, especially within weaker points. This will make your essay shorter.

2. Focus on the Main Point of your Essay

This is a very practical technique for making your essay shorter. When given an essay to complete, the instructor expects you to come up with a topic and support it throughout your essay.

Valid arguments within each paragraph of your essay should support the topic and the thesis statement.

Therefore, if your essay is longer than recommended, look for sentences or entire paragraphs that do not address or support your essay’s main point or topic.

Students may find themselves accidentally going off-topic and including other unnecessary wordings and arguments to make their essays appear “smarter” or well-written.

This can result in unnecessary words and sentences beyond the required word count.

If you identify such unnecessary arguments within your essay while editing, eliminate them to focus more on your main point and achieve the target word count.

3. Eliminate the use of Verbiage

You should eliminate the verbiage if you want to make your essay shorter. This is especially relevant when writing academic essays where you are required to present your arguments professionally and straightforwardly.

Eliminate any extra information or words that do not add value to your point or overall argument. Such verbiage is some of the weak words to avoid in writing essays and research papers.

You can eliminate unnecessary adjectives, adverbs, generalizations, clichés, and lengthy verb phrases here. You can do this while performing the first and second techniques mentioned above.

Best Professional Essay Writers for Hire: Cheap but Vetted

4. Write Short Sentences using the Active Voice

As we have noted, academic essays will require you to present your arguments straightforwardly. Using the active voice while constructing your sentences will help you achieve this while keeping them brief.

While this may not apply to all sentences within your essay, try to begin most of your sentences using the subject.

In this case, the subject is the thing or person performing an action. This should be followed by the action the subject performs.

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.

For example, take a simple sentence like, “John plays basketball regularly.”

This sentence is in the active voice because John (subject) performs the action of playing basketball (object).

Now take a sentence like, “basketball is regularly played by John.” The second sentence is in passive voice because it describes how the object (basketball) is acted upon.

The first sentence in the active voice comprises 4 words, while the second sentence in the passive voice comprises 6 words. Therefore, you can see that writing in an active voice shortens your essay.

5. Utilize the most Applicable Strong Verbs

This may seem obvious, but many students cannot find the most applicable verbs. They find those that are close instead of using the perfect verb.

If you want to shorten your essay, find the best verb that conveys a precise meaning.

This is because when you use an imperfect verb, you will end up using more words to clarify the meaning.

Here is an example to clarify what is meant by using the most applicable verb:

“John’s team defeated the opposing team by several points.”

Using “defeated” in the above sentence is not grammatically wrong. However, it is not the best verb to use because John’s team not only defeated the opposing team, they all defeated them by several points.

If you wish to reduce the word count while maintaining the same meaning, you can use the verb “trounce” in place of “defeat.” The new sentence will be:

“John’s team trounced the opposing team.”

6. Quote from the most Relevant Sources

In academic essays, you may be required to provide quotes from secondary sources to support your essay. The number of sources needed depends on the length of the paper. For instance, a 4-page paper may require more secondary sources than a 2-page one.

However, if you find that you have used several quotes that are lengthening your essay, retain quotes from secondary sources that are most related to your topic, and eliminate the rest. Again, only cite the sources that are most relevant to your topic.

7. Avoid Block Quotes

The best way to avoid longer essays is by avoiding direct quotations from other authors. This can be done by paraphrasing their content and just citing the sources without using many words.

Avoiding block quotes will make the paragraphs short and your arguments more captivating to the reader. Therefore, avoid using essay or sentence generators, as these will quote other sources.

However, note that using external sources to support your points and arguments is always advisable when writing an essay. Such supporting content is important for the grades and to back up your claims.

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Weak Words to Avoid in Writing an Essay

Now that we have explored the most applicable methods or techniques that can help make your essay shorter, it is important to identify the unnecessary things to avoid in an essay to avoid going beyond the word count.

1. The passive voice

As we have noted, the passive voice makes your sentences unnecessarily lengthy. On the other hand, the active voice makes the sentences more compelling and clear because they are straight to the point.

Consequently, the active voice uses lesser words compared to the passive voice. Therefore, it is important to avoid the passive voice in an essay.

2. Adverbs and Adjectives

While adjectives modify nouns while adverbs modify verbs, good and well-utilized words in a sentence do not require modifying.

In most cases, adjectives and adverbs weaken strong nouns and verbs, thus weakening your overall writing.

Such weak words add no value to your paragraphs; you must avoid them when writing an essay.

When editing your essay and you find adverbs with “ly” as their endings, you can eliminate them because they act as filler words that add no value to the point you are trying to communicate.

When it comes to adjectives, they do not add meaning to the sentence and are, therefore, unnecessary.

3. Conjunctions

Conjunctions such as and, or, however, but, and, e.g., connect two different sentences that can be written independently. They are unnecessary when you want to make an essay shorter.

These are some of the words that make an essay ridiculously long and create the need to be precise. Eliminating them reduces the word count and shortens the essay.

4. Running Starts and Needless Transitions

Running starts are commonly used phrases that act as an introduction to the sentence. They include “it is, “there is, “the fact that, “and so on. This is basically the opposite of what we discussed in our post on making an essay longer, as we outlined.

Those phrases add unnecessary words to your essay. Needless transitions can be “furthermore,” “then,” indeed,” “however,” and so on.

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.

5. First-Person Language

This is a common thing in any essay writing task. It is always advisable that one should avoid using first-person language when writing an essay. This is because the first person is not formal and tends to be confrontational.

Instead of first-person or second-person language, always use a third-person approach. While this does not contribute i reducing the word count, it gives a lot of formality to your essay and puts a warm reading tone.

In addition, using the third person promotes the objectivity of your arguments by presenting them in a manner that can relate to any person, in this case, your readers. Read our guide on avoiding the first-person language in an essay and apply that in your future writing.

Following the above tips will make it easier to shorten your essays.

Watch this video to learn more about this.

With over 10 years in academia and academic assistance, Alicia Smart is the epitome of excellence in the writing industry. She is our managing editor and is in charge of the writing operations at Grade Bees.

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How to Shorten an Essay?

Essay writing can be very challenging. A student who’s writing an essay should come up with the right logical structure, figure out what types of evidence you’re going to use, choose an appropriate style, etc. Besides, all this hard work may lead to a moment of frustration.

You may put a lot of effort into writing your brilliant draft, and then you may realize that you need to get rid of something to meet the word count requirements. The more effort you invest in the writing process, the more difficult it can be to figure out what you should remove.

No matter how challenging this task can be, educators think that students must be able to write concisely and avoid redundancy. Therefore, word count requirements can be very strict. For instance, when writing a college application essay , you should be able to fit all your thoughts into a 500-word limit.

While making your essay shorter, you should also make sure that it will still be impressive. To shorten your essay properly, you should know what to focus on, and this simple guide will help you.

How to reduce essay word count

• Identify irrelevant content
• Cut down on prepositions
• Eliminate the sentences that don’t add value
• Remove unnecessary modifiers and qualifiers
• Remove weaker paragraphs
• Eliminate redundant words and phrases
• Merge sentences by combining their meaning

📌 Shorten your essay by removing irrelevant content

The key to shortening your essay without making it weaker is to make sure that everything that you write is perfectly relevant. However, it may not be easy to get rid of irrelevant content in your essay because if you didn’t consider it somewhat relevant, you wouldn’t include it, in the first place. If you want to get a good grade, you may add various details and explanations to make your essay more engaging.

Including some background information and details is actually a great solution if you want to impress your audience with an informative essay, but we recommend that you think twice before writing any additional information because you should also follow the word count requirements.

Ask yourself, do you really need to include this information? Is it perfectly relevant? Is it necessary to include when writing about your topic? Does it contribute to the overall meaning?

📌 Use prepositions moderately

Prepositions are very useful words because they can help you create a smooth flow of thoughts and put words together to communicate complex ideas. If you take a look at prepositional sentences in your essay, you may realize that many of such sentences won’t make any sense if you remove prepositions from them.

Although prepositional sentences can be very useful, they also have their flip side: they make your essay longer. Given that rewriting such sentences without prepositions can be impossible, a good solution is to remove such phrases completely.

📌 Apply the ‘zoom out’ technique

This approach can be very effective if you realize that you need to shorten your essay significantly. For instance, if you should shorten your essay by 200 or 300 words, this is the right approach. This method is quite simple.

The traditional college essay structure involves writing more general statements first and then adding more specific statements. By moving from general to specific, you can create a proper logical structure so there’s no surprise that many tutors and guides recommend this approach.

When editing your essay, you can see more or less specific information, and the most specific elements of your essay are examples. Although you may want to use more examples to make your essay more unique, if you need to shorten it, you can leave just a few vivid examples and get rid of all the other examples that are not really important.

Zoom out and paint the picture with broad strokes, focusing on the general information. This way, you might be able to shorten your essay considerably.

📌 Get rid of modifiers, qualifiers, adverbs and adjectives

Let’s face it, some verbs can be easily eliminated from your paper without ruining the context. It’s also important to keep in mind the importance of avoiding unnecessary generalization in essay writing. Unnecessary generalization makes your essay weaker. Qualifiers and modifiers can help you avoid generalizations by slightly changing the overall meaning of a sentence.

Words like “some,” “often,” “possibly,” “could,” “sometimes,” “completely,” and others can make your writing more nuanced. However, these words might also make your essay longer, and usually, you can remove them without changing the general meaning of the sentence. Therefore, we recommend that you don’t overuse such words when writing and remove some of them when editing.

📌 Remove the weakest paragraphs to reduce the word count

Another approach that can help you write a strong essay that meets strict word count requirements is to intentionally exceed the word limits when writing so that you can remove entire paragraphs when editing. This is especially helpful if you have to write a really short essay of 200 words .

A great thing about this approach is that you force yourself to admit that some things that you write are much better than others so you can consider your college essay from a teacher’s perspective.

You may want to remove paragraphs that lack references or have references to unreliable sources. You may also think of what paragraphs are the least convincing. Make sure to leave the strongest paragraphs that actually contribute to the topic and that can impress your audience.

📌 Remove redundant words to stay under a word limit

When writing your paper, you may use some unnecessary words that don’t add any meaning. For example, here is a sentence that can be shortened easily: “When writing essays, you should make your essays concise so they won’t be too long.” Here, you can remove the second word “essays,” as well as the end of the sentence because if your essay is concise, it means that it isn’t too long.

For instance, a shortened sentence may look like this: “When writing essays, you should make them concise.” Although the new sentence is just a little shorter, if you remove redundant words in the entire essay, the difference in length might surprise you.

📌 Merge sentences by combining their meaning

To shorten your essay without damaging it, you should make sure that you convey your thoughts concisely. Concise writing will not only help you meet all the requirements but also make your essay more straightforward and easy to read. When editing your essay, pay attention to consecutive sentences that focus on the same idea.

Try to say the same with fewer words by combining the meaning of two sentences and merging them into one. Just make sure that the final sentence isn’t too long because long complex sentences will make your essay difficult to read.

No matter if you’re a high school, college or university student, the writing process is difficult by itself, and it can be especially difficult when dealing with strict requirements regarding the word count. In this helpful guide, we considered a few effective methods that can help you shorten your essay without damaging its meaning.

There are many things you can get rid of while also keeping your academic paper informative and impressive. Moreover, shortening and eliminating unnecessary things can help you improve your essay, making it easier to read, straightforward, logically consistent and more digestible for a reader.

In case if shortening an essay seems like an unbearable task, you can turn to an essay writing company to get it written from scratch or copy-edited down to the required word count.

How to Shorten an Essay: 4 Techniques to Reduce Word Count

If you need to shorten your essay by 100-500 words, or even more, you can use one or more of four techniques. You can clean up your sentences, remove repetition, summarize your examples, and/or cut out an entire section.

One of my subscribers recently asked me, “ How do I compress an essay of 700-1000 words, or even more, to just 300 words? ”

In this tutorial I will show you four easy ways to shorten your essay by as much or as little as you wish. I am giving them to you in the order you should try them out.

Here are four techniques to shorten your essay:

Technique #1: Sentence Cleanup

When I taught essay writing in college, I noticed that students wrote sentences that were just too wordy. 

They used 20 words where 10 would have probably done the trick. If you examine your sentences, you’ll often find that you can say the same thing in much fewer words.

“In my opinion, there are many people who want to lose weight.”

This sentence contains 12 words. 

Here’s how we can shorten it by performing a Sentence Cleanup.

First, you never have to say, “ In my opinion, ” because if it were not your opinion, you wouldn’t be stating it. Okay? So, let’s cross out “ in my opinion. ”

“ In my opinion, there are many people who want to lose weight.”

We just cut out three words. 

Next, the phrase “ there are ” is usually unnecessary, and if you take it out, your sentence will become more elegant. So, let’s do it. Let’s just cross it out.

“ There are many people who want to lose weight.”

We also have to cross out the extra word “ who ” because it is only needed if you use “ there are. ”

We just got rid of three more words. 

And so our sentence becomes:

“Many people want to lose weight.”

How many words is that? That is now a six word sentence. Guess what – we just cut this sentence in half. 

Do this enough times in your essay, and it will get a lot shorter.

“How do I cut out 200 words from my essay to make it shorter?”

This sentence contains 14 words. Let’s perform a Sentence Cleanup.

Notice that it is pretty obvious that to cut out 200 words from an essay will make it shorter. Therefore, stating that you want to do it “ to make it shorter ” is unnecessary. 

If we get rid of that phrase, we’ll cut out 4 words from this sentence and make it a lot more elegant. 

“How do I cut out 200 words from my essay to make it shorter ?”

Technique #2: Removing Repetition

Repetition can be found on all levels – in a sentence, in a paragraph, or a section. When you reduce or eliminate repetition in your essay, you are making it less redundant. “Redundant” just means repetitive and therefore useless.

In the last example we just did, we eliminated a redundancy from a sentence. And that’s part of a Sentence Cleanup. But you can also find and eliminate entire redundant sentences.  

Look for repetitive phrases, sentences, and even passages in your content and remove them. 

Students often repeat things over and over, using different words, thinking that they’re writing great content. Those are your opportunities to significantly shorten your essay while improving it at the same time.

Here’s an example from a fictitious student essay. Let’s say the student writes about his trip to Paris and states:

“ I found that Parisians are very nice if you talk to them in French. ”

And then, in the same or even a different paragraph or section, the following sentence would appear:

“Parisians can be very nice people, but they really prefer that you speak French with them.”

Well, the two sentences say the same thing, just using different words. 

So, what do you do? 

Pick the longer sentence and just delete it.

Sometimes you will find a whole paragraph in your essay that is repetitive and can be removed without the essay losing any meaning. If you find such a paragraph, just delete it.

Technique #3: Zooming Out

Make sure that you go through your essay using the first two techniques before you employ this and the next one. 

The only case where you would do Zooming Out first would be if you had to shorten your essay drastically – by 30% or more. 

If you’ve cleaned up all your sentences and removed all repetitive content, and you still need to lose hundreds of words, the Zooming Out technique will really help. 

Here’s how it works. 

You may have heard that in essay writing, you are supposed to proceed from general to specific. Whether you stick to this rule really well in your essay or not, I want you to notice something. 

In your essay, you make statements that are:

• very general
• less general
• somewhat specific
• very specific

The most general statement in your essay is the thesis because it summarizes the entire essay. And the most specific parts of your essay are examples .

So, in order to shorten your essay, you can summarize your examples. I call this Zooming Out because you are taking something that was very specific (zoomed in) and making it more general (zoomed out). 

Let’s say you’re writing about the harms of second-hand smoking. And in one of the sections you provide an example of your friend or someone in the news who became seriously ill because she lived with a smoker for a long time:

“My friend Isabelle was married to a chain smoker. Her husband refused not only to give up his habit but even to reduce it. As years went by, Isabelle began to notice some respiratory symptoms. At first, she developed a light but persistent cough. Then, she started to feel out of breath more and more often. When she finally went to a pulmonologist, a test revealed that she had COPD, a serious lung disease.”

This example is 74 words long. And this is your opportunity to shorten your essay dramatically. 

You can simply contract this example into one short sentence and write something like this:

“A friend of mine developed lung disease after having lived with a chain smoker for twelve years.”

Now, this sentence contains only 17 words. We just cut out 57 words just by Zooming Out on one example. 

We are Zooming Out because we are no longer exploring this example in detail. We simply provide a fact without giving a lot of specific information. 

So, look for these detailed examples in your essay and just summarize each of them into one short sentence.

Technique #4: Cutting out a Section

This technique works very well to cut out a big chunk of your essay in one fell swoop.

Let’s say that you wrote an essay in which you have four supporting points to prove your main point, your thesis. 

If this is a 2,000-word essay, then each section is approximately 500 words long. But do you really need four reasons/sections to support your point?

Is it possible that if you provide only three supporting points, your essay will still work very well?

For example, if you argue that apples are a great food, you could have four supporting points, claiming that apples are:

But what if you simply took out one of these points? Let’s say that you eliminate the section about the portability of apples.

Will your essay still work? Sure it will. It will work just fine with the three remaining supporting points. And you just cut out 500 words (in a 2,000-word essay). 

After you have cut out a section, make sure to go back to your thesis statement and edit it to reflect the change.

I’ll leave you with one final tip. When trying to choose which sentence, paragraph, or section to cut out from your essay, go for the content that you know is not the best.

For example, you may have a section in your essay where you quote too much. Or, perhaps you were not very careful in paraphrasing, and your passage sounds too much like the original source. These would be great bits of content to get rid of.

I hope this was helpful. Now go ahead and shorten your essay to your heart’s desire!

How to Write a 300 Word Essay – Simple Tutorial

How to expand an essay – 4 tips to increase the word count, 10 solid essay writing tips to help you improve quickly, essay writing for beginners: 6-step guide with examples, 6 simple ways to improve sentence structure in your essays.

Tutor Phil is an e-learning professional who helps adult learners finish their degrees by teaching them academic writing skills.

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Whether you are in need of something to reduce the length of a paper to meet your word count limit our simple to utilize sentence shortener from summarize website may help you. Many times you need to make the narrative shorter or to make writing more concise. Unlike using a text compactor , doing it manually may be hard and take a considerable amount of time.

The machine placed here is an effective one that is capable of taking out many of the unnecessary words from the original version. It is an effective and quick way to rehash text in a way that is going to reduce the length of writing to meet specific requirements. By using it you’d be able to create text of exactly the length which you need in a fraction of the time that it takes to work through and do it manually.

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Our paragraph shortener could not be any easier to employ. Just highlight the content you wish to have reduced in length and select copy, then past it into the box. Just let the tool know what your final word count should be and complete the simple challenge to show you are a real person and you may run the process. The essay shortener would then work through an article to remove unnecessary words and swap phrases for shorter ones. This process is done quickly and efficiently and provides with an outline in the blink of an eye.

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If you want to know why you should employ our automatic article shortener over any other just look at these clear benefits:

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Like any piece of word shortener, the output from software needs to be treated with care. The English language is highly complex and software available today simply cannot comprehend the context and the many other peculiarities. It is therefore likely to make mistakes when it creates new rundown. It should be carefully read and edited before submitting. It should not be simply used without careful thought on your part.

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We provide a full summing up, rehashing and text shortener service through staff who is fully qualified to assist you. Our shorten my essay services have been around for many years and we have successfully provided clients from all around the world with the support which they need at a high standard. Feel free to come to us with any task and ask to “ write a summary for me “, and we will handle it perfectly, be sure!

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