Would that be a skill worth developing? You can use the essay shortening tips above as a way to improve your overall writing. Nathan Thursday the 30th. I am back in school, and editing my own papers; this will be invaluable for tightening up written-at-the-crack-of-dawn paragraphs. Conciseness is an important characteristic of academic writing, especially given how complex the subject matter frequently is. Another way to make the main arc more efficient is to shorten the buildup to the inciting event. Edited: Like many students, I find it hard to write essays within length requirements. 8 min read. For instance, writing a 4-page paper may require more secondary sources than a 2-page paper. Ideally, you should make sure you’ve planned out your document before you begin: one way to do this is with a mind map. Unnecessary detail is more likely to be obvious when you return to something after a break. To shorten an essay, you can: Further, we will give examples of sentences that can be shrunk with their revisions. The number of sources needed depends with the length of the paper. 8. New York: Baywood Publishing Company, Inc.; 1983. My wish for you today: empowerment to know when advice isn't going to work for you, and permission to ignore it when that happens. 1536 visitors saw this today and 1210 signed up. J Ed Psychol. Such sentences should be accompanied by reference citations, which make the above phrases redundant. Duffy TM, Kabance P. Testing a readable writing approach to text revision. When editing your essay and you find adverbs that have “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. If your essay is longer than the requirement, rank the points used to support your arguments. Activate this on your computer and it’ll do the counting for you. To illustrate how you can reduce the word count in your paper without impairing its integrity, we will use sample sentences and go through a list of techniques you can apply. Sentences carrying product names can be shortened by shifting the product name within parentheses. Many students make this mistake when writing a conclusion. Edited: You must consider many industry processes first. When given an essay to complete, the instructor expects you to come up with a topic and support it throughout your essay. Below is a list of redundancies, removing which you can make your college essay shorter. That sentence contains a lot of information that we can combine into a shorter passage. They include “it is”, “there is”, “the fact that”, and so on. [CDATA[> 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. 1968; 7:904-12. If you found that your word count is maximum than the specified value, then the first thing you have to do is to rank the points you have used to support your argument. Click to Get Expert Writing HelpEnter Code WISE15 for a 15% Discount. The irradiation point coincided with the point at which the morphological change started, suggesting that the change was initiated by…. Rohrman N. The role of syntactic structure in the recall of English nominalizations. Here are 10 tips to keep your manuscript concise: 1. Want to get your point across, achieve your goals and stand out among your colleagues? A general method for spatiotemporal control of protein activity within cells is lacking. Consider the following sentences: (1) Proteins have various functions that are precisely controlled. It’s best to keep the journal requirements in mind and try to write concisely when you are drafting your manuscript itself. Original: It’s quite important to note that the study revealed rather interesting results. In fact, conforming to a given word count limit is difficult for native English speakers as well because they usually have so much to say and have to remember to keep it short. Original: The samples were analyzed on the ABC spectrophotometer (Zhejiang Scientific, Zhejiang, China) to determine the xyz values. Instead, use the active voice whenever possible, especially if it’s critical to know who or what acts. Better still, use the first three techniques here to lose the excess length, and you won’t need to lower yourself to such tricks ever again. In the results section, avoid stating individual values for groups, followed by the values for statistical significance. (2) The release and activation of the proteins were controlled by…, Again, eliminate unnecessary prepositional phrases: “of the proteins.”, Protein release and activation were controlled by…. Unfortunately, if all else fails, you’ll have to go over your content and decide what aspects can be eliminated. That doesn’t mean you’re a terrible writer — you just need to do a bit of editing and reduce the essay’s word count a bit. The new sentence will be: “John’s team trounced the opposing team.”. (15 words). This sentence is in the active voice because John (subject) performs the action of playing basketball (object). (12 words). They give a mere summary of the body paragraphs when instead, you must tie them together and provide a broader context without sending the reader back. Three strategies to help you write clearly for a lay audience, Profile: An Interview with Michael Markie - an open science and open data advocate, © 2020 European Medical Writers Association. These phrases can be deleted, leaving only the citation. Place Your Order Now! You should eliminate the verbiage if you want to make your essay shorter. 2020 Shearson Editorial Services, Copyediting and Substantive Editing since 1991, BELS Certified, Adverb placement: Predominantly, mainly, mostly. When it comes to coming up with essays, there are two types of students; those who write beyond the word count and those who write below the word count. Is it acceptable to use first person pronouns in scientific writing? Here are some common examples: 7. By ranking the importance of the arguments you make in the essay, you can drop … Your email address will not be published. Columbia Law Rev. (25 words), Revised: The difference in the protein level was 5 mg in between Ggroups A and B, while it was 3 mg in Group b, the difference being statistically was significant (5 mg vs. 3 mg, p < 0.05). Wordy phrasing also falls under this section. The first sentence in the active voice is made up of 4 words while the second sentence in the passive voice is made up of 6 words. But as you give it a final once-over before hitting ‘send’, don’t forget one crucial question: ‘Is it too long?’. Recently, I was asked to help an author shorten a paper by 10% to meet the word-count requirements of the target journal. Charrow PR, Charrow VR. The best answer for How to shorten an essay is use the best suitable verb in your writing. Therefore, it is important to avoid the passive voice in an essay. (10) In the merged images obtained immediately after irradiation (Fig. A good essay should contain only the strongest and most valid points. This is because first-person is not formal and tends to be confrontational. That way you don’t need to fret about losing anything important. As we have noted, academic essays will require you to present your arguments straightforwardly. Guidelines for document designers. Concise writing presents ideas clearly and does not use more words than are truly necessary. What is the biggest benefit of an abstract? (17 words), Revised: The samples were analyzed on the ABC spectrophotometer to determine the xyz values (ABC spectrometer; Zhejiang Scientific, Zhejiang, China). Protein function is precisely controlled. We are not liable or answerable to any third parties for the use of our service. While it’s important to establish the context, offering your audience very obvious information may come across as patronizing. You might get away with writing a bit less text, whereas more will just annoy the reader. 2002— As for what we deleted, the word “certain” doesn’t require a modifier because if you’re not completely certain, you are not certain anymore (if that makes sense). Here you can eliminate an expletive phrase (“there is”) and use concise terminology: “spatiotemporal control” versus “controlling the timing and location.” Jargon has its uses! After several revisions, you will shrink your text without destroying content. Cactus Communications. Thank you so much for this entry. Such verbiage are some of the weak words to avoid in writing essays and research papers. 1) was irradiated…, When a small spot (red circle, Fig. Wordy phrasing also falls under this section. 96-511, 94 Stat. Let us know if you liked this page so that we can improve our content. How can I reduce TurnitIn Similarity Index ? You can shorten this in two ways. 10 Tips to reduce the length of your research paper As a result, you’ve come up with some substantial recommendations that you feel your client will be truly happy with. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Educational Technology Publications, 1982:317-40. Write a compelling abstract to increase the chances of readers wanting to know…. Example: If you are writing a study about AIDS, avoid starting the introduction with a statement like “AIDS is a life-threatening disease.”. Don’t state that a change occurred and then describe the change; simply describe the change: Increasing the reagent concentration decreased the nanoparticle size. 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. Consequently, the active voice uses lesser words compared to the passive voice. One click sign-in with your social accounts. Subscribe and get curated reads that will help you write an excellent manuscript. You can clutter your writing with repetitive phrases and needless words without even noticing it. [Read: Why You Should Care About Readability Statistics] Count the commas. [CDATA[// >