reduce words for essay

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.

Updated: Aug 24th, 2023

• 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...

• 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: May 17th, 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

• Free AI text & essay shortener tool: Make sentences shorter with ease

Free AI text & essay shortener tool: Make sentences shorter with ease

Discover the power of brevity with our innovative AI essay shortener and text compressor. Seamlessly shorten sentences, condense paragraphs and reduce word count without losing the meaning. Ideal for essays, papers, reports, and any other writing project, this essay shortener tool acts as your personal generator, adept at reshaping paragraphs in a more clear manner.

Shorten essay in 3 steps using our AI sentence condenser

Condense your essays with our intuitive essay shortener tool in just three simple steps. Transforming your extended text into a concise piece while retaining its meaning has never been this easy. Follow the instructions below to get the most out of Studycrumb’s sentence shortener.

Input your text in the provided field above. It can be a sentence, paragraph, essay, report, or any other text needing condensing.

Choose your desired text reduction level by adjusting the slider. Whether you opt to mildly or significantly make a sentence shorter, our tool offers you full control over the condensation process.

Click the button and receive your succinct text in an instant. Our word count reducer does the heavy lifting, ensuring your condensed writing maintains clarity, ready for submission or publication.

Why our AI essay shortener stands out

Unlock the power of concise writing with our AI essay shortener and revel in the numerous benefits that set our tool apart! Here are the exceptional advantages you'll embrace with our free sentence shortener.

Enjoy unlimited, free use of our AI sentence shortener, a tool that is always available to assist students, professionals, and anyone eager to enhance their writing clarity.

Streamline your refining process with our paragraph condenser. Automatically shrink your text and save you valuable time without needing to meticulously sift through each word.

Our essay shortener allows you to select from three distinct compression levels, ensuring your content remains potent and impactful, regardless of its new form.

Addressing various text types, from detailed essays to brief paragraphs, our text shrinker compresses any kind of writing without losing its sense.

Need Expert Help?

StudyCrumb is a go-to platform helping students succeed. We gathered the best specialists who can write from scratch or shorten any text based on your needs.

Sometimes, an online essay shortener is not enough to write a paper that meets all academic standards. Employ a professional who will compose an authentic text from the ground up.

Have a skilled editor fine-tune your paper. Our academic proofreaders will polish your writing and prepare a list of citations, so you stay on top.

Why Choose StudyCrumb

The best sentence shortener catering to all your needs

Whether you're a student, seasoned writer, or blogger, our automatic sentence shortener tool is your multifaceted ally in writing. Here are several ways you can harness the utility of our versatile text condenser to optimize your writing endeavors.

Word count reducer

Simplify your writing with our exceptional AI word shortener generator. Impeccably crafted to reduce word count online free of charge, our tool swiftly prunes your text, ensuring every word delivers value. With your desired compression level, easily reduce the verbosity of your content, making it more direct and to the point.

Sentence shortener

Erase the extras and fortify your message with our AI sentence shortener generator. It’s ideal for making sentences shorter without losing their original meaning. A lengthy sentence can often dilute your message. Use our tool to condense sentences, ensuring they are succinct and keep your message clear.

Paragraph shortener

Compressing paragraphs without dodging context can be tricky, but not with our shorten paragraph tool. Our paragraph condenser is specially designed to trim down your text, eliminating any unnecessary verbiage while keeping the essence alive. Rely on our tool to condense paragraph with confidence.

Essay condenser

Meet our essay shortener generator, where your essays are transformed into concise masterpieces. Catering to your ‘make my essay shorter’ request, our tool refines each sentence and paragraph. In result, you obtain an essay that is crisp, coherent, and consistently preserves your initial intent.

Paper shortener

No longer worry about lengthy papers with our dynamic word condenser. Shortening papers while maintaining their core message and value is pivotal. Our academic paper shortener does exactly this. It cuts down your paper, making your content brief and substantive. Just paste your text and wait for a second for the result to be produced.

Text reducer

Welcome to the future of writing with our text shortener, a proficient text compressor online tool that aligns technological advancement with textual compression. Every time you compress text with our tool, you’re guaranteed a version free of abundant details that may potentially disrupt your readers.

AI Sentence & essay shortener tool by Studycrumb for concise writing

Are you tired from condensing your text and looking for a tool that will ‘shorten my essay’? Don’t go any further. Studycrumb’s essay shortener is here to handle all your challenges in a flash. Crafted with precision, our sentence shortener not only aids in reducing length but also enhances readability and maintains the essence of your writing. Whether you seek to shorten a sentence, phrase, paragraph, or entire text, our essay compressor is engineered to deliver concise content without compromising its intrinsic message. Our AI-powered tool diligently works to compress text, ensuring each word packs a punch and every sentence conveys its intended message. Especially handy when coping with detail-dense passages, our reduce word count tool efficiently omits redundant specifications, offering a compact variant in mere seconds. No more frustrations or endless searches for a 'shorten my sentence' solution – your key to crisp writing is here at StudyCrumb, ready to assist you at any time.

Why choose Studycrumb's text shortener to condense your sentences?

There are multiple reasons to opt for Studycrumb’s AI essay and text shortener tool. An amalgamation of advanced, AI-driven text condensing technology and user-centric design, our tool confidently stands out as an unparalleled essay trimmer in the digital domain. Here’s why selecting our text condenser is a brilliant decision:

• AI-powered precision: Benefit from our cutting-edge algorithm that carefully scans, analyzes, and condenses your text. The sentence shortner will keep the flow undisturbed, providing you with a neater version of your original.
• Zero-cost utilization: Engage with our shorten text generator to reduce word count in your paragraphs for free. Studycrumb proudly offers an unrestricted, free-to-use platform, eliminating worries about hidden fees or forced subscriptions.
• User-centric design: Experience ease with our intuitively designed interface. Navigate, utilize, and achieve concise text without stumbling through complicated processes or unnecessary steps.
• Assured privacy: Use our paragraph shortener tool and be sure of confidentiality. Your texts are always in safe hands, as we prioritize user data protection and guarantee that your essays are never shared or accessed by third parties.
• Instant output: Embrace the speed and reliability of our word count shortener. It's crafted to generate an abridged text in a snap, ensuring you don’t have to wait for ages to attain the result. 

As you can see, our reduce word count generator is a one-stop solution for all your writing challenges. With unparalleled precision, swift output, and user-centricity at its core, Studycrumb’s essay shortener stands as your universal tool for optimized writing. 

How our shorten sentence tool compresses essays and texts

Powered by advanced algorithms, our AI sentence shortener tool can perform text compressing tasks without a hunch. Having processed massive amounts of information, it’s equipped with all the data necessary for identifying lengthy patterns. 

• Profound textual analysis: Our AI text shortener starts examining the input text, recognizing elements such as verbosity, tautological phrases, repetitive structures, and needless metaphors. Utilizing natural language processing (NLP), essay reducer understands the context and semantic structures, ensuring that the meaning remains intact even after shortening.
• Algorithm-driven reduction: The algorithms implement a series of linguistic rules and models to create eloquent text compression. They analyze sentence structures, scrutinize word relevance, and evaluate semantic significance, deciding which elements can be omitted or rephrased without altering the core meaning.
• Advanced vocabulary implementation: Leveraging a comprehensive vocabulary database, our shorten sentence generator meticulously substitutes lengthy phrases with laconic synonyms, restructures sentences to be more direct, and eliminates inessential words.
• Compression control: Choose your compression intensity, and the essay shortener will operate under those specific parameters. Our text reducer chooses among several shortening approaches and rewording strategies to provide you with the best compressing option.
• Simultaneous strategy analysis: Capable of exploring thousands of essay condensing tactics in parallel, the shorter sentence generator determines the most efficacious approach to curtail your text. The simultaneous analysis assures that the methodology employed is the most suitable to preserve message and tone.
• Unnecessary word excision: Designed to cut words for essay, our unnecessary word remover online sifts through your text, delicately pruning it.

If shortening a paragraph sounds like an uphill struggle, then you haven’t tried Studycrumb’s essay and sentence shortener tool yet. Count on our essay sentence condenser to improve your academic performance without losing trust of your teachers or professors. 

No. 1 Text condenser to shorten my essay for me free

Are you considering a free AI text compressor and googling ‘shorten my essay for me’? Allow us to introduce the top choice – Studycrumb's free essay shortener tool. Constructed on the pinnacle of advanced AI language models, our essay cutter doesn't just trim; it revitalizes your content. This writing condenser has impressed thousands of students and writers with astonishing proficiency. 

Offering powerful features at zero cost, our writing condenser executes top-tier essay minimization without financial burden. With a 100% free plan, our text minimizer allows even the most novice writers to abridge content. Using state-of-the-art technology that instantaneously replicates and condenses your text, you can manufacture a brief variant absolutely at no cost. No subscription or registrations are required! 

So, if you are in search of a ‘shorten my sentence generator free of charge’, don’t go past our revolutionary tool. Just insert your essay, press the ‘make my essay shorter’ button and receive a stronger version of your text in a snap. 

Shorten essay tool & word count reducer for everyone

Studycrumb's essay word count reducer is your gateway to concise communication across all writing domains. Our user-friendly article shortener is devised to satisfy the needs of a diverse user base, ensuring every word hits the mark with precision.

• Students & academics: Struggling to make essay shorter? Students and educators can leverage our word shortener to maintain academic integrity while keeping essays clear and concise. By using our tool,you can be sure that every submitted piece adheres to word count guidelines without diluting critical information.
• Content creators: In the digital world, capturing attention is paramount. Our shorten sentences tool assists bloggers and content creators in crafting engaging content that retains readers' attention and conveys messages effectively.
• Freelancers: Authors and professional writers can utilize our text condenser AI tool to refine their output. This ensures that every chapter, paragraph, and sentence is not only purposeful but also enhances reader engagement.
• Business professionals: In the corporate sphere, clear communication is key. Business professionals can employ our paragraph reducer to sharpen emails, reports, and proposals.
• Journalists: Crafting compelling news requires skill in delivering facts with brevity. Journalists can harness our shorten essay generator to condense information. This way, every article or report will maintain its newsworthiness without becoming overly verbose.

Studycrumb's sentence and essay shortener generator is crafted with everyone in mind. Backed by this tool, you can be confident that each word, sentence, and paragraph is polished, irrespective of your writing domain. Engage your audience, convey your message, and make every word count with Studycrumb text condenser – your partner for concise writing. 

Improve clarity with sentence & essay shortening tool at your fingertips

We have mentioned a couple of times that our shortening essay tool delivers far beyond mere paragraph condensing. Our word cutter tool transforms your essay into a polished piece that carries its intended idea without any unnecessary fluff. One of the key highlights is that our essay compactor improves readability and clarity of your essay. 

As you may know, just hitting the word count for an essay doesn’t guarantee you an A. Professors don't just evaluate the coverage of ideas, but also scrutinize how those ideas are articulated. Fundamentally, they assess your capability to express thoughts in a crystal-clear manner. It's essential to pinpoint that beyond simply reducing word count, our sentence shortener works with the readability factors. 

Here's how our word reducer boosts your essay's clarity:

• Well-structured and concise content: With the redundant parts removed, you're left with a more organized and direct essay that guides readers through the central thesis. 
• Fluff removal: This summarizer determines unessential words and phrases, ensuring that your writing is free from jargon and excessive expressions. As a result, the text becomes easier to follow.
• Clearer message: By eliminating pointless elements, our sentence shortener free tool aids in making your writing more comprehensible. With the redundancies absent, your audience will be able to grasp the key points. 
• Improved readability: Our essay shortener improves the overall readability of your writing by simplifying complex sentences, decreasing wordiness, and enhancing the flow. Shorten paragraph and get a more readable output as a bonus. 

Forget about revising separate aspects of your essay with different tools. With Studycrumb, you've got an essay shortener that tackles all criteria in one go. So, stop looking for ‘shorten my essay generator’ in Google. Your all-embracing assistance is here. 

Examples of essay compression performed by Studycrumb online sentence shortener 

Still not convinced? Take a look at how our sentence shortener tool decreased the word count in the following essay paragraphs:

• Original text: "The proliferation of technology has had a significant impact on the way we live, from communication to education and entertainment. It has undoubtedly transformed our lives in more ways than one."
• Shortened text: "Technology's growth greatly impacted our lives, revolutionizing communication, education, and entertainment." 
• Original text: "In light of the current global health crisis, it is crucial for individuals to prioritize their mental and emotional wellbeing. This can be achieved through self-care practices such as exercise, meditation, and therapy."
• Shortened text: "Amid the pandemic, prioritizing mental health is vital. Self-care activities like exercise, meditation, and therapy can help achieve this." 

Our essay shortening tool not only cuts down on word count but also enhances the overall quality of your writing. Try it now and see the difference for yourself!

Bonus tips on making your essay shorter

While our essay shortener tool can greatly assist in making your writing more concise, here are some additional tips to consider when trying to make your paragraph shorter:

• Eliminate repetitive information and redundant sentences.
• Condense lengthy sentences into shorter, more impactful ones.
• Replace long words with simpler alternatives where appropriate.
• Avoid using too many adverbs or adjectives.
• Use active voice instead of passive voice.

By following these tips and using our essay and text shortener, you can effectively compress your sentences. Start creating concise, engaging writing with Studycrumb today!

FAQ about Studycrumb essay & sentence shortener generator

Check the answers below.

Is the use of Studycrumb's essay shortener tool plagiarism?

No, it is not. Our essay shortener generator only helps to condense your writing by removing redundancies and unnecessary words, leaving behind your original ideas and voice. It is up to you to properly cite any sources referenced in your writing.

Can I customize the level of condensing for my essay?

Yes, our essay shortener tool allows you to choose between three levels of condensing – minimal, moderate, and extensive. This way, you can tailor the amount of compression to your individual preferences.

Do I need to pay to shorten my essay?

No, you can use our essay shortener free of charge. Our sentence shortener is completely free to use and does not require payment or subscription. Simply utilize the tool to condense and refine your essay at no cost.

Is there a usage limit for your online sentence shortener?

No, our online sentence shortener generator does not have a set limit on the number of times it can be exploited. You can use the tool to generate as many outputs as you need. However, keep in mind that extremely lengthy essays may take longer to process and may require a higher level of compression.

Do I need to create an account to shorten my paragraph?

Absolutely not! Our paragraph shortening tool is accessible without registration. We understand that you may have limited time and, thus, did our best to develop a tool that won’t require extra manipulations. All you need to get your paragraph shortened is to insert your text and click the button. Enjoy unlimited, free access to concise writing with no sign-up or login required.

Can I use this AI text shortener on my phone or tablet?

Yes, our website is mobile-friendly and can be accessed from any device with internet access. Use our text reducer on-the-go whenever you need to shorten your essay.

Other tools you may like

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.

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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Automatic Word Count Reducer

Summarize any writing piece with this word count reducer in 3 steps:

• Add the passage you want to cut.
• Choose the desired number of sentences to keep in the passage.
• Click "Reduce" and enjoy the result.

Number of sentences in results:

Original ratio

100 % in your summary

Charachters

Why may you need to use an automatic online word count shortener?

The need to preserve a specific word count is called the essay's " scope " – an extent of analysis a student should not exceed in a particular assignment. In these cases, a paraphrasing generator that can remove redundant words and help you keep within the assigned word count.

• 🔢 What Is Essay Word Count?

✍️ Word Count for Various Essays

• ✂️ Tips to Shorten an Essay

🔗 References

🔢 what is essay word count & why does it matter.

As you will quickly notice at school, college, or university, every assignment contains specific instructions that cover the word count your home task should include.

Why are they important?

This is done primarily to minimize your effort and help you plan the working schedule. For instance, you will understand that you need to reserve 2 days for a 3,000 -word essay and can manage a 500 -word essay in 2 or 3 hours.

Besides, the word count sets the scope for your research; you will surely need to check fewer literary sources for a 500-word essay and visit a library a couple of times to write a large-scale 5,000-word study.

In other words, the word count of your essay task sets the limits for your study effort and gives you hints about the depth of research you need to conduct to meet the professor's requirements.

A practical guide may also help you determine the time and scope of various academic assignments . Here is a comparative table with word counts for assignments at different study levels.

✂️ Tips to Reduce Word Count in an Essay

If you're not ready to use a word count reducer and want to do everything manually, here are a couple of workable techniques for word count optimization.

• Avoid redundant beginnings . It's good practice to start a sentence with a subject. This way, you will avoid extensive "running starts," such as "as a matter of fact," "summing the presented evidence," etc. Your sentences will be simpler to read and free from redundant phrasing.
• Use active voice . Passive-voice phrases always add a couple of redundant words to a sentence. If you don't really need to disguise the doer of the action, you should use active voice only. You'll see how neat and clean your text will sound.
• Remove adjectives and adverbs . Adjectives and adverbs are frequently used in literary language, as they add vivid details and shades of meaning to notional words. However, they often create clutter in academic writing and are fully avoidable in most cases. So, you should consider removing most of them to make the text more readable and shorter.
• Don't exceed 25 words in a sentence . Academic writers are often tempted to sound more scholarly with long, overloaded sentences, including many compounds. In reality, such writing efforts rarely pay off, as they confuse the readers and disguise the core message the writer wanted to deliver. Thus, it's better to divide long sentences into several parts. Using this trick, you can avoid redundant transitions and simplify the content flow.
• One idea at a time . A logical progression of an academic text is a vital criterion of readability. Thus, you should explain relationships between variables or focus on one supporting argument at a time, avoiding a discussion of several factors in one go. This technique will improve your text's comprehension score and free readers from overly complex argumentation, causing a cognitive overload.

In all other cases – a lack of time, no desire to go through the entire text again – welcome to our word reduction tool that will make your editing job a breeze. Try our title maker and paraphraser to write and polish your essay quickly.

❓ Word Count Reducer FAQ

❓ how to count words in an essay.

It's pretty easy to control your word count in an essay. You should activate this function in your Word file, and a small tab at the bottom of your page will update you about the document's current word count as you type the essay's content. You can also click on "Statistics" in the Word menu to learn additional statistics about your text, such as the number of characters with and without spaces and the number of lines, sentences, and paragraphs you currently have.

❓ What is the word count for a college essay?

Word count is a specific number of words (or a range of words) that your professor assigns for writing. For instance, your university tutor may require students to write from 1,000 to 1,500 words in one essay. Thus, you can't compose fewer than 1,000 words (the paper should be at least 1,001 words), and you shouldn't write more than 1,500 words. A standard threshold for exceeding the assigned word count is 10% (so it's okay to submit a 1,650-word essay).

❓ How to reduce word count in an essay?

There are many techniques for word count reduction, such as cutting the articles, conjunctions, transition phrases, and running starts from the text. You may also consider changing passive-voice phrases to active voice or replacing some complex, sophisticated phrases with simpler words.

❓ What does a summarizer do?

A free text compressor available on our website can reduce the word count of your essay by removing redundant words that don't hold any vital meaning and can be removed without losing the text's quality. You can reduce the word count and combine several sentences into one automatically to achieve high-quality text reduction.

• How to reduce word count without reducing content
• How to Increase or Decrease Your Paper’s Word Count
• Summarizing - Academic Integrity at MIT
• Summarizing - University of Toronto Writing Advice
• Writer's Manual: Academic Summary - LibGuides UU

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

Free Text Shortener Tool

• 📖 Text Shortener
• 📜 When to Use It
• 🎉 Benefits of the Tool
• ✒️Writing a Summary
• ✍️Summary Examples
• 🎁 Bonus Tips

🔗 References

📖 text shortener guide.

Summarizing is an essential part of academic writing. It shows your ability to separate and present the main findings, plot elements, thoughts, etc. A good summary lets another person easily understand it without reading the original text.

Our free text shortener presents key takeaways of a text using AI technologies. To use it, you need to copy and paste the original text and choose the length of the expected summary. This is how you create a resume with zero stress in a couple of clicks.

In this article, we describe our tool and explain how to write top-scoring summaries.

📜 When to Use Text Shortener Tool

• When you need to write a concluding paragraph. It can be an essay, research paper, lab report, or other academic text. Paste your body paragraphs into the box to create a summary for your concluding part.
• When you need to shorten your essay. Use this tool if you exceed the word limit in your essay or a particular paragraph. It also works as a sentence shortener.
• When you need to read an extensive article. You will do it faster as summarizing tool makes the text shorter, preserving the main information. It is helpful when you need to read many articles and highlight the key points.
• When you need to shorten other researchers’ passages. Including lengthy quotes in your paper is not the best decision. Instead, you can use our tool to make them shorter without changing their sense.
• When you need to take notes. Create an overview of the studying materials with our online shortener. It is a fast and easy way to make notes without writing or typing them manually.
• When you need to refresh your knowledge. Instead of reading a full text or book, just use a summary generator. After a quick revision of the content, you can save and use these extracts later.

🎉 Shorten Sentence Generator Benefits

Below you will find reasons why students love our shortening tool.

✒️ How to Write an Outstanding Summary

If you want to write a summary yourself, this passage is for you. Follow these guidelines to shorten texts better and faster.

• Find only one core thought – this is the basis of the text. Then look for supporting points that revolve around this idea. At this stage, you can list the essential ideas in the text.
• Don’t use judgmental and emotional vocabulary while writing. Your goal is to be as objective as possible. You can also rewrite the informal style to formal. Remember that summarizing is not the same as paraphrasing .
• Keep your summary brief: it shouldn’t be longer than 15% of the initial text. But we still recommend using synonyms and synonymic expressions not to repeat the original passage. Don’t forget to reference the works you have included.
• Reread your summary . Make sure that its writing style corresponds with the rest of your work.
• Add transition words if you notice that there is no flow. Ask yourself: can a person understand the core meaning of your text just after reading the summary?

If yes, congratulations! You have just created a good summary. If not, find the details that you have missed. It can be a logical sequence, a particular argument, event, or evidence. Rewrite your summary till it fully represents the original text.

✍️ Text Shortening Examples

Now let’s take a look at two summary examples.

🎁 Bonus Tips for Students

• Make sure you know what kind of summary you need. For example, an executive summary has particular guidelines and writing formulas.
• Avoid complex terminology and long sentences. Your summary should be independent and straightforward. Imagine that a person unfamiliar with the topic needs to understand the text.
• To shorten a long text, make a one-sentence summary for each paragraph. It will help you control the size of the summary. It also will be easier to navigate the text if you decide to rewrite or adjust your summary.

What does summarize mean?

Summarizing means shortening a larger text without changing its meaning. You can usually see summaries at the end of essays and other academic papers. While shortening a text, you need to cover only the essential details mentioned in the text. In most summaries, you shouldn’t include your opinion on the matter and have to be objective.

How to summarize a story?

You need to retell a story briefly. Imagine that you have read a book and want to describe it to your friend. Highlight the main plot elements and characters that are crucial to the story. Omit the parts that are not essential for a person who wants to understand the plot.

How to summarize a quote?

Read the passage and find its key message. Briefly describe this thought in your own words. Make sure that the summarized piece fits your paper’s tone. If you leave more than three words unchanged, put them in quotation marks. Don’t forget to give credit to the author.

Note: short, clearly expressed quotes do not need shortening.

Updated: Aug 11th, 2022

• How to Write a Summary: 4 Tips for Writing a Good Summary | Masterclass
• Guidelines for Writing a Summary | Hunter College
• 10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count | The University of Adelaide
• 8 Ways to Reduce the Word Count for Your Research Paper | How to Write a Journal Article

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Essay Shortener

Shorten your essay and add precision to your writing with our tool..

EssayGPT's Essay Shortener: How to Use

EssayGPT is an AI-based essay shortener tool that quickly separates key findings from your academic essays and concisely presents them. You can use our tool with a few simple steps:

• 1. Copy and paste the academic content into the input box.
• 2. Select the target audience you are writing for, the tone of voice, and the language of your essay.
• 3. Press the "Generate" button to let the essay shortener eliminate redundant phrases and highlight key points.

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Exceeding the Required Word Count? Shorten an Essay with EssayGPT

Tackling an excessive word count in your thesis or academic essay can be your worst nightmare. Hours of research and meticulous writing can be jeopardized when you're forced to remove sections. Moreover, randomly eliminating paragraphs runs the risk of diminishing credibility and losing crucial debating points.

Fortunately, our essay shortener is here to help! With this tool, you can reduce your word count without compromising the key essence of your academic paper.

In What Ways Does EssayGPT's Text Shortener Tool Shorten an Essay?

EssayGPT's text and sentence shortener tool operates on seven factors to shorten the text of academic papers, which are:

• Remove : Identifies and removes redundant content
• Delete : Evaluates and deletes unimportant information
• Edit Unsupportive : Eliminates articles that fail to add value to the essay
• Return Precise : Makes content precise and to the point
• Prioritize : Converts passive into active voice to increase readability
• Replace : Replaces prepositions with pronouns, nouns, and phrases
• Eliminate : Modifies content to reduce insignificant adjectives and adverbs

Benefits of Using Our Essay Shortener

EssayGPT strives to offer you more handy ways to edit your essay. Our essay shortener tool presents the following benefits:

Free of Cost

You can use EssayGPT's essay shortener without paying a penny. Our tool allows you to summarize a 1000-words if you're an unregistered user and 3000 words if you're a registered user.

Free of Redundancy

You can use our essay shortener tool to eliminate extra information, redundant content, and superfluous information. This way, you can lower the exceeding word count of your academic papers.

Reduce Word Count

Our free tool shortens the text to minimize the word count of any academic content. You can easily summarize important details without compromising your essay's integrity or key points.

Save Time and Effort

You can save time and manual effort by using our AI-powered essay-shortening tool. It adjusts details and fits them according to your writing style without altering the essay's meaning.

Shorten an Essay Is That Easy with EssayGPT

Writing an Essay? We Have More Than Essay Shortener Tool

Ai essay writer, essay hook generator, essay extender, essay introduction generator, essay outline generator, essay rewriter, free essay conclusion generator, essay checker, thesis statement generator, dive into a world of inspiration.

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What is an essay shortener tool, and how does it work?

The essay shortener is an online AI-based paragraph shorter tool that helps reduce the word count of essays and other documents by removing unnecessary words and phrases. It analyzes the text to ensure the shortened text retains the meaning and coherency of the original text.

How long does it take to shorten an essay using EssayGPT's essay shortener tool?

The total time it takes to shorten an essay while using EssayGPT's essay shortener tools depends on the document's length. Usually, it won't take more than a couple of minutes to summarize 5000 words.

How many words can EssayGPT's essay shortener tool handle at once?

EssayGPT's essay shortener tool can handle up to 5,000 words at one time. To summarize longer documents, you must split them into smaller sections and paste each on the tool separately.

Is the essay shortener tool secure and private to use?

At EssayGPT, we strictly focus on user privacy and data security. Therefore, all uploaded text is encrypted and won't be shared with third parties. You can summarize your documents without any worry.

Trim Your Essay with EssayGPT Now!

We can help you condense your content without losing crucial information, ensuring your essay is concise and impactful.

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

• Call to +1 (844) 889-9952

Essay Trimmer: Reduce the Word Count for Free

Reducing the number of words is not easy, especially in the content that you have created yourself. Use the free essay trimmer to cut down any text.

Looking for an essay trimmer?

Take the 3 steps to remove clutter from your paper:

The word limit for each academic paper is set for a reason. It helps us focus research on a particular number of issues, plan writing, and communicate ideas clearly and concisely.

But what to do if you have reached the limit and still have ideas to write down? Use our Word Count Trimmer! Read the article below to discover its main advantages and ways of using it in your favor!

🤔 What Is a Word Count Trimmer?

• ️⚙️ How to Use the Trimmer?

✂️ Words to Cut out of Essays

🔻 how to reduce word count.

• 😀 Essay Trimmer: Benefits

❓ Sentence Trimmer: FAQ

🔗 references.

Essay Trimmer is an online tool that can help you reduce the length of any text to a specified number of sentences. It picks the most important sentences, thus decreasing the word count without changing the core message of the piece.

This online word cutter can be especially beneficial for those working with a lot of written content. As a bonus, you can also use the app to summarize books, novels, and articles on any topic.

⚙️ How to Use the Paragraph Trimmer?

Using Word Count Trimmer does not require much effort! Just follow 4 steps below and get the result within a second:

• Paste the text. The first step is to paste the text you have chosen into the appropriate field of the Essay Word Cutter. Ensure that your piece of writing does not exceed 20k characters.
• Adjust the settings. You can choose the length of shortened version and whether you want to receive keywords from the text.
• Click the button. Then, give our summarizing bot a second to produce the outcome.
• Get the shortened version. You can copy the final result in just one click!

When reducing the word count, you should primarily target phrases that do not add any value to your text. Below are some types of words you can easily cut out from your essay.

Apart from removing the unnecessary words listed above, you can use several more effective ways to cut down the number of words in your essay. Read on to gain some new insights!

Use the Shortest Forms of Words & Phrases

If there is a choice between a long phrase or word and a short one — choose the latter! This recommendation is especially critical if you must keep your writing within a specific character count instead of a word count. For example, instead of “give consideration to,” you can use “consider” or “think about.”

Don’t Repeat Yourself

Unfortunately, repetition is a widespread mistake among college students or even experienced writers. You can convey the same thought a couple of times using different words, which can irritate your readers or make them bored. Therefore, express each idea in your essay clearly and briefly.

Choose Active Voice

The active voice comprises fewer words than the passive one. As a result, using active voice makes your writing more straightforward and more appealing to readers, allowing you to tell a more impactful story. Check out the example below.

Begin Sentences with the Subject

If you begin sentences with the subject , your writing will be easier to comprehend because it will be evident who or what the statement is about. Moreover, you’ll have to remove all unnecessary introductory phrases before the subject, thus reducing your word count. Just consider the most crucial element in the statement and build a sentence around it.

Here’s an example:

• ❌ It was found that after an earthquake, the largest building in the town survived.
• ✅ The largest building in the town survived an earthquake.

Focus on the Message

When your writing lacks focus and you don’t clearly understand what you want to say, it is easy to write too much. You will jump from one idea to another, and your paper will become messy. To avoid it, focus on your thesis statement and logically arrange your main arguments to support it. A carefully structured outline can help you with that.

😃 Essay Trimmer: Benefits

Don’t miss a chance to try our Essay Trimmer! It has so much to offer to its users:

❓ Why Is Word Count Important?

Having a specific word count puts you in control. It makes writing more manageable because it lets you plan how much research you should do and how to structure your paper. Word limit also allows you to allocate the appropriate amount of time to writing and focus on the core message you want to highlight in your text.

❓ How Many Words Should an Essay Be?

The essay’s length depends on your assignment type, professor’s instructions, and education level. Here are sample word counts for common assignments:

• High school essay – 300-1000 words;
• College applications – 200-700 words;
• Graduate school applications – 500-1000 words;
• Graduate-level papers – 2000-6000 words.

❓ How to Cut Down Words in an Essay?

Use the tips below to cut down words in your essay or paper and strengthen your writing:

• Use active voice instead of passive.
• Utilize the plural when possible.
• Remove redundant transition words.
• Turn some nouns into verbs.
• Use possessive nouns.

❓ How to Check Word Count on Google Docs?

Take these 4 steps to check the word count in Google Docs:

• Open the Google Doc and paste your text.
• Click “Tools” in the header menu.
• Choose “Word Count” from the drop-down menu.
• Check the word count in a pop-up window.

Updated: May 17th, 2024

• 10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count | The University of Adelaide
• Eliminating Words | Purdue Online Writing Lab
• Writing Concisely | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Strategies for Reducing Word Count | University of Georgia
• Cutting Out Lard | University of Massachusetts Amherst

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

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How to decrease your word count, without ruining your point.

Here's our comprehensive guide to writing shorter sentences, without affecting the strength of your argument

Hugo Whitehead

Whether you're at school, university or writing your thirteenth book, you’ve probably got an incurable habit of writing more than you're supposed to. One minute you're struggling to get words on the page, the next you're way over your required word count.

To ease your worries, we've put together a comprehensive guide to writing shorter sentences, without changing the meaning of your content.

Check what is being counted:

First of all, check what is actually being counted. Often, your bibliography, footnotes, appendixes, and image captions aren’t counted in the word limit, so make sure you aren’t including them accidentally.

Watch out for repetition:

Without even realizing it, people will over explain and repeat themselves. Sometimes even good writers will include information twice. For example, “I went to university at the University of Technology Sydney”. Did you notice it? I didn't need to say “to university” because it is already stated in “University of Technology Sydney”. Instead, I should have said “I went to the University of Technology Sydney”. It might sound simple, but you’ll probably want to get someone else to read over your work to find these, as they’re rather hard to catch.

Remove adverbs:

Adverbs are usually unnecessary, and can weaken your writing. A quick thesaurus search will help you find a stronger synonym. For example, changing "very neat" to "immaculate" sounds better, and is one word shorter. You can find out more about the impact of adverbs on your writing in this article .

Remove adjectives:

In some cases, there is no need to over describe something. Especially, if you are trying to cut down you word count, you don’t need to say the day was cloudless, there was little wind, humidity was perfect and it was a lovely 27 degrees. Shorten it by using ideas that are familiar to people e.g. ‘it was a perfect summer day’. Your readers will know what a perfect summer day is like so you don’t need to waste words explaining it.

Use contractions:

This is a rather sneaky trick, but by contracting two words into one, you're easily reducing your word count without changing the meaning at all. For example, change “I have” to “I’ve” or “Would not” to “Wouldn’t”. Be careful though, if you are writing in formal context for an essay, CV or assignment, it’s best to avoid using contractions as they give a rather colloquial tone to your writing.

Use commas:

Sentences are typically used to convey one idea. However, if you can link two of your sentences together to discuss the same idea, do it. By using a comma or conjunction to link two sentences, you're bound to remove some words in the middle. For example, “Emily was so mean to me. She used to bully me” can be changed to “Emily was so mean because she used to bully me”. Make sure you don’t try and link every sentence as it will ruin the flow of your writing.

Eliminate wordy transitions:

Most good writers will try and link their paragraphs together with some form of transition. Whilst this gives flow from paragraph to paragraph, they can be wordy. Try and use a single word to link sentences. For example, use ‘Additionally’ instead of ‘In addition’, or ‘Opposingly’ instead of ‘In contrast’.

Swap out phrases for words:

From time to time, writers will use common phrases or idioms to help explain a situation. They are an easy way to cut out words. For examples, change “Volkswagen Golfs are a dime a dozen in Sydney” for “Volkswagen Golfs are common in Sydney”. Another example is “Jimmy was feeling under the weather on Monday after a big weekend”, which could be changed to “Jimmy was sick after a big weekend”.

Pick your best work:

If you have gone through you work and can’t find any easy spots to reduce your word count, the best thing to do is to re-read your writing and determine what your strongest points are. Focus on a few main points and keep the parts that you feel have the strongest impact on your reader.

It’s not an easy process. Cutting down your word count is a good skill to have, and no doubt you’ll have to do it at some point in the future.

Let Outwrite do it:

Can’t be bothered to do this all yourself? Check out Outwrite’s paraphrasing tool . It can help you rewrite sentences to make them shorter, clearer, and more compelling. Just sign up to our Pro plan, set your Rewrite goal, then get to work!

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This text reducer will make an outstanding summary of any academic writing piece. All you have to do is follow these 3 steps:

• ❓ Why Use the Tool?
• 🧮 How Long Should a Paper Be?

✂️ How to Reduce a Text: Best Tips

🔗 references, ❓ text reducer: why use it.

Academic writing is all about instructions and discipline in their observance. Each genre within its framework always has a standard structure and volume.

Sometimes, the result exceeds the required word count, and you have to shorten it. But as most students postpone their homework to the last, they have no time to work on its shortening. Thus, they end up deleting some paragraphs and ruin the logic. It also happens that a section or chapter takes a disproportionate share of text.

Our text reducer is designed especially for such situations.

All you need to do is:

• Preset the desired number of sentences in the final version;
• Let the tool do all the nasty job for you.

Besides, you can use the same software as a summary generator.

🧮 How Long Should Academic Papers Be?

Before describing what can be deleted without thinking, consider the ultimate purpose. Below, you’ll find the main genres of academic papers and their estimated length.

High School Essay

The standard length of a high school essay is 300 to 1000 words . The suggested word count is not just about the size – it is a complexity barometer. The length sets the boundaries for your argument. For instance, a short 300-word essay needs a focused topic and a brief list of ideas. A more extended variant would allow for a broader approach and a more complicated argumentation.

Distribute the words in a 1000-word essay according to the following scheme:

• Introduction – 100-200 words;
• Each paragraph in a 5-paragraph essay – about 250 words;
• Conclusion – 100-200 words.

Research Paper

Graduate and undergraduate study levels will require you to prepare term papers and academic reports. A standard research paper can take about 5000-6000 words . Still, the exact length and the availability of specific sections (see below) depend on the discipline and teacher’s requirements.

• Title page (50-100 words): include the title, author’s name, and affiliation.
• Abstract (up to 250 words but usually much shorter than that): overview the research project.
• Introduction (about 500 words): explain why the topic is worth studying and identify the unresolved issues. Include a thesis statement (1 or two sentences) presenting your research intentions and hypotheses.
• Methodology (500 to 1000 words): present the methods you have employed to perform the research.
• Findings (as much as necessary to present the results but within the required word count)
• Discussion (up to 1000 words): point out the implications of the findings and suggest the directions for future research.
• Bibliography (usually limited by the number of items, not by the word count).
• Tables and figures (their length does not count in the overall sum).

Book Review

A book review is typically between 1000 and 1500 words but depends on the purpose and format. There’s a world of difference between a review of a fictional and a scientific book. But in both cases, the aim is to help the reader form an initial impression of the work. For a more detailed word count explanation, address this structure:

• Introduction (150 words);
• Author’s qualifications (100 words);
• Presentation of the sources (applicable to a scientific book: 200 words);
• Critique (unlimited but within the maximum word count);
• Conclusion (150 words).

Thesis/Dissertation

A Master’s thesis is up to 40,000 words , and a Ph.D. dissertation is about 80,000 words . But their components are relatively the same. Here’s an example of word count distribution for a thesis or dissertation.

• Introduction (5% of the total): you can slightly extend it to 10%.
• Literature review (5-10% of the paper): if you incorporate this section into the introduction chapter, increase the word count accordingly.
• Methods (20% of the total).
• Results (50% of the text): you can increase or decrease the methods and results sections in proportion to each other.
• Discussion (15% of the total).

The remaining sections (bibliography and appendices) don’t count for the overall paper length.

Reduction of your final word count is always an unpleasant thing to do:

• There is a hazard of losing the essence of your writing.
• You might delete something that makes the text unique and beautiful.
• Deleting every word means you wrote them in vain (and wasted your time).

Check the following assignment details before spotting the things your text could do without. Thus, does the overall paper length comprise:

• The list of references;
• The footnotes;
• The abstract .

If they do count and your writing is still too long to be submitted, here’s how you can resolve the issue.

Tip #1: Shorten the introduction and conclusion

The introduction and conclusion are essential but not the principal parts of an academic paper. Their function is to summarize, not repeat what will or has been said in the main body.

Look through the introduction for any details covered later on and delete them.

Read the conclusion, making sure there are no “new” ideas you haven’t discussed before.

Tip #2: Delete the Chapter-Linking Passages

Many people have a habit of writing a mini-summary at the end of each section and “reminding” them about it in the next one. This practice is redundant and wastes your time and word count.

Make the closing paragraphs as short as possible. The readers remember what they’ve just read, so a brief recall of the critical points will suffice to make your argument clear.

Tip #3: Make the Style More Straightforward

A research paper or essay is not a literary contest work. It is about conveying your ideas and substantiating them. The person reviewing your text most likely won’t read into it but quickly scan it through. Your purpose is to put your thoughts on paper with the minimum words. This is how you can do this without prejudice to the contents.

Look for Redundancies

This category includes:

• Sequences of synonyms (“The text is unnecessary and redundant”);
• Unnecessary epithets (“a good example”: would you include a bad one in your writing? “A difficult dilemma”: are there easy dilemmas?);
• Frequently repeated adverbs (“even,” “just,” “so,” and “too” rank among student’s favorites);
• Explanatory phrases (“bring to an end” equals “finish”);
• Self-repeating passages.

Don’t be afraid to lose some nuances for the benefit of brevity. Besides, if you delete words from a sentence, and it remains relatively the same, those words are redundant.

Simplify the Sentences

Feel free to split all the complex sentences united with “and” or “but.” First, you’ll get rid of some useless words. Second, the readability of your text will only benefit from it.

Get Rid of Prepositions

The English language allows you to express many things in multiple ways. You can equally say “a school of Fine Arts” and “Fine Arts school.” It will become much easier to read when your text is unloaded from prepositions.

You Can Do without Auxiliary Verbs

Although they make your writing more “polite,” you’ll be surprised how much space they take. Your paper will look great without all those “might” and “could.” Just write what you mean without tentativeness.

Tip #4: Apply a Text Minimizer Tool

Under time pressure, you won’t be able to dedicate yourself to refining the already completed text. Try using our sentence reducer for hard-to-read passages. If you need to shorten the entire paper online, this text reducer is at your service free of charge.

Updated: May 17th, 2024

• How long can the academic paper be? – Quora
• Term Paper Guidelines Length Content Style
• How to shorten an article before submitting to a journal
• 8 Ways to Reduce the Word Count for Your Research Paper
• The Ultimate Guide to the 5-Paragraph Essay – ThoughtCo

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5 Best ways to Make an Essay Shorter

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]

Learn about our Editorial Process

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) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 101 Class Group Name Ideas (for School Students)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 19 Top Cognitive Psychology Theories (Explained)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 119 Bloom’s Taxonomy Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ All 6 Levels of Understanding (on Bloom’s Taxonomy)

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How to Reduce Your Essay Word Count

When it comes to writing essays, there are two frequent issues that arise; the word count is either too low or too high for the stated range of the essay. For those who perpetually end up with too few words, you need to figure out ways to increase your essay word count . For those who frequently find themselves with too many words on the page, there are some simple steps to take when editing to help reduce the number of words while at the same time making it a stronger piece of writing. Below are some suggestions to do this.

Rank Your Arguments

If you find you’re well above your word count maximum, the first step is to rank the points you use to substantiate your argument. By ranking the importance of the arguments you make in the essay, you can eliminate ones which aren’t as important as others, keeping the essay strong while removing large portions of writing. If you don’t want to eliminate any of the points, you can still reduce word count by mentioning all the arguments, but not writing as much detail about those not as strong as the more important points.

Focus on the Main Point

Once you determine what the important arguments are for your essay, read through it looking for any paragraphs or sentences which fail to address your main argument(s) or topic. It’s easy to accidentally go off on tangents when writing, and eliminating these tangents can help reduce word count. The more focused you can remain on your topic and arguments, the more concise your writing will be.

Use the Best Verb

This may sound obvious, but a lot of writers don’t do this well. When writing, always use the perfect verb rather than one that’s close, but not perfect. When you use the best verb possible, it will reduce the amount of writing you do in most cases. This is due to the fact that when you use a verb that’s not quite correct, you usually need to add more words to clarify your meaning. Here’s an example:

“They beat the opposing team by a lot of points.”

While “beat” is accurate in this case, it’s not the perfect verb because they not only beat the team, they beat the team by a lot. Using the better verb “trounce” in this instant will reduce the word count while still giving the same meaning as the longer sentence.

“They trounced the opposing team.”

Remove Adverbs

Look through your essay and see if you find any adverbs, especially adverbs which have “ly” endings. In many instances, these adverbs end up being filler words which end up being placed in the writing because it’s the way we talk, but the words don’t add anything beneficial to the actual essay. Go through the essay and ask if each one is needed and remove those that aren’t. Some words you may want to look out for are (click on image to expand to see better)

Remove Adjectives

Much in the same way as adverbs make their way into writing, multiple adjectives are used when one (or none at all) would suffice. Read the essay to see if all of the adjectives used are needed, and remove those which don’t add to the meaning of the sentence being written. Some common adjectives to look for are:

able, bad, big, different, early, first, few, good, great, high, important, large, last, little, long, new, next, old, other, own, public, right, same, small, young

(Photo courtesy of Matt Hampel )

I hate maximum word counts because I can never stay under them. Why do teachers do this to me? Why can’t I just write as much as I want?

If you saw what the majority of students turn in for homework, you would understand perfectly why there is either a maximum or minimum (sometimes both)for writing assignments.

This is such a challenge sometimes. I hate editing because I love all my words. It helps to know how to reduce the word count even though I don’t want to do it. I think teachers should let us write as much as we want. Isn’t that helping us to be better students than limiting the amount we can write?

Limiting the amount you can write is actually something that can help you write better. It forces you to clean up your writing and only make the most necessary points which will make it more concise and accurate. Editing is more important than the actual writing to write well for most people. Your teacher is doing you a great service by limiting the amount you can write.

This isn’t a problem. The problem is reaching a minimum word count. Anyone who complains about writing too much doesn’t know what a real writing problem is.

You’re correct! Because obviously there is only one type of writing style!

A classic case of someone thinking that the world revolves around them and not understanding that just because it’s not a problem they have, others can’t have it. A very narrow world view. You might want to actually try and see things from the perspective of others every once in awhile.

I write too much. I’ wordy. I always have to reduce word count. It’s as much of n issue for me is not having enough words is for you. I hate it when people dismiss problems of others jus because it happens not to be a problem for them.

This may not be an issue for you, but it is for many people like me. It’s pretty self-centered of you to think that only your specific problems matter.

Clearly your still in primary school. Just to inform you while I was in grades 6-12 I was always over the minimum/maximum word limits. Today in college I’m easily 1500+ over my maximum limit without headers, intros, and sources. I’m not saying your issue isn’t real I’m just explaining there’s always a flip side to a problem/issue.

I’m wordy. Far too wordy. I do my best writing when I have to edit myself and these ideas are good places for me to begin. I wish I could stay under my professor’s word count limits, but it never happens I guess it’s better than writer’s block, but it’s still an issue.

Learning to write concisely will improve your writing so much. It’s not easy, but it can make a huge impact on the points you’re trying to convey. it’s worth practicing it.

Yes, I agree!

I’m wordy. My best writing is edited, and these will help. I wish I could adhere to word limits. Better than writer’s block!

Editing is such an under appreciated part of writing. I love the quote that says that great writing is composed on the editing block. Reducing your word count shouldn’t be viewed as a chore but as an opportunity to improve your writing. Being able to get your point across concisely is a great skill to have.

I agree. Most students don’t realize the importance of good editing and how it can greatly improve their writing. I believe students should spend at least as much time editing their essays as they do writing them.

I always do this! I tend to write double the word count and spend the same amount of time editing it, it not more time! It’s so difficult and I have it but I enjoy the idea of it making me write better and improve my academic writing. The most difficult bit is that I feel it’s all relevant and then having to condense it as a academic writer whilst still making the assignment flow. Argh! Uni problems!

Me Too!! I’m a bit crazy with writing! ;p

This is soooooo true and they don’t really teach you this in school. They tell you to write, but not to edit. I would have loved it if I was given a document that I had to keep the same meaning and important points, but shorten it by 200 words. It’s a skill I didn’t learn well in school but you need in the real world.

This is a new problem for me. I used to always be under word count, but recently I’ve started to always go over word count. I thought that being under was bad, but being over seems to be even more difficult. I’m not good at editing so it takes me so long to get under word count.

Editing is a lot like writing. The more you practice, the better you will get at it. Don’t get frustrated and continue to work on your editing skills. You’ll be surprised at how much better your writing gets the more you practice them. Good luck!

Seriously, who ever needs to reduce their essay word count? Everyone I know is always trying to make their word count. Do these people just write random things to get that high of a word count? That makes no sense…

ha ha. I assume you’re still in middle or high school with a comment like this. One day you’ll learn that writing can be fun and interesting, and when that happens, you won’t have enough space to write everything you want.

The thing is I am in middle school and always go 1000 words over the limit in my assignments. A good strategy that I use is to create a new document and copy and paste each paragraph. each time I copy a paragraph I try to delete some unnecessary words. This strategy works really well and it helps me a lot when doing assignments

For me i always go over because as I’m writing and sourcing things, I find other useful sections that provide good arguments and compassion’s. Currently I’m on a 3000 word essays and Iv done 4700 without an intro. My references are 700 so I’m technically 1000 over. I’m really struggling to condense it.

There’s an easy way to reduce your word count that works great for me every time. JUST DON”T WRITE SO MUCH!

I don’t know if you were being serious or not, but for some people that’s easier said than done. I tend to be wordy in my first drafts, and so when I go back through I cut a lot of words while editing. If I only wrote the exact number of words required the first time through, my grades would be a lot worse than they are. When I edit, I make my essays a lot better. I think most people do. If you’re only writing first drafts of any assignment, you’re not putting your best work forward. While your advice seems like it’s simple, it actually is bad advice for those who want to get good grades.

I think it’s difficult for people who have a hard time reaching a word count minimum to understand how difficult it is for those of us who have a hard time staying under word count. Although they are completely opposite problems, they are just as difficult for both sides. It’s kind of like two sides of the same coin.

It is, but those needing more words can source and add information, arguments and comparisons. But for those that have already done this it is difficult to cut and priorities your work based on what’s relevant or proves a better argument.

What if you have a lot to say on the topic? Should I just dumb down my writing because the teacher says that I have a maximum word count that I’m not supposed to exceed? Sometimes it’s important to write a lot when there’s a lot to be said.

Some of us like to write with detail and that can also make your word count extremely high. By toning down your piece and being a bit more general, it might also help decrease your word count.

I worry when I do this that I’m losing marks as I’m not explaining myself from cutting the work I did

I recently have found that I no longer have trouble reaching assigned word counts, but now I am constantly going over them. I’m not sure how this happened. Even worse, I think being over word count is even harder than being under it. Who would have thought?

I think this is a common problem as people become better writers. As you become more confident in your writing, you tend to write more. The previous writing problems turn into editing problems. the good news is that as you get better at writing, your wordiness will tend to go down again. Just like it to practice to increase your word count, it will take practice to reduce your word count as well.

I happened to be a wordy writer. I never seem to be able to stay under the assigned word count on my essays. I found that one of the best ways to reduce the amount that I write is to take the time to outline before I even start writing. If I outline and I see that the outline is too long, I know my writing is going to be long. That gives me the opportunity to focus on the most important points of the essay which helps to keep the word count down. I don’t know if this will work for everybody, but it works well for me and I thought I would share it in case it helps somebody else.

Use contractions when possible, use active voice and leave out the unnecessary adjectives. Be careful of going on tangents and stay on topic. Idioms and cliches are you enemy.

I’m 478 words over my essay maximum and I have no idea how I’m going to get it under the limit. All the words are important and if I cut anything, it ruins it. Why do I always have so much to say?

Were you able to get your essay under the limit? Learning to be concise in your writing is difficult, but it will make your writing a lot better in the long run.

Well Stephanie, you don’t have to take out anything! If you just write, maybe your teacher will give you easier stuff!

No, not quite.

Hey Stephanie, i totally feel you 🙁 I’m really wordy and i feel that adds to the uniqueness of my essays but sometimes it does get out of hand. Removing those words kind of ruins the flow of my essays and i don’t really know how to go about it :/

The best thing you can do for your writing is to learn to edit well.

That’s easy to say, but how do you learn to edit well? I want to reduce the number of words in my essays, but they all seem important. I don’t want to edit out words that are important to the essay. If all seem important, then how do you choose which ones to eliminate?

Practice. Editing is like writing…the more you do it, the better you become. You don’t even have to write to practice editing. take something someone else has written and see if you can make it read more cleanly. It can be fun and addicting.

You don’t even have to write to practice editing

Take the ‘even’ out for example.

Hi everyone! I need some help. I want to write a Book, but I can’t think of anything to write about! So can anyone Please Hep Me!!!

Write about the journey that lead you to writing a book. All the notable series of events

That is a really boring story. (At least mine is)

One day My friends Zoey, wrote a book, and it was really good, so I started to write one as well…

See, boring.

But thanks!

My time has come! I’ve got a lot of ideas, but I want to read the book, not write it. How about a person who has a normal, twenty-first century life falls into a different time, and everyone keeps insisting they belong there as a person the protagonist has never heard of. The protagonist knows that they don’t, but as time goes on, you, as the author, slowly reveal that everyone from that time is right and the protagonist was imagining their other life. Just an idea!

Write about something that you like or love tho do. I wrote a book about animals.

Of, and, but, by are evil words for me. Always get me.

im 1000 words (and counting) over the word limit, its due tomorrow and i wanna die

A few other tips:

1) Use the search bar to find the times you have said ‘that’ because most of the time you don’t actually need it for the sentence to make sense.

2) Also, you can try and reduce a phrase into one word. A a cause of this… = consequently…

3) If you are writing someone’s name (eg. an author or a president), then you can just use their surname.

4) This tip works particularly if you are writing a history essay, I always just say ‘America’ instead of ‘the USA’/’the US’. Also ‘The USSR’ instead of ‘The Soviet Union’ (also just say Britain, not the UK or Great Britain).

5) Sometimes you just have to look through and consider re-wording sentences: John Gaddis’s argument states that “Kennan was the architect of the Cold War” Gaddis disputes “Kennan was the architect of the Cold War”

“consequently” obviosuly does not mean “as a cause of this”

Great Britain is not the same as the UK.

I mustn’t write more than 150 words in my essay and it’s making me crazy :C

That’s not an essay, that’s a paragraph! I’m having trouble getting below 750.

Jesus Christ, what?

I did not say anything.

I’m submitting my English essay into the departments contest and the limit is 800 I originally had 1,332. These tips from both articles and comments are helping bunches let’s hope I can get it under the limit!

I’m 1500 words over on my dissertation.. i’ve used all these methods and i’m still way over the word limit.. H E L P

Have you tried to to move around sentences and maybe try to then get rid of some that don’t matter anymore?

I have this problem – I am currently over by 1046 words. But, through this process I have finally found a solution. Plan my paragraphs in advance making sure I estimate how much I should write for each paragraph; by using this as a mental guide as I write, I will know when to stop before I get the end and it’s all a bit too late.

I am 150 words over my 1000 word essay. I got into a essay writing mood and was going for 2 hr before i looked at my word count. All of my words are important but I have to get rid of some.

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How to Reduce Word Count: Tips for Concise Writing

Reducing word count can seem like a daunting task, but it’s quite simple once you get the hang of it. The key is to be concise and eliminate any unnecessary words or details. Whether you’re trying to meet a word limit for an essay or just want to make your writing more clear and to the point, these steps will help you cut down your word count effectively.

Step by Step Tutorial to Reduce Word Count

Before we dive into the steps, let’s understand what we’re trying to achieve. Reducing word count often means making your writing more efficient. By following these steps, you’ll be able to convey your message using fewer words, without losing any meaning.

Step 1: Identify Redundancies

Look for words or phrases that repeat the same idea.

When you’re writing, it’s easy to say the same thing in multiple ways without realizing it. This is where redundancies can creep in. For instance, if you’ve already mentioned that someone is "happy," there’s no need to also say they’re "joyful" in the same sentence.

Step 2: Eliminate Filler Words

Remove words that don’t add value to the sentence.

Filler words are those little words or phrases that don’t actually add anything to your writing. Words like "just," "very," "really," and "quite" can often be cut without changing the meaning of your sentence.

Step 3: Use Active Voice

Switch from passive voice to active voice.

Active voice is when the subject of the sentence is doing the action, while passive voice is when the subject is receiving the action. Active voice tends to be more concise and clearer. For example, "The ball was thrown by John" (passive) can be shortened to "John threw the ball" (active).

Step 4: Combine Sentences

Merge sentences that convey similar ideas.

If you have two sentences that are closely related, see if you can combine them into one. This will reduce your word count and make your writing more streamlined. Just be careful not to create overly complex sentences that are hard to read.

Step 5: Prioritize Information

Decide what information is most important and what can be cut.

Sometimes, reducing word count means making tough decisions about what information to include. Ask yourself what the main point is and whether each detail is necessary to support it. If not, it can probably go.

After completing these steps, you’ll end up with a piece of writing that’s straight to the point and free of any fluff. Not only will it meet the word count requirements, but it will also be easier for your readers to digest.

Tips for Reducing Word Count

• Avoid repetition. If you’ve made a point once, trust that your reader has understood it.
• Be wary of adverbs. While sometimes necessary, they can often be cut without losing meaning.
• Stick to one idea per sentence. This will help you avoid complex sentences that can be wordy.
• Read your writing out loud. Hearing it can help you identify areas that are unclear or unnecessarily long.
• Ask someone else to review your work. A fresh set of eyes can catch redundancies and filler words you might have missed.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a redundancy in writing.

A redundancy is when the same idea is expressed multiple times in different ways within a piece of writing.

Can I use contractions to reduce word count?

Yes, contractions can help reduce word count by combining two words into one, as long as it’s appropriate for the tone of your writing.

Is it okay to remove transition words to reduce word count?

While transition words are important for flow, if they’re not essential or if they’re overused, they can be removed to reduce word count.

How do I know if I’ve removed too much information?

If the main point of your writing is still clear and supported, then you’ve likely struck the right balance. If not, you may need to add back some details.

Does reducing word count affect the quality of writing?

Not necessarily. Often, concise writing is clearer and more powerful. Just be sure to retain the key information and message.

• Identify redundancies
• Eliminate filler words
• Use active voice
• Combine sentences
• Prioritize information

Reducing word count is a valuable skill that can make your writing more effective. By following the steps outlined above, you can ensure that every word in your writing serves a purpose. Remember, it’s not just about hitting a word limit; it’s about making your message clear and engaging for your readers. Practice these tactics, and soon you’ll find that being concise comes naturally to you. If you’re looking for more ways to improve your writing, consider exploring other writing techniques or attending a workshop. Remember, the goal is to communicate your ideas in the most efficient way possible. Keep writing, keep refining, and never underestimate the power of a well-placed word.

Matt Jacobs has been working as an IT consultant for small businesses since receiving his Master’s degree in 2003. While he still does some consulting work, his primary focus now is on creating technology support content for SupportYourTech.com.

His work can be found on many websites and focuses on topics such as Microsoft Office, Apple devices, Android devices, Photoshop, and more.

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Senate, FTC cracking down on pharma patent shenanigans

By Dick Durbin and Lina M. Khan July 2, 2024

W hy do Americans pay so much more for common medications than people in other countries? Why does an inhaler that costs $7 in France cost almost $500 in the United States? These are just a few of the questions the Senate Judiciary Committee looked to answer in a recent hearing . The common answer? Dominant corporations use a variety of patent-related strategies to protect their power, maximize their profits, and squash their competition.

Americans are facing an affordability crisis at the hands of corporate titans. One in three people cannot afford the medications their doctors prescribe. These medications don’t have to be so expensive, but all too often pharmaceutical companies use illegal tactics to block competition that could lower prices and encourage innovation.

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In one scheme recently exposed by the Federal Trade Commission, pharmaceutical companies improperly listed patents on a federal registry to gum up the works and delay generic competition, enabling them to continue charging sky-high prices for medicines people need.

Here is how it works: The Food and Drug Administration keeps a list of patents associated with approved drugs, known as the Orange Book . When a patent is listed in the Orange Book, the drug’s manufacturer can delay approval of a generic competitor for 30 months. That means the FDA isn’t allowed to approve any cheaper alternatives for 2 1/2 years.

Companies automatically get this 30-month freeze on generic competition without any analysis to determine if the listed patent was properly granted, covers the generic product, or even belongs in the Orange Book in the first place. Some companies have taken advantage of the system, overloading the list with improper, trivial patents — such as patents for dose counters, inhaler caps, or other device components, rather than drug ingredients themselves — to box out competitors and keep prices inflated.

Pharmaceutical companies have gotten away with tactics like these for far too long, boosting profits at the expense of people’s lives and pocketbooks. This cannot continue. President Biden, along with Congress and the FTC, have made it a priority to change this.

The Inflation Reduction Act , signed into law in 2022, made history by capping the price of insulin for Medicare beneficiaries at just $35 a month, an average savings of more than $300 per year for this necessary medication.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is building on that progress and holding pharmaceutical companies accountable. This Congress, the committee has advanced five bipartisan bills to lower prescription drug prices — taking on a range of practices from anticompetitive pay-for-delay agreements and sham citizen petitions to patent thickets and product hops. One of us (D.D.), who chairs the committee, has previously introduced bipartisan legislation to narrow the scope of the 30-month freeze on generic competition, to combat pharma’s gamesmanship with excessive secondary patents.

The FTC, which one of us (L.M.K.) leads, is using all of its tools to ensure that pharmaceutical companies cannot use illegal tactics to inflate the price of essential medical products like asthma inhalers. In November 2023, the FTC challenged more than 100 improper listings, leading several companies to delist their patents, paving the way for cheaper generics.

Related: After months of warnings, FTC opens investigation into Teva over ‘improper’ patents

In response, three of the top four asthma inhaler manufacturers announced they will cap out-of-pocket costs for their products so that most Americans will have to pay only $35 for an inhaler. This is a major win for the millions of Americans with asthma who rely on inhalers to breathe.

But the FTC didn’t stop there. In April, it put more pharmaceutical companies on notice, challenging more than 300 additional bogus patent listings, including some for weight loss and type 2 diabetes drugs like Ozempic and Victoza. Earlier this month, a federal judge sided with the FTC and ordered a large pharmaceutical company to delist unlawful patent listings on inhalers.

Intellectual property laws should encourage innovation, not shield dominant players from competition. Challenging junk patent listings is only part of the solution. Congress is working to enact legislation to promote fair competition and lower out-of-pocket costs for essential medicines.

When your doctor prescribes a medication, your first thought should be “When can I pick this up?” not “Will I be able to afford this?” No American should pay inflated prices because of illegal business practices. Congress, the FTC, and the president will continue to protect Americans from the high cost of lifesaving drugs.

Dick Durbin is the senior United States Senator from Illinois, the Senate Majority Whip, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and sits on the Appropriations and Agriculture Committees. Lina M. Khan is the chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

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Have an opinion on this essay submit a letter to the editor here ., about the authors reprints, dick durbin, lina m. khan.

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Hillary Clinton: I’ve Debated Trump and Biden. Here’s What I’m Watching For.

By Hillary Rodham Clinton

Mrs. Clinton was the Democratic nominee for president in 2016.

Last week I had the time of my life at the Tony Awards introducing a song from “Suffs,” the Broadway musical I co-produced about the suffragists who won women the right to vote. I was thrilled when the show took home the awards for best original score and best book.

From “Suffs” to “Hamilton,” I love theater about politics. But not the other way around. Too often we approach pivotal moments like this week’s debate between President Biden and Donald Trump like drama critics. We’re picking a president, not the best actor.

I am the only person to have debated both men (Mr. Trump in 2016 and, in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race, Mr. Biden). I know the excruciating pressure of walking onto that stage and that it is nearly impossible to focus on substance when Mr. Trump is involved. In our three debates in 2016, he unleashed a blizzard of interruptions, insults and lies that overwhelmed the moderators and did a disservice to the voters who tuned in to learn about our visions for the country — including a record 84 million viewers for our first debate.

It is a waste of time to try to refute Mr. Trump’s arguments like in a normal debate. It’s nearly impossible to identify what his arguments even are. He starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather. This has gotten only worse in the years since we debated. I was not surprised that after a recent meeting, several chief executives said that Mr. Trump, as one journalist described it, “could not keep a straight thought” and was “all over the map.” Yet expectations for him are so low that if he doesn’t literally light himself on fire on Thursday evening, some will say he was downright presidential.

Mr. Trump may rant and rave in part because he wants to avoid giving straight answers about his unpopular positions, like restrictions on abortion, giving tax breaks to billionaires and selling out our planet to big oil companies in return for campaign donations. He interrupts and bullies — he even stalked me around the stage at one point — because he wants to appear dominant and throw his opponent off balance.

These ploys will fall flat if Mr. Biden is as direct and forceful as he was when engaging Republican hecklers at the State of the Union address in March. The president also has facts and truth on his side. He led America’s comeback from a historic health and economic crisis, with more than 15 million jobs created so far, incomes for working families rising, inflation slowing and investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing soaring. He’ll win if that story comes through.

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