How to Make an Essay Longer

Updated: 26 Jun 2023

Do you feel tense when you think of a longer essay? Are you creative when writing longer essays for academic or other purposes? Essay length matters in all fields as long as you provide quality content. There is no need to write lengthy essays and produce irrelevant content.

You can use several techniques to make your essay longer but remain relevant. The key thing isn't hitting the word limit but communicating. Let's discuss why the essay should be longer, the dos and don'ts of making it longer, and the best practices to follow.

Why Should Your Essay Be Longer?

Several reasons make one write a lengthy essay. These reasons are as follows;

• To be authoritative - When writing an essay for academic purposes, having a lengthy essay makes you stand out. It shows the work you have put into the research to develop detailed content. Though as you write, it's best to follow the guidelines, especially the word limit.

Don't write more than you should; otherwise, your essay may be rejected. Remember saying too much of something becomes poisonous, so exceeding the word limit might lower your essay quality as you may add irrelevant details.

• Hit the word count - you may also want to write a longer essay to reach the maximum number of words given as long as it's relevant.
• Make it presentable - longer essays make a good impression on the author. In addition, the essay leaves the audience informed and shows you have done thorough research.

Best Tricks and Tips to Use and Make Your Essay Longer

There following are the best tips to make an essay longer and write relevant content. You should consider practicing them to become a good essay writer.

1. Make an Outline of Your Essay

When given an essay, it's best first to understand the topic and then make an outline. First, you will have to decide on the main idea of the topic and the intended audience.

Then, after analyzing the topic, break down the content into sections. First, you should have an introduction and what to include there, the major headings and subheadings in the body, and the conclusion.

This breakdown will help you analyze the major points you should start with and the weak ones. Then, again, if the content won't hit your target, you will know where to put more emphasis and research further.

2. Do Thorough Research

You can't be an expert in everything, so it's best to find more information on the topic. Dig deep into the topic using your outline. Combine different sources of information from credible sources and ensure it's accurate. This method will help you expound more on the topic.

There are great research skills that you should use for quality essay content. These tips include;

• Allocate enough time for your research
• Get the main understanding of the topic
• Take some notes as you do research
• Add your own opinions that relate to the topic/idea
• Use credible sites for your research; some sources may have misleading information. Check on the published journals, books, and more.

Still not sure about the best research tips to use in your essay? Get more information on this article.

3. Elaborate on the Topic with a Different Approach

Depending on the essay you are discussing, you can take a different angle. For instance, in a persuasive essay, you can look at the alternate view of the topic. As you discuss these points, you will make your essay longer and strengthen your argument.

This technique still helps enlighten your audience from a different approach. For example, trying to convince them of a certain line of thought will be easy as they have information on both approaches.

You can still address your essay from a broader perspective, for instance, a larger geographical location. Therefore, if your topic concerns a smaller geographical area, try to dig deeper into the large area, like a continent, instead of a country. This way, you will get more points to expound on in your essay and make it longer, unlike dealing with a smaller geographical location.

4. Use More Examples and Support from Experts

As you discuss your concept, it's best to explain using personal examples so the reader can understand better. Let these examples be related to your topic, and you can still include others from experts.

Additionally, use examples from credible niche experts to strengthen your idea. You can use them in quotations and follow the appropriate referencing guidelines. However, avoid overdoing it as your work will have more borrowed opinions and thus won't look original.

It's best to use quotations only where necessary, but your opinions are the best. Then, again, use other relevant published sources of information to provide evidence to the reader. This method will help add the essay's word count and value simultaneously.

5. Renew Your Writing Inspiration

You may encounter writer's block and run out of ideas when writing. It's always advisable to take a break to renew your creativity. Do what makes your mind relax so that you can become more creative. Some activities work differently for different people, like listening to music, taking a nap, watching a favorite movie, reading an interesting novel, taking a walk, and more.

Choose whatever works best for you. Then, revisit the work when you feel you have new fresh ideas.

6. Recheck Your Prompt

As you read the instructions given for the topic, try to analyze the following questions. This approach will help jog your memory and remember if you missed out on something.

• Have you answered all the questions required in the essay?
• Have you given supporting evidence to support your ideas?
• Do you feel you have left out any information that may improve the reader's understanding of your opinion?
• Have you followed all the essay's instructions? Maybe they asked you to discuss 5 points, and you have only done four.

7. Let Someone Proofread Your Work

It's always best to start writing your essay early, so you get time for proofreading. When someone reads your essay, they help correct your errors and alert you if you miss any major points. Find a friend, relative, or classmate to do this for you. This person will act as your audience, give feedback on where your opinion isn't clear, and help you lengthen your essay.

Your friends may note some points are confusing and require more elaboration. Therefore, you should revisit your work and revise it accordingly. So, proofreading is essential in editing your work to improve quality and increase word count.

8. Go Through Your Essay

When you are out of ideas, read through the essay. First, read through the introduction and maybe the first paragraph. Check out if you have any missing information that helps your reader understand the thesis. Next, read the other sections of the body, and check out how you have explained your points and supporting evidence. If you feel you haven't discussed your arguments well, revise them.

9. Read Out Your Paper Loud

This tip may sound funny, but it's worth a trial. As you read out loud, you notice grammatical or syntactical errors. When you make edits and fix these phrases, you may increase your essay length. Again, you may notice that your paragraphs don't have enough details, and you need to add more.

10. Ask for Help From Experts

Some tutors may be willing to review your work before the submission date. Therefore it's best to take advantage of this opportunity and allow them to proofread your work. Again you may have a friend who is a lecturer, and you can request them to help you. Again, experts will help open your line of thought and see the essay topic differently.

Again, there are other experts dealing with academic writing, and you can engage them at a fee. Our company is the most outstanding essay writing service, and we can always come to your aid when you are stuck. Therefore, contact us when you need help in essay writing in any subject, and we will ease your burden of hitting the word count.

Tricks to Avoid in Making Your Essay Longer

As much as you need to reach the word count, the paper quality is very important. But, again, some techniques aren't necessary for increasing word count. Some ways are only a waste of time, while others portray an aspect of laziness or trying to fool the examiner. It's best to avoid them and always work on your creativity.

These tricks are as follows;

• Increasing page margin - some students always tend to interfere with the bottom margin and mark it bigger
• Making the spacing larger – for instance, using 2.5 instead of the two or the required one. But, of course, this won't make a difference in the word count.
• Raising the font size –won't add value to your essay and will only make the essay look different.
• Marking the periods and commas as 14pt - it's a time-wasting process and won't add value to your paper
• Putting extra spaces around the bold title
• Adding a fancy footer with page numbers to take up more space
• Adding a header with a title on every single page of the paper – it's best to use the appropriate method of formatting the paper. If this header isn't required, then you should avoid using it.
• Making a separate cover page - the word count mostly checks on the introduction and conclusion. So extra pages won't help in increasing the easy length or value.
• Using fluff to hit the word count. Examples of fluff include;
1. Explaining obvious things
2. Saying rather than showing
3. Repeating yourself- redundancy
4. Using complex sentence structures
5. Overusing words without content like adjectives, adverbs

Follow some guidelines here to cut fluff in your essay.

Rules to Follow When Making Your Essay Longer

Writing is an art that you learn through reading and practice. So, if you struggle with word count, here are some tips.

• Make sure to always write for your audience without worrying about word count. With this tip, you will improve your creativity and not realize when your essay becomes longer. The paper will have quality and informative content.
• Develop your main argument and focus on it
• Follow all the instructions given in your essay. These rules include the formatting, referencing method, and submission date; these rules will guide you as you write and present the paper.
• Use the proper structure of paragraphs in the body. For example, let your paragraphs always start with a topic sentence and later support it with 2 or 3 sentences including evidence. This method will help you to avoid leaving out any relevant information in the body.
• Use transitional sentences and phrases – they will create cohesion in your ideas and make the essay have flow and logic. Some of these phrases are whereas, however, likewise, under these circumstances, on the other hand
• Avoid contractions and abbreviations in your essay – they make the essay look casual, and it's not good for academic writing
• Work more on the content – make the essay quality and not just targeting on length. Avoid all unnecessary repetitions and weird practices like increasing font size and space. Working on quality work will help you reach word count with ease.

If you need more tips on academic writing, you can learn some here and improve on writing quality and long essays

Conclusion 

Every student wants to submit the most quality essay to their tutor. However, sometimes this is not always the case, especially regarding word count. If you fail to do proper research, create a good outline, do proper proofreading and ask for help from experts, you get disappointed.

Consider always following the essay's instructions given by your lecturer. Using weird techniques to reach word count won't help, such as interfering with the format. The best technique for making an essay longer is writing quality content for your audience and working on creativity.

When you need help writing, contact us, and we will offer credible essay writing services. Apart from writing, we offer proofreading services if you need someone to check on your paper before submission.   

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