Have you ever found yourself frantically trying to cut your assignment down as the submission deadline looms? If so, you’re not alone – we’ve all been there at some point.
It’s important to keep to the wordcount in your assignments – part of what you’re being assessed on is your ability to prioritise arguments or ideas and provide an effective answer within the allotted words.
That means cramming in more ideas and going well over the wordcount isn’t advantageous and in fact might see you lose marks.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to make sure that you don’t find yourself in this position, and there are still steps you can take if you do wind up needing to lose hundreds of words in a hurry. Have a look at out recording of the ‘Cut Your Wordcount’ Lightning Talk for some ideas, then scroll down for our 3 top tips.
3 top tips for staying on top of your wordcount
Tip 1: Wordcount or Word limit? Know the difference
It’s crucial when planning and writing your assignment that you’re clear on whether it has a wordcount or a word limit.
A word limit usually means that you will lose marks if you go over that number of words. So it’s important that you’re aware of that and work to keep your submission within that limit.
A wordcount, by contrast, gives you a certain degree of leeway. That’s generally taken to mean your final submission can be up to 10% lower or higher than the given count, although that isn’t always stated explicitly.
Tip 2: Start cutting your wordcount early
The earlier in the process you start working towards the wordcount, the easier you will find it to remove content. It’s much easier to get your wordcount down at the planning stage than it is once you’ve written a draft.
So pay attention to the wordcount from the start, get to know roughly how many points you can cover effectively in the allotted words, and plan your assignment accordingly.
Tip 3: Cut content, not words
Sometimes you will just find yourself with too many words when you’ve written up the assignment. So how do you get the wordcount down?
Simply cutting words can lead to very disjointed writing. You might look for places where you could simplify the language – indeed this is a very good habit to try to develop, but it’s more effective as a long term strategy to improve your writing rather than as a quick fix for a piece of work that is too long.
If you’re over the wordcount, the chances are it’s because you’re trying to do too much. So prioritise the points that most effectively allow you to answer the question and be prepared to cut other points that, whilst potentially relevant, you don’t have room to include this time.