word changes to make your essay longer

Essay Extender for Students

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

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

💎 5 Key Advantages of the Essay Extender

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

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

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

1. To Increase the Word Count

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

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

2. To Add a New Part

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

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

3. To Get New Ideas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

❓ Essay Extender FAQ

Updated: Apr 12th, 2024

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

How to make an Essay Longer – 21 Easy Tips!

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

Just about all the advice on the first page of google about how to make a paper longer sucks. No, really. The tricks they suggest suck so bad I can’t believe how bad it sucks.

Most advice on how to make your essay longer tells you to do gimmicky things that will lose you marks.

How do I know? Because I read it. And I (yes, I’m a professor) would instantly see through all those things.

Let me tell you: if you’re wasting time turning “15” into “fifteen” to get an extra 6 characters into your essay , increasing font size, or sticking fluffy adjectives into sentences to make your essay longer and increase word count, you’re stuffing up. You’re flushing marks down the drain.

So, here’s what you SHOULD do to make your essay longer.

How to Make an Essay Longer

1. make sure you included everything.

I can’t tell you how many of my students submit assignments and forget to include important points! Go back to your writing prompt . That’s the thing that you’re going to be graded on.

Go and check out exactly what your teacher asked you to write about. Did you write about every point they suggested?

Related Article: 17+ Great Ideas For An Essay About Yourself

2. Make Every Paragraph at least 4 Sentences

Scan over each paragraph. Do you have any paragraphs that are less than 4 sentences long? This is your low-hanging fruit for making your paper longer. You need to make these paragraphs longer and your page count will naturally increase.

The best paragraphs should be 4 – 7 sentences long .

If you’ve got a 1, 2 or 3 sentence paragraph, make sure you go back through it. What new points can you include to make your paragraph better? Maybe you can:

• Add a sentence at the start of the paragraph explaining what the paragraph is about;
• Add a sentence giving a real-life example of the points you’re trying to make
• Add a sentence giving an explanation of your points.

Or, you can try adding points explaining:

• Why the thing is true;
• Where the thing happened;
• How the thing happened;
• When the thing happened.

3. Define your Terms

Have you written a paragraph defining your key terms? If you’re writing an essay on modernism, write a paragraph defining modernism. If your essay is about education , write a paragraph giving a brief history of education. This will make your paper better – and longer!

You should have a paragraph or two right after your introduction defining and explaining what your topic is!

Now, if you are going to provide a definition for a term in college or university level writing , you need to read this article . In it, I show you how to write a full paragraph that defines a term in the right way using a research paper, not a dictionary!.

4. Get new Ideas from your Class Handouts

Below are the class handouts that you should go back through to add new ideas. They’re your most important sources. Go through all these sources and try to take down and more key points you can add:

• Handouts or worksheets in class?
• Readings or articles that they asked you to read?
• Lecture slides?

6. Get new Ideas from Friends

You will have many classmates working on the same essay as you. What ideas have your friends come up with? See if you can find out. You want it to seem like you’re working to help each other out. You don’t want to be a sponge, taking from them and not giving back. Help each other out so you both get better marks. I recommend being strategic about this:

• Offer to look over each others’ work and give suggestions;
• Trade key points in bullet point format;
• Brainstorm together to create a master list of key ideas.

8. Get new Ideas from Blogs

There are websites online about just about every topic that you can possibly imagine. That includes the topic you’re writing your essay on!

Let me ask you a question: Why would you waste your time trying to add padding to old sentences to increase your word count when you can write new ones that will win more marks?

It’s really so simple – google your essay topic or question and see what comes up. What have other people said on the topic? What ideas can you grab from others and use for yourself? You can also get new ideas from Google Scholar, which can provide you with a free to access research paper that will give you ideas as well. 

12. Use the Keep Writing Website

Keep Writing is a website where you can write your essay. But, it won’t let you delete anything. So you have to just keep on typing. This means you can just write ideas that roll off the top of your head. I gave this website a go to write this article you’re reading right now and it really did help me just write in a way that flowed nicely and added to my page count quickly. I must admit, after using the website, I copied the text and did some edits. But by that point I had a ton of words in there – more than enough – and I could shorten the essay by deleting the words that weren’t so good. I ended up having the opposite problem – too many words!

13. Include one new Example in Each Paragraph

Another thing you can do is go through each and every paragraph and add one more example and some supporting evidence. Even if you’ve included one example in each paragraph, that’s okay. You can still add more examples. In fact, teachers love to see examples and supporting evidence.

Good examples are what separates good and bad students.

Teachers love to see examples because you can only give examples if you understand the topic. So, when we see examples we go “Yes! You Got It! You understand it!”

16. Don’t add Pointless Words!

‘Padding’ is what we call it when you stick extra words in a sentence just to increase your word count. I’ve taken a sentence from earlier in this post and I’m going to show you the sentence as it is, then show it to you with padding.

Here’s the original:

“You’re going to need some new points to add to your essay. You should not try to make your sentences you’ve already written longer. You shouldn’t be trying to add in fluffy new words or saying things in a longer way.”

Here’s the padding:

“You’re going to need some new points to actually add to your essay , which actually is quite significant . You should not actually try to generally make your sentences you’ve already written longer , generally contrary to popular belief . You shouldn’t be trying to generally add in fluffy new words or saying things in a longer way , which is fairly significant. ”

Your teacher is going to read this and think “This student is a terrible writer.” And you’ll lose a ton of marks.

17. Don’t Change the Formatting

Increasing the line spacing, font size or character spacing will just make your paper worse. You should have ONE space between each word. Your line spacing should either be 2.0 or 1.5 spacing. That’s it. Those are your options. Stick to normal margins in Microsoft Word You should use font size 12. If you artificially change any of this, your teacher will see through it and grade you down .

Final Thoughts

Making an essay longer needs to be done in a way that will get you marks. I can’t believe that there are websites ranking high on google that recommend tricks like “make the space between lines bigger” and “increase your margins”.

If a student did that in my class, I’d fail them instantly. There are smarter and better ways to do it – whether you’re writing a grade 7 essay or dissertation chapter! Do it the right way and you’ll grow your marks and be on the way to success.

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 19 Top Cognitive Psychology Theories (Explained)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 119 Bloom’s Taxonomy Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ All 6 Levels of Understanding (on Bloom’s Taxonomy)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 15 Self-Actualization Examples (Maslow's Hierarchy)

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12 Ways to make your Essay Longer: Words, Phrases, Transits

by James Khim | Oct 17, 2022

Writing a high school or college essay requires a lot of research and typing. Even after toiling for hours or days, frustration arises when you find out that you are out of the word count.

However, with additional research, the inclusion of more quotes and descriptions can make up for the word count shortfall. There are different tricks you can use to boost your word count and reach the page requirement of your teacher. 

You can make an essay longer by writing more points, explaining your arguments well, or including insightful questions. In addition, you can use formatting hacks to increase the length of an essay by writing shorter paragraphs, using larger fonts, and adding illustrations to an essay. However, these methods should adhere to academic writing standards.

et us explore each one of these tips in detail and add more ways to lengthen an essay.

Ways to Increase Word Count and Make an Essay Longer

1. write more points.

In the outline of your essay, the body has points that you had to explain. If you are yet to meet the word count, including more points in your body is one of the ways of making up for this.

Also, you can increase the sources and anecdotes in explaining a point so that you get more ideas. 

Adding more sources will provide extra evidence for the reader and makes it possible to increase your word count significantly.

You will not only be providing additional support for your argument but also boosting the paper’s word count. 

2. Using illustrations

Including illustrations is the perfect way to make your essay lighter but longer.

These illustrations can be in the form of screenshots, charts, graphs, infographics, and images.

This helps to make your arguments strong and the essay longer. The trick revolves around making a better argument with a deeper precision. However, always ensure that the illustrations you add are relevant to the arguments of the essay. 

3. Use short paragraphs

The use of precise and well-formatted paragraphs can also help to make your paper longer. A shorter paragraph makes the essay more coherent and gives it a better reading experience.

The paragraphs must have a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence. These are the elements that make a readable paragraph with points that are flowing effortlessly. 

4. Stretch the headers

When there is a possibility, try to make your headers longer. In most cases, teachers state what they expect you to include in the header.

You are given the information but there is no limitation to the header word count. In the absence of the guidelines concerning word count, expand on the header to reach the essay’s word count. 

5. Let another person proofread your essay

When you involve an extra eye to go through your essay, it is possible to spot areas where you have not exhausted. A friend, teacher, or classmate can proofread your essay and spot important areas that need more elaboration.

In doing so, you will be adding more words to the essay and covering the deficit. You can add more explanations to the arguments by including relevant quotes that will give it more strength. 

6. Expanding your arguments

If you check the outline you made before writing your essay, it will be possible to spot areas that need more alterations. The outline is the ultimate guideline that will show you if you have drained your points.

When you were writing, it is possible to skip vital points. Therefore, you can lengthen your essay by adding more arguments. Feel free to use first-person language to introduce personalized opinions if needed.

If you did not outline, check what you have written, analyze what the audience needs then know what to include. Writing more points in your essay is one of the best ways of adding more words to your essay.

7. Explain more

Giving more explanation is also a good way of topping up the word count. You can check the arguments and see if some sections still need more explanations.

Inadequate explanations could be one of the reasons why your essay is short of words.

Go to the introduction, body, and conclusion and give deeper explanations to points that were not well elaborated.

8. Seek clarifications from your instructor

Most teachers, professors, and teaching assistants are always willing to guide students. If you develop a good rapport with them, they are the best source of guidance especially when it comes to essay writing.

They will look over your essays and spot the necessary areas that need tunings before you do a final submission. 

When you have plenty of time remaining before the submission deadline, try to get an appointment with the teachers so that you go over the paper together. The instructor is the best person to give you helpful tips to increase your word count.

9. Include more references and evidence

When you add more references alongside evidence, you will not only make your essay longer but also stronger. An extra reference that goes with evidence will give you a chance to make more explanations that will eventually top up the word count. If you refer back to your essay outline, you can still make each point better by including more supporting details.

10. Include relevant quotations

Apart from adding references and evidence, you can also bring in quotations for strengthening and lengthening the paper.

Make sure that the quotations you add are relevant to the paper’s arguments. The inclusion of a quote that supports the points makes the paper more powerful.

11. Include more transitions

If your essay is only short of a few words to reach the expected limit, transitions can do the trick. Smooth transition words to connect paragraphs or sentences can give you the extra words you need. Their use in connecting one sentence to the next one also makes the essay a seamless flow. 

12. Check the prompt of the essay again

The prompt of the essay is the ultimate guide that shows you how to outline your essay. If you check it again, you can find something you missed discussing in the essay.

Look at the prompts or essay questions from a different perspective to get more ideas. In this way, you can become more thorough and get more words for your essay.

Consulting your instructor about the essay prompt can also help you to find new ways of tackling the subject of the essay. 

13. Check the introduction

As usual, the introduction is one of the most important parts of an essay. It not only sets out the paper’s tone but also captures the attention of your audience

. However, the introduction does not have to be a short paragraph. You can expound by including more information or simply expand on the ideas you already have.

Adding a quote or a simple story can make the introduction even catchier and attention-grabbing. Taking a moment to revise your introduction adds more words and also makes it a better one. 

Alternative to Score High in an Essays without Writing

It is not easy to get good grades if you cannot write essays that will satisfy your teacher. If the instructors and friends are not helping you, the best alternative is to get professional help. Many online academic writing websites can help you to get your assignment done. 

Select a good writing firm that employs quality and professional writers. These services have writers and editors who scrutinize your essay to ensure it is in line with your guidelines.

As usual, plagiarism will be a subject of concern. Only select writing services that can manually check the essay and also use plagiarism scanners to check for copied content. Online reviews from previous clients can guide you to select the best paper writing services.

An academic assignment is very sensitive and that is why you must give your essay to only professional writers. Check if they are accredited and the number of years they have been offering the same services to students.

Look at their guarantee policy, the turnaround time, previous complaints from clients, and other important factors.

Essays can weigh you down because they need a lot of research and writing. Even so, there is no excuse for late submission or submitting poor-quality papers.

You only have to submit your order in time and give all the necessary instructions. Even more importantly, you can check and ask for revisions if there are areas your requirements were not met. 

The Best 7 Websites

How to Make an Essay Longer Without It Feeling Forced

Ever struggled to meet the word count requirement for your essay? You're not alone. Whether it's a minimum size or a certain number of pages, it can feel like a daunting task to stretch your writing without watering it down. But fear not! This article is here to help. We'll explore some practical tips and tricks to make your essay longer without sacrificing quality. From expanding on your main points to incorporating more evidence, we've got you covered. Say goodbye to staring at a blank screen and hello to meeting your paper length with confidence!

How to Make Your Essay Longer: Practical Tips

Students may aim to make their essays longer to fulfill the word count criteria their teachers or professors set. Meeting these requirements is crucial as it can affect their grades or evaluation. Moreover, longer papers offer more room for in-depth exploration of topics, allowing students to showcase their understanding comprehensively. By expanding their papers, students can provide more evidence and examples to strengthen their arguments, making their points more persuasive. Additionally, longer papers may be seen as a sign of dedication and effort, potentially earning students favorable recognition from their instructors.

Increase Font Size and Spacing

Adjusting the font size and spacing of your text can subtly but effectively increase the overall length of your paper. By slightly enlarging the font size and expanding spacing between lines and paragraphs, you can offer extra bulk to your document without significantly altering its content. Please consult our essay outline guide for more ideas on how to expand your paper's structure.

Replace Contractions with Full Words

Contractions, such as "can't" instead of "cannot" or "it's" instead of "it is," often take up less space. By replacing these contractions with their full-word equivalents, you can make your essay longer by adding additional characters.

Add Transitional Phrases

Transitional phrases help connect different parts of your essay, guiding the reader through your arguments and making your writing flow more smoothly. Adding more of these phrases between paragraphs or sections can improve your paper's coherence, and including extra words can increase its word count.

Need to Make Your Essay Longer?

Professional writers know how to do papers that fit into the required length.

Use Synonyms for Shorter Words

Look for opportunities to replace shorter words with longer synonyms without changing the meaning of your sentences. For example, "big" could become "substantial," or "important" could be replaced with "significant." This simple technique can help add size to your paper without sacrificing clarity.

Include Personal Anecdotes

Incorporating personal anecdotes or experiences related to your topic can make your essay more engaging and provide additional content to expand upon. You can augment the depth of your writing by sharing relevant stories or reflections and meaningfully increasing its word count.

Reference Pop Culture or Current Events

Bringing references to popular culture or recent events can enrich your essay and demonstrate your awareness of contemporary issues. By integrating relevant examples or discussions from the media, you can expand your analysis and provide fresh insights, thus extending the volume of your paper.

Provide Detailed Explanations

Take the time to thoroughly explain your ideas and arguments, providing additional context or background information where necessary. By offering detailed explanations, you enhance the clarity of your writing and tally substance and depth, ultimately increasing the word count of your paper.

Use Footnotes or Endnotes

If there are additional points or information that you want to include but don't necessarily fit within the main body of your essay, consider using footnotes or endnotes. These can be used to provide supplementary details, citations, or explanations without disrupting the flow of your primary argument, effectively expanding the content of your paper.

Address Counterarguments

Acknowledging and addressing potential counterarguments demonstrates a thorough understanding of your topic and strengthens your own arguments. By engaging with opposing viewpoints and presenting rebuttals, you not only bolster the persuasiveness of your essay but also bring complexity and word count to your analysis.

Incorporate Quotes from Primary Sources

Introducing quotes from primary sources, such as books, articles, or interviews, can incorporate credibility and depth to your arguments. By directly citing authoritative sources, you provide additional evidence to support your claims and expand the scope of your discussion, increasing your essay's extent.

Include Visuals like Graphs or Charts

Visual aids, such as graphs, charts, or tables, can be used to illustrate data or complex information clearly and concisely. Incorporating visuals enhances the visual appeal of your essay and provides supplementary content to expand upon, contributing to its overall word count.

Still Can’t Fit Into the Word Count?

Don’t waste any more time, and use our writing service to get an essay of a proper length.

Explore Alternative Interpretations

Consider exploring alternative interpretations or perspectives related to your topic. Presenting different viewpoints or analyzing your subject from various angles adds richness and complexity to your essay, ultimately increasing its size and depth of analysis. While trying to manipulate the word count of your paper using these techniques, keep in mind the punctuation marks .

Offer Comparisons or Contrasts

Drawing comparisons or contrasts between different ideas, theories, or examples can enrich your essay and provide additional content to discuss. By highlighting similarities and differences, you add nuance to your arguments and expand the scope of your analysis, thereby increasing the volume of your composition.

Simplify Complex Concepts

Break down complex ideas or concepts into simpler terms that are easier to understand. By providing clear explanations and examples, you not only improve the accessibility of your writing but also encompass substance and depth, ultimately increasing the word count of your document.

Define Technical Terms

If your essay includes specialized terminology or jargon, take the time to define these terms for your readers. By providing clear definitions and explanations, you ensure that your audience understands the concepts you're discussing and integrate additional content to your manuscript, thus increasing its range.

Discuss Opposing Viewpoints

Engaging with opposing viewpoints and discussing their merits can enrich your essay and demonstrate your critical thinking skills. By acknowledging alternative perspectives and presenting counterarguments, you enclose complexity and depth to your analysis, ultimately increasing the reach of your writing.

Extend Implications of Findings

Consider the broader implications of your arguments or findings and explore their significance in greater detail. By discussing the potential consequences or applications of your research, you subsume depth and complexity to your analysis, ultimately increasing the magnitude of your essay.

Expand Examples and Evidence

Provide additional examples, evidence, or case studies to support your arguments and illustrate your points. By offering more detailed and varied examples, you strengthen your claims and make your essay longer, ultimately increasing its word count and persuasiveness. If you still can’t fit into the word limit and none of these tips help, simply say, ‘ write my essay for me ,’ and our writers will produce a cogent paper of the required length.

How to Make an Essay Longer With or Without Adding Words

Your supervisor wants your essay to be at least four pages but you are even struggling to write two, isn’t it?

“According to an analytical rating of text quality study in  journal Assessing Writing , showed that longer texts or essays typically contain more cohesive devices, which has a positive impact on ratings of text quality.”

No need to worry; some tactics will help you in how to make an essay longer without putting much effort.

Table of Contents

Challenges in Making an Essay Longer

Making an essay longer is a challenge for an average student. As author had also faced some bad experiences when doing this. And you know what? Making an essay longer took more time than writing an essay. What the author faced and how he overcame these challenges are going to be discussed in the table.

Most student’s mentality is the same. When the author has faced these challenges during his study career, then today’s students may also face the same problem about how to make an essay longer.

However, worry not, as we have gathered different techniques and strategies to make your essay longer.

Make a Longer Essay without writing more

If you want to expand your essay a little bit or have a question about how to make my paragraph longer, then you don’t need to write more; just follow these magical tips to make your essay longer.

• Try to use the  Arial font style  because it is more visible and bigger than other types of fonts.
• Use a big  font size, like 12 , for the body text. The bigger your content size, the more length your essay will show.
• Thirdly,  use headings and subheadings  to uplift your content visibility, and above that, your content will look longer with more and more headings.
• Adjust the spacing between the lines. It is mostly adjusted on single or 1.15 in Google Docx; try to make it 1.5. When your lines have a  spacing of 1.5 , you will be amazed to see that your content looks longer.
• A final tip for how to make an essay longer is to break your big paragraphs into  short passages . Also, try to add spacing before and after each section to make your essay look more lengthy.

These magical tricks work only if you want to make your essay a little bit longer, but if you want your essay to expand on more pages, then you have to follow the below-mentioned strategies for making an essay longer.

Working Strategies for Making an Essay Full Longer

These are some working strategies commonly used for how to make your essay longer. To make you understand the concept of how to make an essay longer, we have taken a real time example.

Why Do Students Get bored in the Classroom?

School boredom is a common challenge that students face during school times. Boredom makes the students lazy, slow, and unethical during class. There are a lot of reasons for this situation.

One main reason for boredom is the need for more interaction between the students. When students don’t engage in extracurricular activities and have less interaction with other students, there is a high chance of boredom.

The student who is upset due to their family issues or problems may feel bored in school. Less student activities organized by school faculty also can lead the student toward boredom.

Students with mental illness or physical weakness may also get bored during class time. Finally, a tough curriculum and extra work burden may also make the student bored in classrooms.

Several steps can be taken to overcome these issues. For parents, they must give a lot of time and attention to their children and find out if they are facing any problems. Furthermore, School administration should also have a check and balance on teachers, and if they are giving extra work to students, then stop them.

The school administration should also take steps to give students some time to play, which will ultimately relax them and make them less bored during class time.

These reasons for boredom and their solutions help students to get out of the stress and boredom and help them stay more active

The above example is a bit similar to one of our students’ work. So, we are sharing real experience-based strategies that worked well for the students and our writers. Now, in light of this detailed example, we have gathered some valid points that will help you to make an essay longer on your own.

Expand on your ideas

This is the first and most effective way to learn how to make your essay longer. Let’s say you’re writing about students’ boredom, and your point is about the reasons for students’ boredom in the classroom. You should discuss the threat to student mental health. You can also talk about how it affects their homes, health, and livelihoods.

Here’s a brief example of how this expansion might look within an essay paragraph:

“School boredom is a common challenge that students face during school times. Boredom makes the students lazy, slow, and unethical during class. There are a lot of reasons for this situation. 

And above these reasons, there are multiple threats regarding student mental health, which can destroy their whole life. Furthermore, student boredom can also affect their home’s physical health and livelihoods”

Now as you see we have discovered more related ideas to classroom boredom, and you can also explain them in the essay to make it longer.

Add more evidence

Look into getting more information to back up what you’re saying. Put in quotes, numbers, or opinions from people who know what they’re talking about to make your point stronger. 

This will definitely work for your how to make an essay longer query! Double-check that the sources you use are reliable and related to the subject you’re discussing. Let’s continue with the research or evidence of an essay on why students get bored in the classroom. 

Here’s an example of how you can add these additional sources and evidence to your essay:

“According to a Westgate and Wilson research article in  Journal of Positive School Psychology , found that two-thirds of students were bored at some time during a typical school day. This research shows that there is a big ratio of students who are facing boredom in the classroom. 

Furthermore, this research tells us that something is wrong with the students, and that is why they are facing this situation.”

Doing your research and having these things in your essay will make your essay more convincing and informative. We have now added the study as a piece of evidence to make the existing essay stronger and longer than before. These studies and research are most suitable when you are looking for a way  how to write a college essay  for exam preparation.

Include counter arguments and refutations

Try to explain the essay with counter arguments and refutations to make a comparison and explain why your point of view is more valid than others. This not only increases the length of your argument but also shows that you have a better grip on the subject. 

Considering other perspectives is important when trying to know how to make an essay longer. It helps you to show your complete understanding of the topic and allows you to reinforce your point. 

Here’s an example of how you can add opposing viewpoints or counter-arguments to your essay:

“While some argue that children’s boredom doesn’t happen, it’s just a myth. According to the control-value theory of achievement emotions (Pekrun, 2006;Pekrun et al., 2010), learners succumb to boredom when they attach little value to the task and when they lack control over the learning process. 

The theory clearly depicts that student boredom is not a myth, but a real issue that students face in today’s world.”

From the above example, we clearly depict an argument that people mostly make about boredom, and as a result, we come up with a counter-argument. By doing this, we make our point of view more strong and also learn about how to make an essay longer

Use transitional words to make your essay longer

Whenever you are thinking about how I can make my essay longer, use the below-mentioned connecting words and phrases to make your essay flow better and give it more length.

These transitions help link your ideas and paragraphs together. Even expert  essay writing services  providers use this trick. Here are some transition words to grab the concept.

Here’s an example showing the use of transitional words within a paragraph:

“The students who are upset due to their family issues or problems may feel bored in school, as there are many reasons for family issues. However, these issues can make the kid mentally sick.

Furthermore, it is recommended that parents keep their kid away from family problems so he can get less stress and focus on his work in the classroom.”

In the above example, we pick only one line from the above existing essay and use transition words to make your essay longer.

Provide Examples

On your way to learn about how to make an essay longer, try bringing in real-world examples or case studies to back up your points. It can add depth and substance to what you’re saying. Make sure the examples you pick really tie into the points you’re trying to make in your essay. 

Let’s consider an example:

“A real-life case study came up about a professor of civil engineering, Dr. Wong. He has a class of more than a hundred students, but most of them didn’t stay attentive because of boredom, and some students skip the class. So, he thinks about herself: Is he a boring teacher? 

He asks for a solution from a colleague. The coworker suggests that he doesn’t force students to learn everything. Also, try to make a gap during the lecture after some minutes to relax the students. Additionally, he suggested Dr Wong to create groups of students and give them interesting tasks to do and help them by going near every student.”

Now, we have provided a real-life example/Case study of a professor and his students, which helps us to understand the concept of class boredom in-depth and helps us to know how to make an essay longer. Students can use such kinds of examples for  college essay writing  to impress their professors.

Include More Descriptive Language

Try to make the short descriptions more lengthy. You can do this by adding vivid adjectives and adverbs to form a clear image for your reader. Additionally, instead of using very general terms, try to choose a specific and colour language. Let’s see how you can do this with a proper example. 

Basic Description:

“Boredom makes the students lazy.”

Enhanced Descriptive Language:

“Boredom is a state of mind in which a student may feel laziness, with no interest in worldly activities, and close himself/herself in the prison of his thoughts. “

As you see, we can also use descriptive language to make our essays longer. The above example is proof of this. But remember, it is not important to use enhanced descriptive language in every paragraph. Try to add it where you have to make an impact on the reader or audience with emotional or vivid images.”

Explain complex terms

A golden strategy on how to make an essay longer is to discuss complex topics, and break them down further. Offer step-by-step explanations or go into more detail about the intricacies of the subject matter. 

Pinpoint the specific aspects or components of the complex topic that might be difficult for your audience to understand. This could involve technical terms, abstract concepts, or intricate processes.

Here’s an example paragraph illustrating a step-by-step breakdown of a complex topic about blockchain:

“Students with mental illness may feel bored during class. But what is mental illness, and how is it connected with boredom?

Mental illness means a student may have to face any medical problem with brain functioning, or he takes medicines that indirectly affect brain functionality or any financial/family problem that makes them mentally stressed.” 

These mental problems can make a student bored in the class, and he may lack concentration in the class.”

What do we do in this section?  As you see, we pick only a single term about mental illness, and many people may think about how it affects boredom. We expand this term and relate it to mental illness. Hence, we get a firm grip on the essay as well as understand how to make an essay longer.

Make your essay perfect with these resources

To make your essay longer and to make sure it is balanced, you may need some online resources. Here are some resources that you can utilize.

AI Essay Writer

Want to add new data to your essay or want to make a new essay? Try our  AI essay writer tool  to write a perfect essay on your own. Whether a student from middle school or university, this essay writer tool is easy to use and totally free of cost.

Spell Checker

Have you written your essay but still need some spelling corrections? Never mind, utilize our  free spell checker tool  and make your essay error free.

Grammar Checker

Grammar mistakes are very serious when writing or making your essay longer. And you know that paid tools are costly to purchase. Worry not; we have a  free grammar checker tool  that will help you identify your grammar mistakes and tackle them in no time.

Plagiarism Checker

Many students, especially from middle school or high school, may find it difficult to write a complete essay by themselves. They may get help from an online resource, which in return comes out as plagiarism work. We have prepared this  plagiarism checker tool  for you to identify the plagiarism and remove it effectively from your essay.

Problem Solved

Well, these expert tips and tricks must have helped you learn how to make an essay longer tactfully with or without words. As per the required length, you can go about adopting one or all of these expert tricks as you need.

Still, if you have a problem extending your essay, just don’t hesitate to consult our experts, who are available 24/7 for you.

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How to Make an Essay Longer Than It Really Is: 9 Hacks that Work

Table of contents

How often have you finished writing your essay and run a word count check to realize you’re way behind the required word count?

If anyone’s been there, they’ll know that feeling of absolute disappointment -- when you’re close to the finish line yet so far.

Word counts matter because they create a level-playing field for all students. They ensure that every student is given the same number of words to make their point.

One of the most common challenges students face is the inability to meet the desired word count, especially in the case of long-form essays or research papers .

So, if you’re wondering how you can make your essay longer than it is, we tell you what you should and should NOT do to meet the word count.

9 Hacks to Make an Essay Longer than it is

“ What else can I write about? ”

How often have you asked yourself this question after writing your entire paper?

You’re not alone -- writing 5,000-word essays is tricky. Sometimes you feel you’ve exhausted your points, but the word count has a different story to tell.

Here are nine legitimate hacks to make your essay longer and meet the word limit.

1. Refer to the scoring rubric

“ But I’ve already done that.. ”

Nope. You need to give it another go.

You would have read the prompt and scoring rubric once before beginning your essay, but when you’re at a stage when you have to lengthen your essay, it helps to go back and re-read them to see if you’ve missed out on anything.

Go line-by-line -- look into every criterion and trace it back to your essay. Does it cover every specification mentioned in the rubric?

Pay attention to detail and strive to identify gaps that you can address in order to add further value to your essay and make it longer in the process.

2. Identify additional sources

It’s true that the more research material you read, the more fodder you’ll find for your essay. Hence, if you’re looking to make your essay longer, it’s a good idea to identify additional sources of information and implement them in your essay.

Remember the research you did in the initial stages? Go back to it and look for additional research material in the form of online articles, journals, encyclopedias, research studies, and more that could help.

3. Describe what you want to say

Descriptive writing is an effective way to lengthen your essay while making it more robust. As the name suggests, descriptive writing refers to describing concepts or ideas in vivid detail.

Don’t just stop at short phrases; describe what you’re trying to say to illustrate your point, and put forth the message clearly.

While writing descriptively, it’s a good practice to paint a picture that appeals to all five senses -- sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing.

Even though this might not be possible in every scenario, keep this hack in mind and use it wherever appropriate to increase the word count.

Here’s an interesting video by eHow Education on how to become a descriptive writer

4. Include examples

Using examples while writing essays is perfect practice. It helps you write more clearly and put forth your point while strongly backing up your arguments and adding credibility.

Apart from that, this practice also lends to the word count.

Examples can explain information that isn’t common knowledge, reinstate an argument, highlight a concept, or even draw differences.

So, try and use examples in the form of real-life scenarios, paraphrasing, quotations, and even metaphors wherever possible. Here are some phrases you can use to introduce examples:

• For example
• For instance
• According to [insert author’s name]
• As stated by [name of the author or study]

5. Include statistical data

Numbers are robust and provide practical tools to support your claims or persuade the reader. Read your essay and find sentences that can be strengthened with statistical data.

What’s important is ensuring they’re relevant to the topic, add value to the essay, and let readers interpret it with ease.

As data generally stems from existing studies or research material, ensure you only include data from credible sources, as its absence is sure to do more harm than good.

6. Insert illustrations

Why submit text-heavy essays when you can insert illustrations and make them meatier (and longer)?

You can use illustrations in the form of images, screenshots, graphs, infographics, and charts to strengthen your argument. The idea is to illustrate your point with greater precision, so ensure you only insert relevant illustrations.

Don’t forget to add a crisp caption explaining what the image is about and citing the original source.

7. Write well-formatted paragraphs

Your essay is made up of smaller, coherent paragraphs that are meant to offer a unified reading experience. Just the way an essay is made up of an introduction , body, and conclusion, each individual paragraph also comprises three elements:

• the topic or leading sentence
• supporting sentence
• concluding sentence

So, while re-reading your essay to make it longer, make sure every paragraph has these three elements.

8. Use transition words

A good writer can transition from one point to another while keeping readers engaged. That’s precisely what you need to aim for while writing college papers.

However, this trick also comes in handy when trying to make your essay longer.

Words or phrases used to link sentences are referred to as transition words. Some examples include:

• Additionally
• Even though
• Generally speaking

These phrases create links between your sentences, making them seem unified and coherent while adding to the reading experience. They give examples, emphasize, compare, draw conclusions, or summarize.

9. Avoid contractions

Why say ‘can’t’ when you can say ‘cannot’? Why say ‘isn’t’ when you can say ‘is not’?

While contractions are common in speech and even informal writing, such as blog posts, it’s better to avoid contractions while writing academic papers unless you’re quoting something that originally includes contractions.

This might seem like a minor step but using this hack (along with the others) will get you closer to the word count.

Here’s What You Should NOT Do to Make Your Essay Longer

While these were legitimate hacks, there are instances when students resort to desperate measures to lengthen their essays.

Let’s face it- your teachers have come across hundreds of essays, and they can spot foul play well when they see it.

So, here are three mistakes you should avoid at all costs if you’re trying to make your essay longer.

1. Play with fonts and spacing

You might think you can cheekily increase the font size from 12 to 14, use a larger font or increase the line spacing and make your essay appear longer but hey, stop right there.

This isn’t going to get you anywhere.

2. Use the ‘period’ trick

The period trick is about replacing all periods (.) across your essay with one of larger font size and wondering if professors notice the period trick. Guess what they do. So, please don’t do it.

3. Spell out numbers

The age-old trick of writing ten thousand instead of 10,000 is not a good idea either. Remember: the golden rule of writing states that small numbers ranging from one to ten should be spelled out, and more significant numbers should be written in numerals.

So, unless specified in the formatting guidelines, don’t make the mistake of spelling out all your numbers.

Make your Essay Longer: The Takeaway

Yes, it’s not a good feeling when you get to the end of your essay and have to go over it again just because you did not meet the word limit.

But you instead take this additional step than submit a half-baked essay that falls short of the required word count? Doing this indicates that you’re not adhering to instructions and is sure to impact your final score.

So, follow these nine hacks and make your essay longer than it is through legitimate means. If you’re stuck and need additional guidance, contact Writers Per Hour.

Our team of expert writers is here to help you submit original papers that meet the word count and are well-written.

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Home / Guides / Writing Guides / Writing Tips / How to Make an Essay Longer the Smart Way

How to Make an Essay Longer the Smart Way

Meeting an essay’s required page or word count can sometimes be a struggle, especially if you’re juggling multiple papers or exams. In a pinch, students often rely on tricks like increasing margin size or making their font slightly bigger. Though these tricks do increase page length, there are easier (and smarter) ways to write a longer, high-quality essay. Making a paper meet minimum word or page counts doesn’t have to be an agonizing process—you can add length while also adding clarity and depth.

Here are 10 tips on how you can write a longer and a smarter essay, even if the deadline is fast approaching:

Tip #1: Look Back at Your Prompt/Rubric/etc.

If you’ve been provided a comprehensive prompt or rubric for an essay, read it, and read it again. Think about the following:

• Did you answer all of the questions in the prompt?
• Did you provide supporting evidence to back up whatever claims you made?
• Did you leave out any information that might increase the reader’s understanding of your argument?
• Did you meet all requirements (besides length) for the paper?

If the answer isn’t a decisive “yes” to every question on this list, go back and revise.

Tip #2: Go Back Through Your Introduction and Conclusion

Often times, ideas evolve while writing a paper. If the first thing you wrote was the introduction, go back and reread the first paragraph. You might decide that you left out key information that aids the reader in understanding your argument. When looking back on the conclusion, make sure you’ve both summarized the main points within the essay and provided your reader with a solution to consider. If you don’t feel you’ve done this, go back through and revise the paper.

Tip #3: Have Someone Proofread Your Essay

Even if you’re short on time ask a friend, sibling, or parent to read through your paper, specifically noting any points they find confusing. Then, go back and revise the parts that were unclear, adding in more information to provide readers with further clarity. You have a more comprehensive understanding of what you’re writing about than your reader, so having someone else look over your paper can be a helpful way to ensure that you haven’t missed any important details.

Tip #4: Use Quotations

Chances are, you have already used quotes in your paper. Quotations are a great way to enhance your argument while also driving up a paper’s word count, but don’t add quotes just for the sake of doing so. If you’re short on words, read through your source materials again to see if you’ve missed any valuable quotes. You can also do a little more research to see if there are any other sources you can add to provide the reader with more evidence toward your argument. Longer quotes aren’t necessarily better, but if you’re really in a bind, you might want to lengthen some of the quotes that are already included.

Tip #5: Review Your Outline

Did you make an outline to plan the essay when you first started? Go back through that initial outline and make sure you’ve hit all of your intended points. It’s possible that you’ve left out an important piece of your argument that would both increase page count and make for a better essay.

Tip #6: Include More Transitional Phrases

Graders often look for traditional words linking sentences to each other, like “therefore,” “even though”, and “on the other hand.” Read through your essay and make sure the sentences flow smoothly into each other. If they don’t, go back and add in transitional phrases like the ones listed above. Your writing will be easier to read, and you’ll get closer to the minimum page requirement in the process.

Tip #7: Read Your Paper Out Loud

This might sound like a silly tip, but when you read your paper out loud, you become increasingly aware of any grammatical or syntactical issues. When you rephrase sentences to fix these, you might end up increasing the paper length a bit. In the process of reading out loud, you also might realize that you didn’t include sufficient details within a particular paragraph. If that’s the case, go back in and add more to increase length.

Tip #8: Take a Break From Your Essay

You’ve probably been staring at your computer screen for hours, hoping words will magically pop into your head. Take a break. Eat a snack, go for a walk, or talk to a friend on the phone. You’ll come back to the essay with a fresh perspective after some time away, and you might have new ideas after you’ve had time away from your paper.

Tip #9: Ask Your Instructor for Help

Most teachers, teaching assistants, and professors are willing to look over papers for students before the final submission date. If there is still time, ask if you can make an appointment to go over your paper or head over to office hours. Your instructor might offer tips on how to better answer the prompt, and this in turn may also increase the word count of the paper.

Tip #10: Use multiple examples to back up your argument

If you’ve only used one source or anecdote to explain a given point, find a second source to provide additional evidence for the reader. This method will help drive up a paper’s word count while also providing further support for your argument.

Although hitting a minimum page count can sometimes be challenging, you can do it the smart way by increasing the information you provide to the reader—there’s no reason to resort to tricks like increasing line spacing or font size. If you’re really in a bind at the last minute, you might want to break up some of your paragraphs. This increases length while also making text more manageable for a reader. But after going through the tips on this list, your paper should be adequate in length without you having to even consider spacing.

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Essay Writing Guide

How To Make An Essay Longer

Last updated on: Jun 14, 2023

How To Make An Essay Longer - Easy Guide For Beginners

By: Nova A.

Reviewed By: Chris H.

Published on: Apr 2, 2019

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you need to meet a word count for your essay but fall short of content?

It can be frustrating and stressful to figure out how to make your essay longer without compromising its quality and coherence.

In this blog, we will provide you with practical strategies and valuable tips to effectively expand your essay while maintaining its integrity.

Say goodbye to the struggle and embrace a well-crafted, lengthier essay.

Let's dive in!  

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Tips on How to Make an Essay Longer 

Essay Writing can be challenging, especially when you need to meet a specific word count or want to delve deeper into your analysis.

There are strategies you can use to effectively increase the length of your essay or research paper without compromising its quality. 

Let’s explore how to make your essay longer hacks and tips while maintaining its effectiveness.

Do a Comprehensive Research

Conducting in-depth research is crucial when aiming to make your essay longer and more comprehensive.

By going beyond surface-level knowledge, you gain access to a wealth of information and insights.

This additional research allows you to develop a deeper understanding of your topic, which in turn enhances the quality of your essay.

When conducting research, keep in mind to rely on credible sources. Credible sources include academic journals, reputable books, scholarly databases, and trusted websites. 

Elaborate on Arguments 

To expand and strengthen your essay, it is vital to provide detailed explanations and expand on your arguments.  Follow these key steps:

• Offer clear explanations of your main points, using descriptive language to enhance understanding.
• Support your arguments with relevant evidence, such as data, statistics, or expert opinions.
• Provide examples and illustrations that exemplify your points and make them more relatable.
• Engage in critical analysis and interpretation to showcase a deeper understanding of the topic.
• Address counterarguments by acknowledging opposing viewpoints and providing reasoned responses.
• Continuously connect your elaborations back to the thesis statement for a focused and cohesive essay.

Add Examples

Start by researching your topic. Make sure you get important details, substantial arguments, and evidence to highlight your points of view better.

When you start writing, look for the claims you’ve made in your essay and analyze the supporting and opposing views.

Make sure you add relevant supporting evidence for each view that makes your essay more engaging and lengthen your paper effectively.

Usually, it’s good to use case studies and real-life scenarios or statistical information to make your arguments stronger.

Whenever you use any mathematical figures try to spell out numbers. Make sure that whatever it is, they support your arguments strongly.

Use Quotations and Citations 

Using quotations from experts and credible sources serves multiple purposes in your essay. 

Quotations play a significant role in enhancing the understanding and depth of your essay. 

They demonstrate that your ideas are supported by established thinkers or recognized sources in the field.

Proper citation is essential when using quotations in your essay. It not only gives credit to the original author but also demonstrates your academic integrity. 

Ensure that you adhere to the required citation style , whether it's APA, MLA, Chicago, or any other specified format. 

Take the time to understand the rules and guidelines for citing quotations accurately.

Include Transitional Phrases and Sentences

Thinkin how to make your essay longer using words while maintaining a smooth flow and coherence?

It is essential to include transitional phrases and sentences in your essay. 

Transitional sentences not only help to make your essay longer but more cohesive as well. Transition sentences are used to connect the ideas being discussed in different paragraphs of the essay. So the right choice of transitional sentences will make your essay a great piece of writing.

Here are some key considerations for using transitional phrases effectively:

Introducing Additional Points:

• Furthermore,
• Additionally,
• In addition to,

Providing Examples or Illustrations:

• For instance,
• For example,
• Specifically,
• To illustrate this,
• In particular,

Need more examples of transitional words to make an essay longer? Check out this transition words blog!

Do Not Use Short Forms

Avoid using short forms and contractions. In a formal essay, do not use ‘wouldn't’, ‘can’t’ or ‘don’ts’, use their full form. The same goes for numbers also, use spellings instead of number form.

If you are not sure about the word count then use a word counter to be sure that you have added the required number of words. Increasing the font size will also help to lengthen your essay.

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Be More Descriptive

To make your essay longer while keeping the flow smooth and engaging the reader, it is essential to focus on being more descriptive in your writing.

By incorporating vivid descriptions, sensory details, and figurative language, you can expand the length of your essay while enhancing its depth and richness.

Descriptive language allows you to provide more intricate explanations, paint a more detailed picture of your subject matter, and create a more immersive reading experience.

By employing techniques such as engaging the senses, providing concrete examples, and painting a vivid picture with words, you can reach the required word count.

Add All Necessary Information

During your revision part, ensure that you’ve included all relevant information for the essay and there’s no missing concept or theory.

At times students find sections that can be improved with new arguments or there is a missing piece of evidence.

Look for such loopholes in the content and fix them.

Add details that are relevant, credible, and valuable for your audience as well. Once you’re done with the checking, re-read the essay to ensure complete conformity to quality standards and essay guidelines.

Format Your Paragraphs Well

While writing your essay make sure that paragraphs of your essay are formatted well.

Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence , following the supporting argument, and a concluding or transition sentence.

Keep revising your paragraphs and add the sentences that are missing.

Take a Fresh Look at Your Topic

This may seem a useless tactic but revisiting your prompt in the middle of your writing process will help you a lot to explore the hidden perspectives of the topic.

You may realize that you have not considered a number of dimensions of the topic nor explained them.

This allows you to gain new perspectives, refine your arguments, and ensure that your essay remains relevant and compelling. 

Their explanation will not only help you elongate your essay but also make it more comprehensive.

Add Illustrations

To further add to your essay content, look for illustrative material that can be included to justify your claims better.

These are usually supporting pieces of information like images, charts, statistical reports, and graphs that largely add to the essay's appeal and length as well.

Your sources must be authentic and reliable. Do not forget to include them in your resource list to increase the size and essay length.

Add Lists and Numbers

Another good tip that adds to the page count for your paper is the addition of bullets and lists to organize your ideas properly.

Besides, they also make the paper longer and more readable, and engaging for the audience. Within sections and paragraphs, add lists to further explain a core concept or idea better.

You can also increase the line spacing between texts to make your essay look longer.

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Try Reverse Outlining

After writing your paper, reading back through it and creating an outline will help you reorganize pages. It will make more sense to the readers about your work. It can also point out areas that you need to develop more.

If you see a point and think that you can clarify it more, take the opportunity and make it longer.

If you notice a paragraph that introduces more than one idea, break them into multiple paragraphs and explain them thoroughly.

Take a Break and Revisit Your Essay

To increase the length and improve the quality of your essay, it is essential to take breaks and revisit your work with a fresh perspective.

Stepping away from your writing allows you to clear your mind and return with renewed focus.

When you review your essay with fresh eyes, you can identify areas that need further development, clarification, or expansion.

Take the time to revise and edit your essay, addressing grammar, punctuation, and clarity. 

Approach your Instructor and Ask for Possible Help

Many teachers and instructors are willing to give reviews about the paper before submission. It means you can always consider approaching your instructor for guidance. 

Schedule a meeting and come prepared with specific questions about expanding your essay effectively. 

Explain your concerns about the length and express your willingness to put in the effort to improve. 

Be attentive to the advice given by your instructor and make a keen effort to implement their feedback in your revised essay. 

Make Your Spacing Larger 

One sneaky way to increase the length of your essay is by adjusting the spacing. 

Increase the line spacing between your lines of text by using 1.5 or double spacing instead of the default 1.0 spacing. 

Another option is to use a slightly larger font size, although it's important not to go overboard. For example, you are using times new roman size 12, make it to 12.5!

Incorporating subheadings within your essay can help break up sections and add length. Additionally, take the opportunity to provide more detailed explanations and elaborate on your examples. 

Remember to use these formatting tips responsibly and focus on providing meaningful content to enhance the overall quality of your essay.

Get Professional Writing Help

If you find yourself still struggling to increase the length and improve the quality of your essay, seeking professional writing help can be a valuable option.

These online writing services offer assistance from experienced writers who can help you with essay-lengthening techniques. They also offer suggestions for improvement and provide editing and proofreading services.

Just like that, 5StarEssays.com is one of the best “ write my essay ” services!

Our qualified writing experts can compose an impressive essay that meets the word count without giving the impression of dragging it.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to elevate your writing skills and achieve your academic goals.

Marketing, Law

As a Digital Content Strategist, Nova Allison has eight years of experience in writing both technical and scientific content. With a focus on developing online content plans that engage audiences, Nova strives to write pieces that are not only informative but captivating as well.

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Make essay longer with words: Hacks To Increase Word Count

Searching dead hard for writing a detailed essay but failed to reach that minimum level? Still curious about “how to make your essay longer with words”? even though giving half of your time on the deadline doing search? 

Well, well, well! We knew it, that is why you must check this out to get out of your worries and know the answers to all your questions just with a single blog.

Everyone gets worried about how to write an essay like a pro? Adding every detail, and filling every requirement, but still just before the end, one notice that lagging behind the minimum word count. This is the most desperate state that perfect writers understand. However, with the assistance of an  AI essay writer , you can ensure that your essay meets the required word count while maintaining quality and coherence.

Why not playing with the words and making some changes out of the context to fulfill the desired state of requirements? We have got this! Elongate your essay with the following essay writing guide:

Table of Contents

How to Make an Essay Longer?

There are many ways to increase the length of an essay. One of the best strategies is using longer words. Here are 7 of the best tips regarding words to use in an essay to make it longer.

Add More Description in the Essay

The simplest way of increasing the length of your essay is to add more description. It is suggested to add more details and descriptions into the content so your essay word count increases. It could be done by giving extra information about anything being discussed in the essay. 

Use lengthier Phrases Instead of Shorter Ones

The length of an essay can vary depending on the topic, requirements, and purpose. However, if you’re aiming to extend the word count without compromising quality, it’s beneficial to substitute shorter phrases with more expansive ones. By opting for descriptive and elaborative language, you can effectively amplify the content without appearing forced or unnatural. This technique aids in elongating the essay while maintaining its essence. Keep on reading as there’s more to come on how to elongate an essay while preserving its essence. Understanding how long is an essay plays a pivotal role in crafting comprehensive and insightful content.

Write Quotations to Add Value and Words

Quotations do add meaning, significance and value to the content. That’s why in essays students write a lot of quotations and also get better grades for this reason. Addition of motivational quotes is a great idea to make your essay lengthier. If you aim to increase the word count without writing unnecessary things, make sure to use the quotations and get your thing done.

Add References to Add Authenticity and More Words

When you add a reference to a text or any other source in your essay while quoting an information, you automatically add authenticity to your work. Similarly doing the same thing in an essay can help increase the word count. More references you add, the more appealing your work would look and hence the essay will look longer without any extra effort.

Do Not Use Abbreviations, But Only Full Forms

Abbreviations, short forms of any word take less space and fewer words to get covered. Instead, writing the full form takes some space and indeed more words. Therefore in writing an essay, skip using the abbreviations and only include the full forms of all the words. It will help increase the word count of the essay for you or you can hire essay writer .

Words To Make Your Essay Longer

How to increase the word count of your essay?

Following are the hacks on how to make your essay longer with words:

Fulfill all the requirements

We have a lot of tricks, don’t worry, but before moving on to that, make sure that you have fulfilled all the requirements that your professor needs out of the essay.

Might be the case that you have missed some important discussion on the argument which is resulting in the minimal word count when  writing a perfect essay .

So, go back to the outline that was pre-made to cross check whether your essay includes all the requirements or left out something.

Ask yourself the following questions to make sure the requirements are completed:

Have I met all the requirements my professor advised?

Am I in the position to defend my argument?

Is my introduction, body and conclusion enough to represent adequate information that can make an  descriptive essay  better?

Asking these questions might help you come up with something important which might be added to increase the word count.

Still can’t reach the minimum word count? Don’t worry as you read you will get to know incorporating some words to make essay longer.

Hop up to the transitional phrases

If your paper isn’t long enough to reach the limit provided, add the transitional phrases while  writing a short essay  and give it a professional look.

Transitional phrases not only make the essay wordy, but also provide connectivity in hopping from one idea to another.

An instructor does search for such phrases as well when marking because this brings a flow to the essay.

Examples of some transitional phrases are as follows:

On the other hand

Meanwhile 

In other words, 

In particular 

And the list goes on.

Learn the art of description

You have to learn the art of description if it is desired to increase the length of your essay.

Describe every bit of detail that is believed to be relevant if added.

For instance, when discussing a thunderstorm, incorporate myths and legends that resonate with your knowledge, perhaps drawing from childhood tales. Understanding how long is a essay becomes an opportunity to enrich the narrative with personal experiences and cultural references, amplifying its depth and resonance.

Also add the description of additional facts that are believed to enhance the essay and also increase the length of it.

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Accommodate some quotations

It is one of the easiest ways to add expert quotations into the essay and in return increasing the word count. These quotations not only give the picture of good research and evidence that is done on the topic, but also ensure that the word count meets the minimum word count.

However, while adding quotations consider the following:

Make sure that the quote that is added, is relevant to the line or the essay in general when adding.

Add a proper quotation mark and citation or reference the quote otherwise that would be included in copying and plagiarism.

Try to add quotations that are not too long and are catchy enough to attract the reader or instructor. Long quotes are usually boring and some people skip it even when reading.

For example, when you are writing an essay on the planet earth, add the following quotation:

“What I stand for is, what I stand on”

Exemplify everything

While doing perfect essay writing, it is one of the weaknesses of being a human that we rely on one or two sources for writing.

This should not be the case, if you have used one or two sources, try to spread your search.

Add more examples plus statistical facts and figures that will help when you will  write an essay hook , whichever you believe is relevant to your essay. such examples would increase the authenticity and the word count that is included in your  cause and effect essay .

For example: When writing on leadership and management, if one example is added related to democratic leadership, it is also advisable to add examples related to:

Autocratic leadership styles such as Adolf Hitler, Queen Elizabeth, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Charismatic leadership styles such as that of Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, etc.

Transformational leadership styles such as that of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc.

Such examples will also make your interest stick to the essay and make it an enjoyable process.

Hacks to increase the length of an essay

Following are the hacks that will add length to your essay:

Elongate your header and footer

One of the tricks to make the essay look longer can be to increase the length of header and footer by elongating it. 

Your instructor cannot notice it at first, but even if he/she does, it’s not a big issue because it makes the essay look good, not just increasing the length of it.

For Example:

Play with the spaces

Use double spacing where necessary. However, you can always exceed the double spacing and can use 2.5 spacing.

Play with these spaces to make the essay look longer than it actually is. 

This won’t be visible to your instructor for sure because double spacing and 2.5 are almost similar. 

Mess up with your fonts

Mess with the font size by increasing the range to increase essay length. 

Such as you can opt for a 12.5 font size instead of 12.

No one’s going to notice. Don’t worry. 

Play with your margins

Increase the margins of your page to flash an image of a longer essay at first glance.

This tool is easy to use and will make the essay look long enough to fulfill the minimum requirement of the word count. 

For example:

Compare it with normal margins and you will see the difference. 

Temper with your header and footer

By tempering the header or footer, we mean that add the title of your essay to the header.

It leaves a good impression of the essay as well as increasing the word count.

This is going to be a good way of increasing the length of your essay with words. 

Break up paragraphs

Breaking up the paragraphs increases the length of the essay without adding to the unreadability.

However, it should also be noted that the connectivity of the ideas is not altered when splitting up the paragraphs. 

We can best exemplify the power of splitting the paragraph through the following example:

It’s evident that the second layout appears more extensive than the first, although both maintain an identical word count. This difference arises due to paragraph structuring. The initial layout comprises only three paragraphs, while the second divides paragraphs into smaller segments, contributing to an increased length. Understanding how long should an essay be involves strategic formatting and structural choices to effectively convey ideas while meeting length requirements.

Summing Up: How to Make an Essay Longer By Changing Words

To extend your essay’s length, focus on enriching your content rather than simply replacing words. Add detailed examples, evidence, and counterarguments to bolster your points, providing in-depth explanations and analysis. Utilizing a  thesis statement generator  can also contribute to the coherence and strength of your main thesis sentence and argument.

Incorporate subheadings for organization and employ smooth transitions between ideas. Elaborate on existing examples and make sure all added content naturally integrates into your essay. Finally, after lengthening, thoroughly proofread to ensure quality and coherence. Remember, enhancing the substance of your essay is key to meeting length requirements effectively.

Secure Your Custom Essay Writing Solution

We hope you have a good understanding now of how to lengthen an essay or how to make essays longer using phrases or synonyms. If you still need help regarding your assignment,  perfect essay writing  is always there to help.

How can I make my essay longer?

You can make your essay longer by breaking up your paragraphs, increasing font size, increasing length of margins, adding enough examples and adding quotes & phrases etc. However, perfect essay writing uses its killer-formula to provide you with the best essay writing services.

Is a longer essay better?

A longer essay can be better if the requirements are fulfilled and is interesting enough to catch the attention of your reader. However, a longer essay might not be better if the word count is given to you and you intentionally exceed the count to gain more marks. Perfect essay writing can now provide you the best optimal essay services using its killer-formula.

What is a long essay length?

A long essay is usually 700-1000 words longer with a minimum of 5 paragraphs in it. However, a long essay can exceed this limit depending on the requirements of the college or an instructor. You can now avail the perfect essay writing services with our top-notch essay writers of all time. Order now!

Is a 3000-word essay too long?

It depends. If the requirement states that you have to write an essay of 5000 words then a 3000-word essay is not too long. You can now get your perfect essay writing services with our team of experts. Avail your services for the best services.

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Paragraph Expander Free AI-Powered Text Expander to Lengthen Paragraphs

Need to lengthen your paragraphs and increase your word count? I got you. This free paragraph expander uses AI (artificial intelligence) and acts as a text expander that’ll instantly extend your writing to make your paragraph longer, remaining on theme with your content. This text expander’s advanced algorithms produce AI-powered content that fits in seamlessly with your original content—for free.

Hey there! You’ve hit your free limit for an hour . Don’t worry; you’ll be able to use my tools again in an hour.

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Use the Paragraph Expander to Meet Your Word Count Target and Improve Your SEO

A paragraph expander is a great way to create more in-depth content, based on what you’ve already written. If you’re sitting there thinking, “how do I make my paragraph longer?” then you’ve come to the right place. You can start with a single sentence, a short paragraph, or even a phrase, and create extra content.

There are plenty of reasons why you might want to use a paragraph expander:

• You’ve got a short blog post that you want to make longer, for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes—ideally, your blog posts should usually be 1,500+ words .
• You’re working on a school or college assignment and you haven’t quite met the word count requirements.
• You’ve got short-form content, like social media posts, that you want to use as the basis for a full-length article.
• You have a little bit of text that you want to expand and make paragraphs longer throughout your content.

In all these cases, you can copy and paste short sections of content into the paragraph expander and you’ll automatically get a longer, more detailed paragraph.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you’ve got a great tweet about email marketing (I created this one using RightBlogger ’s “Tweet/X Post Ideas” feature:

Looking to grow your subscriber list? 📈 Offer an irresistible lead magnet to entice visitors to sign up. It could be an exclusive guide, discount, or free resource! 

You want to write a whole blog post about growing your email subscriber list, and you plan to expand on the lead magnet idea. So you simply copy a couple of sentences into the paragraph extender tool:

Run the tool, and you’ll make your paragraph longer based on those starting 2 sentences. Here’s what it came up with for me:

“Want to boost your subscriber list and attract more visitors to your website? One effective strategy is to create a compelling lead magnet that will encourage them to sign up. Consider offering an exclusive guide packed with valuable insights, a special discount on your products or services, or a free resource that addresses a common pain point for your target audience. By providing something of value in exchange for their email address, you can significantly increase your chances of turning visitors into loyal subscribers.”

Ready to give it a try, yourself and write longer paragraphs?

How to Use the Paragraph Expander to Lengthen Your Original Text

The paragraph expander is really user-friendly—but just in case you want a helping hand, here’s a breakdown of what to do, step by step.

Step 1. Copy and Paste Your Original Sentence or Paragraph

First, you’ll need to choose a sentence (or short paragraph) to expand upon. It’s best to use something that feels a bit thin and underwritten. If you’ve already written a detailed, wordy paragraph, then running it through the tool may not give you such good results.

Once you’ve chosen the text you want to expand, simply copy and paste it into the tool.

Step 2. Select Your Tone and Writing Style

If you’re creating standard blog content, it’s fine to simply use the “Default”  tone & style in the paragraph expander tool. But if you’re writing something different, or your blog has a strong branded voice, then you may want to experiment with different tones and styles.

For instance, the “Fun & Quirky” style is a great fit for brands that are laid back and informal. The “Formal” style is a good fit if you’re working on a piece of academic or business writing.

Step 3. Generate an Extended Paragraph of Text

Once you’ve pasted in your text and (optionally) selected a tone & style, it’s time to generate your extended paragraph. Go ahead and hit the “Generate” button and your new text will appear almost instantly.

Bonus: Use My Free SEO Checklist Along With the Paragraph Expander

There’s a good chance you’re using the paragraph extender to help you produce blog posts that work well for search engines. As you write your blog post , you’ll also want to keep in mind the key principles of good blog SEO .

Here’s my personal step-by-step SEO checklist to use for your blog posts: 

• Make sure you’re using the Yoast plugin for WordPress
• Always optimize your post for a specific, achievable keyword phrase that’s relevant to your audience
• Optimize your post’s subheadings: this encourages Google’s rich snippets and can mean that your post gets indexed faster
• Only use one H1 header in your post (that should be the post title at the top of the page)
• Follow correct header hierarchy, with H2 subsections and H3 sub-subsections
• Make sure you include your primary keyword multiple times—but don’t go overboard (it should sound natural)
• Use both internal and external links in your blog post (with at least 3–5 external links)
• Craft an engaging meta description that includes your primary keyword, plus secondary keywords if possible
• Give each image an alt description, using keywords in the descriptions as appropriate
• Think about your blog post’s length—it should normally be at least 1,500+ words
• Craft a meta title (SEO title) that should work well in search engines
• Include keywords in your post’s permalink (also called the URL or slug)

The Key Features of the Paragraph Expander

We designed the paragraph expander to be super-easy to use—but if you’re curious about some of its key features, just keep reading.

Text (Copy and Paste Your Original Text)

The paragraph expander lets you paste in any text you like. (It doesn’t have to be in English, either.) Your text can be anything from a few words long to a couple of sentences long.

Note: There’s a limit of 500 characters for the tool. If you want to expand more text than that, you can simply run the tool multiple times.

Tone & Writing Style (Choose a Style That Matches Your Voice)

Like my other free AI blogging tools , the paragraph extender lets you select a tone & writing style. This is so the AI algorithm can create text that’s as close to your own writing voice as possible. 

You can use the paragraph expander as often as you like, so feel free to experiment with different styles. For example, bloggers often use styles like “Fun & Quirky”, “Casual”, and “Irreverent”. If you’re working on business or academic content, “Formal” or “Professional” might suit you well. And if you’re crafting a piece of copywriting to promote a product or service, then “Sales-oriented” or “Persuasive” could be perfect for boosting conversions. 

Language (Doesn’t Have to be English)

The paragraph expander doesn’t just work with English. You can use it with a whole range of different languages, including French, Spanish, Chinese, Danish, Polish, Japanese, Italian, and more.

Tip: Your input and output languages don’t need to match—though in most cases, you’ll probably be crafting extended content in the same language that you started out with.

Paragraph Expander Tool FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Got questions about the paragraph extender tool? Here’s everything you need to know.

What type of content can I enter into the paragraph expander tool?

You can give the paragraph extender tool any kind of content you want. That could be an excerpt from a past blog post, part of a draft you’re working on, a couple of brief sentences from an academic essay … or anything you like. For best results, you’ll want to choose content that’s concise and ripe for expanding upon. 

Even if you plan on editing the paragraph extender’s output, you might still find it’s a useful tool for getting past writer’s block.

The paragraph extender draws on the same AI writing technology behind tools like ChatGPT to create a unique sentence expansion of your input text.

Can I use the paragraph expander tool as an AI sentence expander? 

Yes, you can use this tool as a sentence expander too. Simply enter a short sentence and the tool will expand it into one (or more) sentences. 

Here’s an example for the sentence “The sky is blue”:

“The sky, with its vibrant hue, is a mesmerizing shade of blue that captivates the senses and evokes a sense of tranquility.”

Will the content from the paragraph expander tool pass a plagiarism checker?

The paragraph expander tool creates unique AI-generated content, based on your original words. This means it should easily pass a plagiarism check. For peace of mind, you may want to run your text through a plagiarism checker tool before you submit it for assessment or publication.

If you’re expanding a piece of text written by someone else, the expanded content should be sufficiently different to pass a plagiarism check. However, to avoid plagiarism of ideas, it’s important to cite your sources.

How else can I lengthen my writing to meet the required word count?

Using a paragraph extender is a useful quick fix when you’re trying to get your writing up to a certain word length. However, the tool won’t add in fresh ideas, and using it too extensively could make your piece seem overly wordy.

If you need to significantly extend a piece of writing, you might want to think about:

• Are there any key points that you haven’t covered? My free outline generator might help you to come up with these.
• Could you go into more detail by adding extra material, like examples or quotes? (You can include a discussion of these, too.)
• Have you missed out part of your piece, like the introduction or conclusion? I’ve got an introduction writer and conclusion writer to help you create these.
• Is there something more you could offer your target audience? What would make your message resonate with them?

If your writing often comes out too short, you may need to think about length earlier in the writing process. Using blog post templates , for instance, can help you create well-structured posts that meet the word count you’re aiming for.

Is there a Chrome extension for this tool?

For now, you can only use the paragraph expander here, as an online tool. There’s no Chrome extension or downloadable version, though RightBlogger’s Chrome Extension may eventually include this as a feature. I recommend keeping a tab open here with the tool so you can easily copy and paste text from your email, Google docs, Microsoft Word, or anywhere else you write.

Which other AI tools can I use to help create content?

You might want to use the full AI article writer to create a complete piece of content, in less than a minute. I’ve also got a YouTube script generator that you can use to help you make video content, and a whole range of useful blogging tools like the intro paragraph generator .

If you’re looking to change content around rather than expand sentences, the paragraph rewriter makes it easy to rephrase your text. There’s also a full grammar fixer (grammar checker) to help you with editing your writing.

Why did you make this paragraph expander a free tool?

I know, I know… what’s the catch? This paragraph expander is completely free. Here’s why. When I started blogging, years ago, I couldn’t afford to spend much money on my blog. Essential costs like web hosting took up most of my blogging budget. I knew that premium tools would help me grow my blog faster, but I couldn’t afford them. Instead, I hunted for free tools that did similar things—and I was so grateful to the bloggers who create those tools.

Today, my blog RyRob has been hugely successful, thanks in part to those free tools. I wanted to give something back to the blogging community, so I created the free paragraph expander. This tool is my gift to you.

You can use the paragraph expander as many times as you want, completely free. There’s no charge, and you never need to enter your email address, sign up, or jump through any hoops.

If you like the paragraph expander, I’d love it if you’d check out RightBlogger , my AI powerhouse. It’s packed with useful tools to help you with your writing. While it’s aimed primarily at bloggers, there are tools in there that can create and edit all kinds of AI content. That includes a paraphrasing tool, grammar fixer, rewriter, idea generator, and many more.

Who is this paragraph expander tool designed for?

We created the paragraph expander tool with all sorts of people in mind. It’s for bloggers, writers, content marketers, content creators, SEO professionals, small businesses, students, and anyone who sometimes needs a helping hand creating longer pieces of high-quality content.

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• Writing Tips

How to Make an Essay Longer

7-minute read

• 10th May 2023

So you have an essay due the next day. You’ve been holed up in your dorm all day writing it, and now you’ve finished the conclusion. You shake your fist in celebratory fashion as you punctuate the paper’s last sentence. However, your jaw drops in horror when you focus on the word count. The essay rubric states that you must write at least 1,500 words, but you’ve written only 1,000 ! How can this be? You worked so hard to do what the assignment asked you. We know the feeling, and we’re sure every college student experiences it at least once.

So with time running out, you can do the following:

●  Submit the essay and hope the professor doesn’t notice

●  Add some gibberish sentences to get close enough to the required word count

We don’t recommend these options. Making an essay longer seems daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. That’s why we’re providing this post on expanding your essay while keeping it relevant to the topic. We’ll share our helpful tips, and by the end of the post, you’ll know what to do next time your essay falls short of the word count.

1. Add Content to the Essay

Adding more details is a great starting point for increasing the word count. Review your essay and see whether you should have addressed additional points about the topic. Could you include a few more arguments?  

You’ll likely have to review your sources to find additional claims. We understand that you might not want to do this, especially if the clock reads midnight and your class starts in nine hours. However, adding more content not only increases the word count; it also makes your essay more credible. 

If you need to add content, make sure it’s relevant to the topic. Consider the following example:

Personal details about the source’s author are irrelevant. Submitting such details will only earn you the wrath of your professor’s red ink. Let’s try an alternative:

Expanding on the citation with personal insight about screen time adds punch while keeping the discussion relevant. Additional details must move your essay forward the way dialogue and narrative do for a work of fiction.  

2. Add Transitional Sentences and Phrases

Your essay might be short of words because it lacks transitional phrases, so you should add some to the mix. In fact, every academic paper should include a healthy blend of transitional sentences and transitional words/phrases . Not sure what we mean by that? You know words and phrases such as however , moreover , and in addition . 

As with details, transitional phrases help to move the essay forward, so make sure to use them correctly. Let’s take an example from an essay about the late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic:

As you can see, the writer uses transitional phrases correctly, adding value and words to the essay. When you use them correctly, transitional sentences and phrases improve the flow of your writing , enhancing readability. Professors expect coherent essays that flow smoothly, so transitional sentences and phrases are mandatory, regardless of word count. 

That being said, it can be easy to overuse linking words, particularly if you’re a non-native writer. Check out this interesting article from Fabio Cerpeloni, who argues that linking words can impact the readability of your text . 

3. Spell Out Words and Numbers

If you have contractions in your essay, such as can’t , won’t , and couldn’t , write them out in full. You shouldn’t use contractions at all in academic writing because they’re considered informal. Although using full versions of words seems to be a miniscule measure, doing so can go a long way to increasing your word count. And as a rule, you can also spell out numbers one through eleven. Again, doing this will help expand your essay.

Find this useful?

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To save time switching out your contractions, make sure you’re familiar with Microsoft Word’s find and replace tool .  

4. Add More Examples

Using at least two examples, you should aim to support every argument you present. If you have only one example for an argument, add a couple more. Provide citations to support your claims; otherwise, your professor will question your knowledge. As with details, examples will strengthen your essay. It’s a win–win situation!

If the essay has enough citations but still needs more words, you could try paraphrasing claims from sources. Just be sure to paraphrase effectively . You wouldn’t want to fall into the trap of plagiarism!

5. Review the Introduction and Conclusion

Now that you’ve written the essay, go back to the introduction and the conclusion. You might be able to expand on them and provide extra details. Remember that the introduction serves as a lead-in to the essay. In other words, it captures your readers’ attention and makes them want to keep reading. If your introduction appears weak, add details that will engage the reader properly.

And for the conclusion, provide a takeaway for the reader and offer a call to action. For example, what are the most important things to remember about your essay? The conclusion may lack punch, so add some details to improve it.

6. Expand Your Research on the Topic

The amount of research you’ve done could affect the word count. One way to check this is by reviewing your reference list. It should have at least five sources, so if yours has fewer, you need to do more research. Again, it’s not something you’d like to do in the middle of the night; however, sacrifices must be made if your essay needs more research. We guarantee your professor will notice if you haven’t done enough research. Here’s an extra tip: adding details will be much easier if you’re fully knowledgeable about the topic. Trust us on this!

While making an essay longer may seem daunting, doing so is easier if you’ve adequately researched the topic. The essay likely needs more ideas or examples, so go ahead and add them. Additional details will lend value, improve flow, and make your essay more credible. The most important thing to remember is that any details you add must be relevant. Simply adding fluff will weaken your essay and cost you marks. So never submit an essay with a low word count; your professor will notice! And after all, expanding on an essay is part of mastering essay writing skills .

We recommend not waiting until the last minute to check that your essay meets the required word count. Adding details or doing additional research the night before will only spell trouble. We understand the difficulty of making time when multiple papers are due in the same week. However, college life will test your time management skills like nothing else! Use your time wisely!

1.  Why do essays fall short of the required word count?

This is often due to a lack of details and transitional sentences. Review your essay to see whether it’s missing important examples that can strengthen your claims.

2.  Can I simply add “fluff” to increase the word count?

Anything you add to the essay must be relevant and must add value. Your professor is no fool, after all!

3. I hear proofreading is essential before submitting my essay. Can anyone help me with this?

We suggest our proofreading experts at Proofed! They can check your writing for grammar and punctuation errors and ensure perfect spelling and concision. Consider submitting a 500-word document for free today!

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21 ways How to make an Essay Longer: Words, Formatting Pages

• by Joseph Kenas
• February 21, 2024
• Custom Essay writing

Making your essays longer is an art that many students are still struggling to master. The main reason is that they do not know how to make essays longer effectively.

Luckily, there’s a way you can learn how to do it while also keeping your sanity. Read on. 

How to Make an Essay Longer: 21 ways

By using words , 1. increase your sentence length.

One of the popular ways to increase your paper’s length is by increasing your sentence length. The number of words in one sentence determines the average sentence length for your paper as a whole. 

So, by adding words to each sentence, you will increase your average sentence length and therefore increase your paper’s overall length.Do this as you consider the optimum word length for your content.

2. Add an Extra Page of Content

Additional pages add depth and breadth to a paper, making it much more complicated than a simple request for information or opinion.

3. Use Numerous Examples

The best way to make your essay longer is to include examples. You can also use adjectives, adverbs, and similes. Use some lengthy words, but don’t overdo it.

Do not make the sentences too long or complicated. Make the length of each sentence vary. Include lots of details about each example you give.

4. Replace Every Period with a Question Mark

This is among the simplest ways to lengthen your essay. Simply open up your word processor, do a find and replace, search for a period, and replace it with a question mark.

You will get amazed at how many of your grammatically correct sentences when you use this trick.

5. Use More Direct Quotations

One of the simplest ways to lengthen an essay is simply using more direct quotations from your sources. 

In almost any case, you should use direct quotations only when you fear that paraphrasing would alter the effectiveness or meaning of the author’s words or when you are quoting a passage that contains special wording.

6. Use More Words in Your Headings

Making an essay longer is a good thing. Headings are an essential way to tell the reader what each section of your paper is about. 

You can use longer words to make your essay sound more sophisticated and educated, which will impress the teacher or professor who reads your paper.

However, don’t get carried away with this technique.

7. Use More Adverbs and Adjectives

It is among the most useful ways of how to make essays longer. It is recommended that you add adverbs and adjectives in every sentence.

You can use the phrase “very” in front of an adjective. 

You can also use it to compare two ideas or objects. It will increase your word count and lengthen your composition.

8. Expand Each Paragraph for Clarity 

Try looking at each paragraph and asking yourself if there is anything else you could add to help explain your point or make the paragraph flow better. Besides, an optimal paragraph exhausts your point.

9. Add a Footer with Page Numbers

Adding a footer with page numbers can make your paper look longer. There’s not much to say here other than adding a footer and playing around with the font size until it looks like your paper is longer.

10. Rethink Your Word Choices 

Choose longer words over shorter ones when you can, without making it too complicated for the reader to understand what you’re saying. For example, instead of saying “he sprinted,” say “He ran quickly” or “he darted.”

Also, use contractions to observe the grammar rules.

By Using Formatting Methods

11. use a larger font size.

Making your essay longer can be as easy as increasing the font size on the paper. It may not sound that much, but using a 12-point font instead of a 10-point font will make your essay seem longer. 

In addition to changing the font size from 10 to 12, you should also change the spacing from double to 2.15. 

12. Remove the Space between Paragraphs

First, remove all double-spacing between paragraphs by changing them to single spacing.

This will add some length, and it will not be too noticeable because most people leave a space after each paragraph anyway.

If your paper is already single-spaced, then skip this step.

13. Increase the Spacing between Lines

The most obvious way to make your essay or paper longer is to just write more words.

A better idea may be to change the line spacing of your document from double-spacing to 2.5 or 3 spacing. Every character in your essay makes sense and spacing is treated as a character .

Using this trick can make a big difference in your paper’s length without having to add in any unnecessary filler just so that it meets the minimum requirement.

14. Increase Your Margin Sizes

Margins happen to be the space between your text and the edge of the page. So, if you have a one-inch margin on both sides of your text and increase it to 1.5 inches, you’ll be adding an extra quarter of an inch to each sentence in your paper.

If your paper has a lot of sentences, that’s some extra real estate you can add-in.

15. Add More Commas to Your Sentences

One of the popular ways is to add more commas to your sentences. But be careful not to change the meaning. 

A longer sentence can be broken up into multiple sections with commas, or a single section can be expanded by adding more sentences between commas.

Each comma adds about the width of a letter, which can add up if you use them correctly. 

16. Insert an Image into Your Essay

If your essay is already complete but still short of the required number of pages, inserting an image or two can be a nice way to pad your paper. 

Just make sure the image has something to do with your topic. You wouldn’t want to insert a picture of a beach scene if your essay was about space travel!

Other Ways 

17. have someone proofread.

Among the most valuable tools in learning to make an essay longer is having someone proofread your work.

If you’ve written a shorter paper and expanded it to the max, the second pair of eyes can be very helpful in pointing out places where you need to add additional information or where you can restructure sentences to make your writing more effective.

18. Expand Each Section of your Outline into Multiple Paragraphs

Add a whole new paragraph to introduce additional information about the characters, setting, plot, or theme as needed. Don’t just add a new topic without supporting it with evidence from the text. 

19. Get New Ideas from Blogs

When you are working on your essay and need to find more ideas for making your essay longer, you will want to consider using the internet. You may find that the internet is a great place to get ideas and tips on making your essay longer. 

20. Enhance Your Transitions 

If you find that your essay is still too short for the word count, you can add transitional sentences. Furthermore, transitions help clarify what you are saying rather than taking away from it.

21. Make a Title Page

It can be with just your name and class; print it, take a picture of it, and add it to your essay as a photo with the caption “title page.” 

Why Students Want to Make Essays Longer

Students want to make essays longer because they think it will give them more points on their scores. This is simply not true.

The essay is not graded based on length. Thus, there is no reason to write more than what is necessary to prove your point.

Another reason students want to make essays longer is because they don’t know how to summarize their main points without repeating themselves. This may seem okay, but it can be very easy to do when trying to write quickly.

The right way to avoid this problem is by creating an outline before writing your essay and following it closely once you start writing.

Students also want to make their papers longer when they want to show off in front of a teacher.

They think that if they provide more details in their writing, a teacher will be impressed and give them higher grades. 

Risks Associated with Making an Essay Longer

• Boring your teacher:  If you feel like you’ve reached the limit of what you want to say about a topic, don’t feel like you need to keep going just to add words. You might think a longer paper shows more depth and analysis, but it likely won’t impress your teacher if it’s just wordy and drawn out.
• Confusing your reader:  Most teachers give essays specific instructions. If they ask for a four-to-five page paper, they expect exactly that. If you go off on tangents that aren’t related to the main point of your essay or add in extra examples when they’re not necessary, you run the risk of confusing your reader and losing points as a result.
• Losing credibility with your reader:  There’s nothing worse than reading through an essay and realizing that key points have been left out because there wasn’t enough room in the word count.
• Redundancies:  You may end up with a lot of repeats and redundancies. If you try to make an essay longer without adding anything new, your professor will probably notice that there isn’t much substance to what you added.

Joseph is a freelance journalist and a part-time writer with a particular interest in the gig economy. He writes about schooling, college life, and changing trends in education. When not writing, Joseph is hiking or playing chess.

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• 40 Useful Words and Phrases for Top-Notch Essays

To be truly brilliant, an essay needs to utilise the right language. You could make a great point, but if it’s not intelligently articulated, you almost needn’t have bothered.

Developing the language skills to build an argument and to write persuasively is crucial if you’re to write outstanding essays every time. In this article, we’re going to equip you with the words and phrases you need to write a top-notch essay, along with examples of how to utilise them.

It’s by no means an exhaustive list, and there will often be other ways of using the words and phrases we describe that we won’t have room to include, but there should be more than enough below to help you make an instant improvement to your essay-writing skills.

If you’re interested in developing your language and persuasive skills, Oxford Royale offers summer courses at its Oxford Summer School , Cambridge Summer School , London Summer School , San Francisco Summer School and Yale Summer School . You can study courses to learn english , prepare for careers in law , medicine , business , engineering and leadership.

General explaining

Let’s start by looking at language for general explanations of complex points.

1. In order to

Usage: “In order to” can be used to introduce an explanation for the purpose of an argument. Example: “In order to understand X, we need first to understand Y.”

2. In other words

Usage: Use “in other words” when you want to express something in a different way (more simply), to make it easier to understand, or to emphasise or expand on a point. Example: “Frogs are amphibians. In other words, they live on the land and in the water.”

3. To put it another way

Usage: This phrase is another way of saying “in other words”, and can be used in particularly complex points, when you feel that an alternative way of wording a problem may help the reader achieve a better understanding of its significance. Example: “Plants rely on photosynthesis. To put it another way, they will die without the sun.”

4. That is to say

Usage: “That is” and “that is to say” can be used to add further detail to your explanation, or to be more precise. Example: “Whales are mammals. That is to say, they must breathe air.”

5. To that end

Usage: Use “to that end” or “to this end” in a similar way to “in order to” or “so”. Example: “Zoologists have long sought to understand how animals communicate with each other. To that end, a new study has been launched that looks at elephant sounds and their possible meanings.”

Adding additional information to support a point

Students often make the mistake of using synonyms of “and” each time they want to add further information in support of a point they’re making, or to build an argument. Here are some cleverer ways of doing this.

6. Moreover

Usage: Employ “moreover” at the start of a sentence to add extra information in support of a point you’re making. Example: “Moreover, the results of a recent piece of research provide compelling evidence in support of…”

7. Furthermore

Usage:This is also generally used at the start of a sentence, to add extra information. Example: “Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that…”

8. What’s more

Usage: This is used in the same way as “moreover” and “furthermore”. Example: “What’s more, this isn’t the only evidence that supports this hypothesis.”

9. Likewise

Usage: Use “likewise” when you want to talk about something that agrees with what you’ve just mentioned. Example: “Scholar A believes X. Likewise, Scholar B argues compellingly in favour of this point of view.”

10. Similarly

Usage: Use “similarly” in the same way as “likewise”. Example: “Audiences at the time reacted with shock to Beethoven’s new work, because it was very different to what they were used to. Similarly, we have a tendency to react with surprise to the unfamiliar.”

11. Another key thing to remember

Usage: Use the phrase “another key point to remember” or “another key fact to remember” to introduce additional facts without using the word “also”. Example: “As a Romantic, Blake was a proponent of a closer relationship between humans and nature. Another key point to remember is that Blake was writing during the Industrial Revolution, which had a major impact on the world around him.”

12. As well as

Usage: Use “as well as” instead of “also” or “and”. Example: “Scholar A argued that this was due to X, as well as Y.”

13. Not only… but also

Usage: This wording is used to add an extra piece of information, often something that’s in some way more surprising or unexpected than the first piece of information. Example: “Not only did Edmund Hillary have the honour of being the first to reach the summit of Everest, but he was also appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.”

14. Coupled with

Usage: Used when considering two or more arguments at a time. Example: “Coupled with the literary evidence, the statistics paint a compelling view of…”

15. Firstly, secondly, thirdly…

Usage: This can be used to structure an argument, presenting facts clearly one after the other. Example: “There are many points in support of this view. Firstly, X. Secondly, Y. And thirdly, Z.

16. Not to mention/to say nothing of

Usage: “Not to mention” and “to say nothing of” can be used to add extra information with a bit of emphasis. Example: “The war caused unprecedented suffering to millions of people, not to mention its impact on the country’s economy.”

Words and phrases for demonstrating contrast

When you’re developing an argument, you will often need to present contrasting or opposing opinions or evidence – “it could show this, but it could also show this”, or “X says this, but Y disagrees”. This section covers words you can use instead of the “but” in these examples, to make your writing sound more intelligent and interesting.

17. However

Usage: Use “however” to introduce a point that disagrees with what you’ve just said. Example: “Scholar A thinks this. However, Scholar B reached a different conclusion.”

18. On the other hand

Usage: Usage of this phrase includes introducing a contrasting interpretation of the same piece of evidence, a different piece of evidence that suggests something else, or an opposing opinion. Example: “The historical evidence appears to suggest a clear-cut situation. On the other hand, the archaeological evidence presents a somewhat less straightforward picture of what happened that day.”

19. Having said that

Usage: Used in a similar manner to “on the other hand” or “but”. Example: “The historians are unanimous in telling us X, an agreement that suggests that this version of events must be an accurate account. Having said that, the archaeology tells a different story.”

20. By contrast/in comparison

Usage: Use “by contrast” or “in comparison” when you’re comparing and contrasting pieces of evidence. Example: “Scholar A’s opinion, then, is based on insufficient evidence. By contrast, Scholar B’s opinion seems more plausible.”

21. Then again

Usage: Use this to cast doubt on an assertion. Example: “Writer A asserts that this was the reason for what happened. Then again, it’s possible that he was being paid to say this.”

22. That said

Usage: This is used in the same way as “then again”. Example: “The evidence ostensibly appears to point to this conclusion. That said, much of the evidence is unreliable at best.”

Usage: Use this when you want to introduce a contrasting idea. Example: “Much of scholarship has focused on this evidence. Yet not everyone agrees that this is the most important aspect of the situation.”

Adding a proviso or acknowledging reservations

Sometimes, you may need to acknowledge a shortfalling in a piece of evidence, or add a proviso. Here are some ways of doing so.

24. Despite this

Usage: Use “despite this” or “in spite of this” when you want to outline a point that stands regardless of a shortfalling in the evidence. Example: “The sample size was small, but the results were important despite this.”

25. With this in mind

Usage: Use this when you want your reader to consider a point in the knowledge of something else. Example: “We’ve seen that the methods used in the 19th century study did not always live up to the rigorous standards expected in scientific research today, which makes it difficult to draw definite conclusions. With this in mind, let’s look at a more recent study to see how the results compare.”

26. Provided that

Usage: This means “on condition that”. You can also say “providing that” or just “providing” to mean the same thing. Example: “We may use this as evidence to support our argument, provided that we bear in mind the limitations of the methods used to obtain it.”

27. In view of/in light of

Usage: These phrases are used when something has shed light on something else. Example: “In light of the evidence from the 2013 study, we have a better understanding of…”

28. Nonetheless

Usage: This is similar to “despite this”. Example: “The study had its limitations, but it was nonetheless groundbreaking for its day.”

29. Nevertheless

Usage: This is the same as “nonetheless”. Example: “The study was flawed, but it was important nevertheless.”

30. Notwithstanding

Usage: This is another way of saying “nonetheless”. Example: “Notwithstanding the limitations of the methodology used, it was an important study in the development of how we view the workings of the human mind.”

Giving examples

Good essays always back up points with examples, but it’s going to get boring if you use the expression “for example” every time. Here are a couple of other ways of saying the same thing.

31. For instance

Example: “Some birds migrate to avoid harsher winter climates. Swallows, for instance, leave the UK in early winter and fly south…”

32. To give an illustration

Example: “To give an illustration of what I mean, let’s look at the case of…”

Signifying importance

When you want to demonstrate that a point is particularly important, there are several ways of highlighting it as such.

33. Significantly

Usage: Used to introduce a point that is loaded with meaning that might not be immediately apparent. Example: “Significantly, Tacitus omits to tell us the kind of gossip prevalent in Suetonius’ accounts of the same period.”

34. Notably

Usage: This can be used to mean “significantly” (as above), and it can also be used interchangeably with “in particular” (the example below demonstrates the first of these ways of using it). Example: “Actual figures are notably absent from Scholar A’s analysis.”

35. Importantly

Usage: Use “importantly” interchangeably with “significantly”. Example: “Importantly, Scholar A was being employed by X when he wrote this work, and was presumably therefore under pressure to portray the situation more favourably than he perhaps might otherwise have done.”

Summarising

You’ve almost made it to the end of the essay, but your work isn’t over yet. You need to end by wrapping up everything you’ve talked about, showing that you’ve considered the arguments on both sides and reached the most likely conclusion. Here are some words and phrases to help you.

36. In conclusion

Usage: Typically used to introduce the concluding paragraph or sentence of an essay, summarising what you’ve discussed in a broad overview. Example: “In conclusion, the evidence points almost exclusively to Argument A.”

37. Above all

Usage: Used to signify what you believe to be the most significant point, and the main takeaway from the essay. Example: “Above all, it seems pertinent to remember that…”

38. Persuasive

Usage: This is a useful word to use when summarising which argument you find most convincing. Example: “Scholar A’s point – that Constanze Mozart was motivated by financial gain – seems to me to be the most persuasive argument for her actions following Mozart’s death.”

39. Compelling

Usage: Use in the same way as “persuasive” above. Example: “The most compelling argument is presented by Scholar A.”

40. All things considered

Usage: This means “taking everything into account”. Example: “All things considered, it seems reasonable to assume that…”

How many of these words and phrases will you get into your next essay? And are any of your favourite essay terms missing from our list? Let us know in the comments below, or get in touch here to find out more about courses that can help you with your essays.

At Oxford Royale Academy, we offer a number of  summer school courses for young people who are keen to improve their essay writing skills. Click here to apply for one of our courses today, including law , business , medicine  and engineering .

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• How To Make Your Essay Look Longer Without Looking Stupid

When you have to write an essay, there’s usually a required word count you have to compose. It’s not a problem when your topic is exciting, and sources are inexhaustible. Most of the time you need to write an essay on an issue that a) is boring; b) what the hell one can say about it at all.

If you are lucky to have a topic case like that, it’s OK if you’ve run out of ideas on the second page. Result: you’ve written all you had in mind and more, but your essay still doesn’t match the required volume. Well, any writing process has its circle of life, and insufficiency of words is its integral stage. The next everybody-wants-to-get-there stage is a word redundancy. It is hard to believe, but this second stage is even more agonizing and takes almost as much time as getting through the first one. One fine day you'll also get there, but for now, you need to focus on making your text grow in scope.

There are two primary ways to convince your professor that your essay meets the volume requirements. The first way is to expand your paper content to fill up your essay with the needed amount of words to make your essay longer on google docs. Plain and simple: need more words - add them. As for a second way, I wouldn’t honestly say that there is any second way because it is rather a kind of visual fraud. But for those desperate who don’t have any other option, I’ll outline technical ways to make your essay look longer.

Let’s get down to the business.

• 1. How to make your essay longer with words
• 1.1.Making essay longer: a Jedi way
• 1.2. Making essay longer: a trickster's way
• 1.3. Words and phrases to make your essay longer
• 2. Desperate ways to make your essay look longer
• 2.1. Period trick and plays with font to make essay look longer
• 2.2. How to change the size of margins on Google docs
• 3. Final touch

How to make your essay longer with words

If you decided to increase the word count of your paper, you have two options. The first one is a fair but the most time-consuming way of doing it. When you realize that your essay doesn’t meet the volume requirements, you either expand your topic or deepen your research to gain some new information to describe. I call it a Jedi way.

Another option is to water down your text a bit. What I mean is adding more words without adding any informativity. Basically, the word windiness is the eighth deadly sin for any writer, but still, the way out when you’ve written down everything you could, but it is still not enough. This is what I call a trickster’s way, and although it is not something I’m proud of, I’ve become a master of this technique. And yes, I’ll share the tricks with you. But I’m going to start from the noble methods of expanding your text. Notice, that it is the only one that can contribute to the content of your paper.  

Making essay longer: a Jedi way

• Make sure you’ve written everything you could. First of all, you need to read carefully what you’ve already have written. Analyze the structure of your narrative. Is something missing? Maybe you can add one more argument or expand those that you’ve already provided? Think! 
• Make your topic broader. It is risky but sometimes the only technique to compose an essay of a required scope. So if you feel that there is nothing more to say on a topic that you’ve chosen, think of the reasonable ways to widen it. It’s OK to contact your professor and ask for her/his advice on this one.  
• Do more research. Yes, I know that essay isn’t a 30-page term paper on African-Americans segregation , and you aren’t obliged to fulfill any complex topic analysis and background search. Still, you have to give your professor at least something coherent. If you see that you’ve used all the sources you had and have described all the results, then keep digging. Look for some alternative points of view or factual information. Statistics, charts, case studies - anything goes.  
• Illustrate your points with examples and citations. Think of an example for each argument you provide. If nothing comes up, do research, ask a friend. Besides, you can use at least one juicy quote to support your statements. It can serve not only for expanding your text but as an excellent essay hook to catch your reader’s attention. Quoting is one of the rhetoric methods to prove the point, so what are you waiting for? Google the hell of it!

And that’s it. There is no other honest way to increase the number of words in your essay. Everything said below are tips on how to twist your professor around your finger.

Caution! The tips below can turn you into eternal writing bluffer!

Making essay longer: a trickster's way

A hawk-eyed professor will surely notice your efforts to increase the amount of text volume artificially. But you always can respond that it is a part of your writing style (a poor one, yes, but still). So, what to do:

• Restate paragraph’s first sentence at the end of it. If possible, take opening sentence idea or concept and explain it in other words. Each of your paragraphs has a core idea, so don’t be afraid to be wordy while explaining it. If you cannot do so, rewrite the first sentence and place it at the end of the paragraph. This will add a couple of more words to the count.
• Do not use contractions. Since it is academic writing, using contractions is not required, and avoiding it also adds a few characters to the total equation. As a senior student, you will be prohibited to use contractions anyway, therefore start training right now.
• Spell out numbers lower than four. In case your essay is heavy with numerical data and digits, write down all the one hundred sixty-five figures as words. Don’t spell out one, two, and three as your professor will see that you’re desperate, so adopt such approach only when truly pressed into a corner.
• Use vivid adjectives with more letters to them. In academic essay writing, synonymic rows are a thing to use quite often. To increase word count, use really luscious adjectives as much as you can. However, using more than five in a row will make your mark lower.
• Act as a wordsmith. Where a normal person would’ve written ‘I like this painting a lot,' a wordsmith would’ve rather used ‘This splendid masterpiece of modern art touches upon my deepest emotions thanks to its delicate, gentle brushstrokes and master’s spectacular attention to the tiniest details.’ Give vent to your inner composer, write on a grand scale!
• Write down your stream of thoughts. Try to take a topic you are writing on personally. Elaborate on your own attitude to the thing you write about and then set your mind free to express everything you can say on the topic. Include your associations and childhood memories.
• Expand the lead-in words to phrases. I’m just going to provide you with a list for it.

Words and phrases to make your essay longer

Such words as ‘ on ’ and ‘ about ’ you can replace by the phrases:

In regards to ...

With reference to ...

On the topic of ...

Regarding the idea (that) ...

Considering the issue of ...

Peculiar details concerning the subject ...

Ways to expand your ‘ because ’:

Due to the fact that ...

Because of a fact that ...

For the reason that ...

In light of the fact that ...

Considering the fact that ...

A reasonable way to explain it is that …

For, to  

In order to

For the purpose of

To make it possible

For the sake of

In the interest of  

Time-pointers are your Eldorado of extra words:

Now, currently

At the present time ...

At the point of time ...

According to the current state of affairs ...

At a present situation ...

According to the situation that has developed as of today ...

For as long as I can remember

At all times

Forever and ever

On the occasion of

At the very moment when

The day the situation occurred

In the final analysis

Considering all the aforementioned arguments

After all is said and done

With regard to all said above

So, to sum up all the statements pointed out above (See? See?!), I want to ask you not to run mad after these stretching phrases. Don’t turn your text into a garbage bin.

Desperate ways to make your essay look longer

Before I start pointing out the technical ways to fool your professor, I want to warn you one more time. These are the obvious ways to cheat. Your lecturers and tutors read dozens of essays every day. They have a good eye on formatting details, and unless they had eye surgery the day before reading your essay, they would notice the fraud.

So, in case you’ve run out of any decent ideas to fill up your essay with words till the needed count, and there is nothing left to add to it, there is a trick. You can make it appear longer as a result of smart formatting. Here’s a list of gimmicks you can grab and run:

• Format your heading giving each element its own line.
• Think of an extended title for your paper.
• Use line breaks.
• Use slightly bigger line spacing (like 2.25 instead of 2).
• Choose larger letter spacing.
• If allowed, make keywords or even entire sentences in bold.

Period trick and plays with the font to make the essay look longer

The first coming into mind, an obvious, a bold way to visually expand your essay is to pick a slightly bigger font. In any case, don’t make it bigger on more than 1 pt. Slightly means a little bit! Like 17pt instead of 16pt.

On the screenshot is an example of how your essay will look like if you change a font from 11 pt to 12. On this fragment, it seems not like a big difference. But if you have at least 500 words essay, this trick will help you to make your essay one-page quarter longer.

I’ve checked the so-called period trick a couple of times and, in my opinion, it doesn’t work at all. What am talking about? The thing is that some students believe that if you replace the periods in your text with the periods of a bigger font, it will make help your opus seem longer. Well, it won’t.

How to change the size of margins on Google Docs

One more trick to use when you have reached the bottom of your despair is increasing the margins of your document. It is easy to do in any version of Word (1997-2013), but it is a bit confusing on Google Docs. What you need to do is to find and add-ons option. Here:

Then press ‘Get add-ons’ button. You’ll see the window with add-ons available for installing. So find the one that is called Page Layout Tool. Here you are! Now you can keep cheating with the margins of your paper even on Google Docs!

As well as with the font changing, the key to a successful trick with margins is to remember the limits.

Final touch

If you have read this guide till the final thoughts, you are probably in big eternal-essay-writing trouble. But at this point, I have nothing more to tell you except to relax. If you have two more hours to make your essay longer with words, you will definitely cope with a task. If not, you can always use one of my formatting tips and hope for better.

In my turn, I hope that you will heed the pieces of advice I gave you between the lines. The main of them - don’t rely on lazy methods of extending your writing. Excuse my somewhat lecturing tone, but it all is for your sake.

P.S. If you want to see more living examples of artificial increasing of the text content, carefully revise this article. I had to use a whole bunch of techniques I’d told you about to make this article look more respectable. But let it be our little secret, ok?

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How to Make an Essay Appear Longer Than It Is

Last Updated: February 2, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,777,828 times.

You are writing a paper and the deadline is approaching, but you are nowhere near the page limit. Many students find themselves in this position. Luckily for you, you can lengthen your paper by using a few tricks. Increasing the font size, adding a lengthy header, and manipulating the spacing between lines are just a few strategies you can use to make your essay appear longer. However, be aware that breaking your teacher’s guidelines may result in a lower grade.

Playing with the Font

• Don’t pick a very large font like Arial Black or Lucida Handwriting. Your teacher will notice that you are trying to make your essay longer by choosing a larger font.

Manipulating Spacing and Margins

• If the increase is too noticeable, then try 1.15 or 1.1 instead.
• Because all documents are left justified, avoid increasing the left margin. Adjusting the left margin will produce a noticeable change that your teacher will detect.

Adjusting the Header and Footer

Expanding the Content

• Additionally, if you are quoting or paraphrasing research or literature, make sure to cite it properly. Citations can add extra length to a paper as well.

• Expand your introductory paragraph with an attention-getting statement to hook the reader in.

• However, try to avoid being descriptive when it is unnecessary since this may cause your paper to appear embellished or sound verbose.

Community Q&A

• Copy and paste your paper into a new document. Make these changes to the new document. Then compare and contrast the document with the changes to the original document. Remove any adjustments that seem obvious. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Use a thesaurus to find longer synonyms to use in place of shorter ones. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Spell out abbreviations; for example, write out “United States" instead of using "US." Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Be aware that breaking your teacher’s guidelines may be considered cheating, which may result in a lower grade or even a zero. Thanks Helpful 12 Not Helpful 1
• Don't be redundant. Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 1

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.paperhelp.org/blog/how-to-make-a-paper-longer.html
• ↑ https://www.jakebinstein.com/blog/how-to-make-an-essay-look-longer/
• ↑ https://studentshare.org/study-guides/how-to-make-your-essay-look-longer
• ↑ http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/advice/a27491/tricks-you-try-to-make-your-school-paper-longer/
• ↑ https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-make-paper-longer-793288

About This Article

To make an essay appear longer than it is, pick a font that's slightly larger than Times New Roman, like Arial, Courier New, or Cambria. If you're required to use 12-point font, try increase the font to 12.1 or 12.2 to gain some extra length without the font looking noticeably larger. Then, press on Control and the F key at the same time to activate the find and replace function, and replace all of the commas and periods with 14-point font. If the essay still isn't long enough, increase the line spacing by 0.1 or 0.2 and make the right margin 0.1-0.2 inches larger. For tips on adjusting the header and footer or adding more content to your essay, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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21 Helpful and Easy Tips to Make an Essay Longer

Bookman Old Style > Times New Roman.

When you're writing a school paper after researching and typing for what feels like ages, but you still haven't reached your teacher's required page count, it's normal to feel frustrated. Maybe you get a little creative and play Microsoft Word gymnastics with different fonts and spacing, or become super expressive with your descriptions. There's also a chance you missed something on the assignment rubric, or overlooked the opportunity to include more quotes from trusted sources. You might even be able to load up on a few more examples for your argument, easily boosting the word count with additional research. Still a couple pages behind the limit? Don't worry. Below, we have over 20 tips to help you hit that page requirement.

1. Make sure you included everything on the rubric. If you forgot a whole section focusing on the counter argument, that could be the reason why your paper is a couple pages shorter than needed.

2. Load up on transitional phrases. Your paper isn't long enough, therefore it may be necessary to add some transitional phrases because they take up space. On the other hand , this could make your paper really wordy, however , it may be necessary. See what I did there?

3. Spell out your numbers. There are four editorial styles — AP, APA, MLA, and Chicago. Each one has a different rule for spelling out numbers, which can work out in your favor. For instance, in APA, you write out all numbers under 10. So a one-character "7" becomes a five-character "seven." In MLA, you spell out all numbers at the beginning of a sentence, and all simple numbers (those that are one or two words). Make sure to check the assignment rubric to see what style your paper should be written in!

4. Ditch the contractions. Honestly, you probably should not even be using contractions in a formal essay, so if you are filling up your paper with "don't," "won't," and "can't," switch them out for "do not," "will not," and "cannot."

5. Use numerous examples. Make sure to do extensive research on your essay topic and come up with at least 2-3 examples for every argument presented. One example might seem like enough, but adding a couple more points improves your paper and boosts its word count.

6. Add quotes. Including quotes, whether they be from a book, news article, or trusted source, helps strengthen and validate the point you're making in a paper. But you can't just drop a quotation without context. Introducing, writing out, and properly unpacking a quote can add value — and length — to your essay.

7. Start getting really descriptive about everything. How illustrative can you get about the evolution of electricity, you ask? Well, the answer is: Very. The howling wind gushed passed Benjamin Franklin at 30 miles per hour on that cold, rainy night, pulling the string of his kite taught as it fought to stay in the sky and sent his grey hair flying up in the sky like silvery wisps.

8. Try to make your header longer. If possible, of course. Some teachers clearly state what information needs to be included in the header. But if there's no guideline, add what you can within reason — I'm not sure your teacher is going to appreciate your TikTok or Insta handle listed on the page.

9. Have someone proofread. Getting another pair of eyes to read your paper might reveal some areas in need of work. Maybe you need to elaborate a bit more on a certain argument, or include a quote to strengthen an example.

10. Revisit your introduction paragraph. Sometimes, an introduction is easiest to write after the paper has been written. Having already presented and thoroughly discussed the argument in the essay's body paragraphs, you have a more concrete understanding of what direction the paper takes. There might be some information or ideas you can add into the intro, to better set up the paper's points.

11. Make your spacing larger. Your teacher probably won't be able to tell the difference between double spacing and 2.5 spacing. *fingers crossed*

12 . While you're at it, expand the spacing between the characters. Yes, I'm talking between each and every letter.

13. Raise the font size from 12pt to 12.5pt. Nobody has to know!

14. Make all periods and commas 14pt. It sounds tedious, but simply command-f and search for the period, that way you can change all of them at once.

15. Put extra space around your (super long and bolded) title. It needs some space to shine and breathe, obvs.

16. Change the font. You can't get too crazy or else your teacher will call you out, so you stick with something super similar to Times New Roman, but slightly bigger, like Bookman Old Style. However some teachers specify a certain font in the paper's assignment requirements — in the case, don't try to switch things up.

17. Reverse outline. After you've finished penning your essay, read it through and write an outline on what you have written so far. This strategy can reveal some paragraphs in need of further development. If you notice one super long paragraph, try breaking the ideas down into separate paragraphs. This might bump the page count up a bit, and give you the opportunity to include a few more transition sentences.

18. Make your margins bigger. You have to be careful about the left and right margins, and the top can be tricky. But the bottom margin, you can practically make it as big as you want. And then you can...

19. Add a fancy footer with page numbers. Obviously (hopefully), your teacher will appreciate your attention to detail and presentation.

20. Add a header with the title of your paper to every single page. Just in case your teacher forgets what your paper is about. You only want to help.

21. Make a separate cover page. Technically, the rubric didn't say it couldn't count as page one.

When I'm not holed up in my room going on a completely unproductive Netflix binge or Tumblr stalking Timothée Chalomet, I'm searching for awesome celeb news stories that Seventeen readers will love!

Leah Campano is an Associate Editor at Seventeen, where she covers pop culture, entertainment news, health, and politics. On the weekends, you can probably find her watching marathons of vintage Real Housewives episodes or searching for New York City’s best almond croissants. 

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Need to Make Your Essay Longer? Here's How

Don't stress over it, it happens to the best of us—you've been given an essay assignment and have procrastinated, leaving you with three pages of writing that should be closer to six pages. A quick Internet search for advice produces questionable suggestions, including changing your font size to 12.5 (don't do it!), adding spaces between words and paragraphs, or increasing the margin size—all tricks that your professor has likely seen multiple times and will notice immediately.

Before you start going through and doing something so drastic as adding spaces where they shouldn't be, let's look at some more natural (and therefore, less obvious) ways of adding word count to your essay. Here are five tactics that will add word count to your essay quickly and correctly.

Include more transitional words

You should already have transitional words or phrases at the beginning of each paragraph in your essay. If you don't, add them as part of improving the overall structure and organization of your writing. But a lot of academic writers don't realize that these transitions can work within paragraphs, as well, to add more logical structure within the paragraphs (instead of simply between them). For example, consider the following paragraph, which is 83 words in length:

In order to create an essay that flows logically, you need to include transition words at the beginning of each paragraph. These transitions aren't limited to only the beginning of each new paragraph and can be used throughout the rest of the paragraph to show how each sentence is connected to the one that precedes it and follows it. Including multiple transitions helps readers maintain focus on what they're reading and helps ensure that the writer focuses on one major idea per paragraph.

Now, let's look at that same paragraph with transitional words added, both at the beginning and throughout the rest of the sentences.

To begin adding additional length and in order to create an essay that flows logically, you need to include transition words at the beginning of each paragraph. However, it's important to note that these transitions aren't limited to only the beginning of each new paragraph and can be used throughout the rest of the paragraph to show how each sentence is connected to the one that precedes it and follows it. As a matter of fact, including multiple transitions helps readers maintain focus on what they're reading and additionally, helps ensure that the writer focuses on one major idea per paragraph.

By adding transitions throughout, I have taken a paragraph from 83 words to 101 words through a relatively simple process. If you do this to each paragraph, you can add a significant number of words without doing much extra writing. Note that if you are being graded on the succinctness of your writing, your professor might argue that adding so many transitions makes your writing wordy. However, a teacher with even the most stringent grading policy must take into account that transitions at the beginning of paragraphs are necessary.

Here is a list of some commonly used transition words that can be used for this purpose:

• …when in fact
• Accordingly
• Additionally
• After (this)
• All else being equal
• All the same
• As (was) mentioned earlier/above
• As (was) stated before
• As a consequence
• As a final point
• As a matter of fact
• As a result (of this)
• As for (this)
• As/So long as
• At any rate
• Be that as it may
• Because (of the fact that)
• Because (of this)
• By the same token
• By way of contrast
• Coincidentally
• Concerning (this)
• Consequently
• Considering (this)
• Despite (this)
• Due to (the fact that)
• Even though
• First of all
• First/Second/Third
• For example/instance
• For the purpose(s) of
• For the reason that
• For this reason
• Furthermore
• Given these points
• Granted (that)
• Granting (that)
• In a similar way
• In addition to
• In any case
• In any event
• In conclusion
• In contrast
• In order that/to
• In other words
• In particular
• In spite of (this)
• In that case
• In the (first/second/third) place
• In the event that
• In the hope that
• In the same way
• Inasmuch as
• Incidentally
• Instead (of)
• Looking at (this information)
• More/Most importantly
• Nevertheless
• Nonetheless
• Not only…but also
• Notwithstanding (this)
• On the contrary
• On the other hand
• On the subject of (this)
• One example (of this is)
• Or at least
• Owing to (the fact)
• Particularly
• Provided (that)
• Regarding (this)
• Regardless (of this)
• Regardless (of)
• Returning to the subject
• Significantly
• So much (so) that
• Specifically
• Subsequently
• Summarizing (this)
• That being the case
• That is (to say)
• The fact that
• This means (that)
• To conclude
• To illustrate
• To put (it) another way
• To start with
• Under those circumstances
• What this means is
• Whatever happens
• With (this fact) in mind
• With regards to (this)

Write a reverse outline

After the bulk of your paper has been written, going back through and creating a reverse outline can help you find gaps in your writing that could be further developed and filled by additional information or examples. It's as simple as reading back through what you've written and creating an outline of the major ideas, topics and subtopics you've included. If you've provided an example, include that on your reverse outline, as well.

Reverse outlining also helps you find paragraphs that might contain more than one major idea. When this happens, you'll need to divide the paragraph into more than one paragraph and further develop the points within them, ensuring that each paragraph has a topic sentence that matches what the rest of the paragraph is about.

Use expert quotes

One of the easiest ways to add to the word count of an essay is by including expert quotes. Not only do such quotes show that you have considered the thoughts and opinions of others who are well-read on the topic you're writing on, it also can add considerable length to a paper, especially if you include multiple quotes from several different sources.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing quotes and adding them to your essay:

• Be sure that the quote is applicable to the topic in general, and to the paragraph you're adding it to, in specific.
• Include quotation marks and the proper citation for each quote. Not doing so is plagiarism.
• If a quote is more than three lines, put it in block quote format.
• Separate multiple quotes with your own writing in between, perhaps as commentary on the substance of the quote previously noted.

Use multiple examples to back up your argument

In the same sense that using expert quotes adds to your essay's word count as well as the thoroughness of your research, using examples and anecdotes to expand on your hypotheses is a great way to provide proof for your argument. However, this doesn't have to be limited to one example per point you're making. Consider this: if you are writing a sociology paper about the dangers of social media use for adolescents, you should be able to find several anecdotes of how teenagers have been put in danger in various ways through their social media use. Along with these anecdotes, you can provide expert quotes (or quotes from the teenagers, themselves) to make your argument more solid and add word count to an essay that's too short.

Read your writing aloud

Finally, and after all of the above tactics have been used, read your essay out loud. This achieves two purposes. First, it allows you to proofread and check for any obvious mistakes that might remain after the initial first draft writing phase. Second, reading it aloud helps you to check for any areas that might not flow well (this is easier to hear than see) so you can add to them to achieve a better flow and organization to your writing.

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Build a Corporate Culture That Works

There’s a widespread understanding that managing corporate culture is key to business success. Yet few companies articulate their culture in such a way that the words become an organizational reality that molds employee behavior as intended.

All too often a culture is described as a set of anodyne norms, principles, or values, which do not offer decision-makers guidance on how to make difficult choices when faced with conflicting but equally defensible courses of action.

The trick to making a desired culture come alive is to debate and articulate it using dilemmas. If you identify the tough dilemmas your employees routinely face and clearly state how they should be resolved—“In this company, when we come across this dilemma, we turn left”—then your desired culture will take root and influence the behavior of the team.

To develop a culture that works, follow six rules: Ground your culture in the dilemmas you are likely to confront, dilemma-test your values, communicate your values in colorful terms, hire people who fit, let culture drive strategy, and know when to pull back from a value statement.

Start by thinking about the dilemmas your people will face.

Idea in Brief

The problem.

There’s a widespread understanding that managing corporate culture is key to business success. Yet few companies articulate their corporate culture in such a way that the words become an organizational reality that molds employee behavior as intended.

What Usually Happens

How to fix it.

Follow six rules: Ground your culture in the dilemmas you are likely to confront, dilemma-test your values, communicate your values in colorful terms, hire people who fit, let culture drive strategy, and know when to pull back from a value.

At the beginning of my career, I worked for the health-care-software specialist HBOC. One day, a woman from human resources came into the cafeteria with a roll of tape and began sticking posters on the walls. They proclaimed in royal blue the company’s values: “Transparency, Respect, Integrity, Honesty.” The next day we received wallet-sized plastic cards with the same words and were asked to memorize them so that we could incorporate them into our actions. The following year, when management was indicted on 17 counts of conspiracy and fraud, we learned what the company’s values really were.

• EM Erin Meyer is a professor at INSEAD, where she directs the executive education program Leading Across Borders and Cultures. She is the author of The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business (PublicAffairs, 2014) and coauthor (with Reed Hastings) of No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention (Penguin, 2020). ErinMeyerINSEAD

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