how long should it take to write essay

How long it Takes to Write an Essay (Word and Page Count)

Writing essays or assignments is a tricky undertaking for most students. Time is ever not enough when writing an essay. For some, it takes little time to complete certain pages, while others might find it harder to achieve the same pages unless they have more time. To craft classy and A+ grade essays, you need to understand how long it takes to write an essay.

This article comprehensively answers the main question of how long it actually takes to write a standard essay, research paper, or assignment, which is a common question among students from every academic level.

Whether you take less or more time to write an essay, as long as you submit your essay on time and score the best grade, that’s it! However, knowing how much time it takes helps you plan your schedule, especially if you have little time in your hands to complete essays and other school assignments.

So, how long does it take to write an essay? We share with you some critical insights below.

How long Does it take to write an essay?

Writing an essay is not like wearing a pair of socks where you just do it. Instead, the process requires adequate planning, the actual writing, and polishing what you have written.

In a nutshell, although estimating the most ideal time to complete an entire essay is impossible, we can infer or estimate it based on the optimal time it takes.

The total time it takes to write an essay, research paper, term paper, or complete an assignment varies depending on a myriad of factors such as required length, writing and research skills of the writer, and the technicality of the subject or topic. It is possible to write a simple 500 to 600- word essay or paper in 2 hours or less for an average writer. However, it will take you almost 5-6 hours if you are a slow or inexperienced writer.

If you are writing a 1500-word essay, you can take 4-5 hours or even a day, depending on how complex the content is and your writing skills.

We have seen writers devour 20-page research papers in a day and 10–15-page essays in less than 15 hours.

Beginning with a 40-page thesis or research paper, we will break down how long it ideally takes to complete an essay or research paper up to the smallest assignment assigned to students, usually two pages or 500 words.

As we advance, refer to our article : The ideal length of a comprehensive essay for the exact word count and the number of pages.

40-page Thesis or Research paper

For an experienced writer, writing 40 pages, including research work, will take 2.5 to 3 days or 50-72 hours. This is considering that they will take breaks between or attend to personal issues. However, if research is done and only typing remains, it can take 8-12 hours to complete.

You can complete writing 40 pages for a slow writer in 6-8 days. Some people take ten days or more, but the assumption is that they have little time to write the paper as they have other commitments.

A 40-page research paper is 11000 words, which can be achieved by writing 3600 or 12 pages daily. However, considering that sections such as introduction, discussion, and conclusion are easy to tackle, the saved time is pushed to the complex parts of the research paper.

Whatever you do, resist the temptation of using an online paraphrasing tool or writing a bot to achieve the word count quickly. A paper written after researching, reading, and critically reasoning sounds better than that spun by a bot.

To write such a paper within those three days, research well, take notes and organize your research. Then, you can use online bibliography organizers and download the peer-reviewed journals into a folder for easy access.

Rationally, professors assign more time to complete long papers. Avoid the last-minute rush because you procrastinated. Begin early enough so that each part is not rushed and you can cover all the required details.

30-page Research Paper/Thesis

If you are assigned a 30-page thesis or research paper, you can still complete it in under 2.5 days. Assuming you are writing 15 pages daily, it will only take two days. However, if you are a slow writer, you must take up to 5 days to complete a 30-page research paper.

As a student with much time planning, writing, and polishing, a 30-page paper should be in less than a week. If your deadline is two weeks, ensure you are done in the first week so you have enough time to rest, research further, and refine ideas in your paper.

Again, you must plan your research, writing, and revision processes. Ensure you take notes, have an organized list of bibliographies, and have downloaded the online peer-reviewed articles.

20-Page Research Paper

This is about 5000-5500 double-spaced paper.

A fast, accurate, and experienced professional writer can take 2 days to complete a 20-page paper. However, a slow writer will take up to 4 to 5 days to complete 20-pages. We have experimented with this with our writers internally and conducted online surveys with clients and students.

We can say that writing and research skills, typing speed, and organization define how fast you nail that 20-page research paper. If you are writing by hand, which is unlikely in this era, you will take more than 2 weeks.

The ultimate plan is to spend 30% of the time researching, 50% writing, and 20% editing and polishing. Once the writing process is organized, completing a 20-page research paper will be smooth, easy, and fun.

12-page Essay, Term paper, or Research Paper

We have seen writers complete 12-page papers in under 12 hours. All we can say is that skills, the complexity of the subject, typing speed, and experience matter.

Ideally, writing 12 pages needs between 12-20 hours. An advanced writer will complete a 12-page essay in 8-10 hours, while a slow writer will take as much as over 12 hours but not more than 20 hours.

The trick is planning, researching, and organising your research thoroughly, then writing the paper. You better use mind maps or concept maps to organize your thoughts around the paper. It makes it easy to own and achieve the vision of the paper. Also, limit distractions and focus on achieving the most in your paper.

A 10-page essay or Research paper

So, you have 2500 to 2750 words or 3000 words to write an essay, research paper, or term paper, and you wonder how long that will take. Well, writing a 10-page paper should take you 5-10 hours.

If you are a slow writer, it will take more than 12 hours, but not a day. This is the typical length of most assignments given in class as part of coursework. However, it is an ideal length for you to critically and comprehensively explore a given topic. This counts for 2500-3000 double-spaced paper or five pages of single-spaced paper.

To complete a 10-page paper faster, you need to begin by reading the prompt. It would help if you chose a good topic and researched to familiarize yourself with it. Next, write a clear thesis statement and refine it as you organize your research. Finally, write the paper and then edit it later.

Our professional paper writing service has writers who can complete your 10-page paper within a day or in 12 hours. Our experts draw from their experience, pro writing skills, research experience, and ability to organize thoughts faster. They have been doing this for the longest time and can complete your paper fast.

5-page Double-spaced Essay

A five-page essay is the most common assignment in tourism, management, leadership, anthropology, nursing, sociology, education, and many other disciplines.

The duration to complete depends on how complex the topic is, the depth of research required, and the actual deadline of the paper. It is about 1500 to 1650 words in length.

In a 5-page double-spaced essay, the introduction and conclusion comprise 20%, which leaves you with 80% of the word count for the body paragraphs. An expert writer can do the same in 3-4 hours if it is not complex. However, slow writers will take up to a day or two to complete the same length.

A standard 5-page paper can be written in 4-5 hours.

1000-word Essay

This is a 4-page, double-spaced paper. Depending on the extent of research required, special instructions, and skills of the writer, you can take 2-4 hours.

An essay pro will take 2 hours to complete a standard 1000-word essay , while a slow writer will need up to 7 hours. This is because they are each writing a 1000-word essay graded an A+ at the end of the day.

The trick is to familiarize yourself with the topic, write an outline, organize your research, and write the essay, then edit it after taking a short break.

500-word Essay

Writing a standard 500-word essay, which is two pages, takes 2 hours or less. Therefore, a standard writer will take 2-3 hours while an expert writer will take one and a half hours tops.

Once you get such an essay, write it faster, spend a few minutes understanding the gist of the essay, familiarizing yourself with the topics, and planning the paper. Often, it needs you to strikingly hook your readers and conclude the essay in a bang.

This is one of those essays you write as you cite and read internally as you listen to ensure that everything is well written. Again, you will need to have fast typing skills to achieve the page count in an hour or less.

Factors that Determine the time you take to write an essay

As we mentioned, a hoard of elements defines the time you will take to write an essay. Here are some of the vital factors:

• The technicality of the content –the time you take to complete an essay depends on how complex the content is. For instance, if you are writing an argumentative or informative essay, you’d probably take less time than writing a technical essay on biology, nursing, physics, or geography.
• Special guidelines from class– if there are special requirements, such as using the class text, you’d take less time writing your essay. However, suppose the special requirements need you to focus on an area or structure specifically. In that case, you will probably take more time to write the essay.
• The extent of Research– an essay requiring in-depth research, reading, and critical analysis will take more time than a descriptive or explorative essay. The complexity of the subject defines the extent of the research. If your essay is on science and other technical subjects, it requires more research and time.
• The time you have –the deadline of your essay defines the time you have to complete your essay. However, your schedule also determines how long you must complete an essay. Generally, the more time you have, the more time it takes to write an essay. To avoid writer’s block, consider finishing your essay on time within the standard time it takes to complete an essay. It makes you professional and timely and leaves you with more time to polish it.
• Experience with writing– experienced writers will take less time writing an essay than average or novice writers. For instance, our fast essay writers take an hour or less to write a one-page essay of 275-300 words. Equally, they can complete a 10-page essay in under 12 hours.
• Writing Skills –your writing skills also determine how quickly you write an essay. If you are skilled enough to plan, research, and write, you will complete your essay in the shortest record time.
• Research Skills –the research strategies you use to get familiar with the topic, develop arguments, and offer examples. Also, define how long you’ll take to complete an essay or research paper. Besides, if you are organized enough, you will spend less time researching and writing an essay.
• Front and Back matter requirements– if your essay requires a special cover page and references page or appendices, it might take slightly more time than an essay with a standard cover and title pages.

How the writing process affects the time you take to write an essay

Do you know that the writing process and how you apply it defines the time it takes to complete an essay? Well, it does. Before we tell you how-to, let’s re-cap the essay writing process.

The essay writing process entails three main stages:

• Preparation/pre-writing : Here, you decide on the topic, do in-depth research to familiarize yourself with the topic, choose a tentative thesis statement, and create an essay outline.
• Writing : Here is where the rubber meets the road. You develop your arguments in the body of your essay, provide evidence in the body paragraphs, and write the conclusion and introduction of your paper with the hook and thesis statement being prominent features.
• Revision/post-writing : You revise for content, grammar, spelling, formatting, and organization.

This simple three-step writing process applies whether you are writing a case study, a term paper, a research paper, or any form of assignment.

Note that these steps become seamless as you practice and write more papers. You do not have to beat yourself up as they are not systematic. You can choose to begin with any step. However, ensure that the paper you write at the end will be worth the best grades.

Time-wise, the pre-writing or preparation stage should take 20% of your total time. Writing should always take 50% of the total time you have. Finally, you should spend 30% of the time in the post-writing stage.

 So, if you have 24 hours to complete a 5-page essay, spend 5 hours brainstorming, outlining, and researching. You should then spend 12 hours writing the paper, inclusive of breaks. Note that you will write as you refer from sources, compare ideas, give examples, and offer evidence while citing the respective sources. The process is tedious but should be meticulous as it either makes or breaks your grade. Finally, you will spend the remaining 7 hours polishing the essay.

As you can see, this gives you ample time to run personal errands, attend to other personal issues, and complete your assignments on time.

Therefore, to write an essay fast, accurately, and efficiently, you need to plan your time against the structure of your essay.

How to improve your essay writing speed

In our article, we have used terms such as slow and novice writers to refer to average writers. It is not bad to be one. However, everyone aspires to be the best version of themselves. Writing challenging essays sucks, and the sooner you do away with them, the sooner your school life becomes less stressful. Here are some seven best strategies to improve your essay, assignment, coursework, or research paper writing speed.

1. Read and understand the instructions

A common mistake students make is casually reading the instructions and assuming they can head straight into writing a paper. If you want to write an essay fast , concentrate on what your professor wants before deciding how you meet these requirements. It cuts the time you would have wasted when you discover that you would have done it the other way around while in the middle of your writing.

2. Plan your essay/research paper

To write any paper faster, you have to plan adequately. Planning helps allocate time and spend time on the things that matter. Failing to plan is equal to failure. Therefore, write a great outline for your paper. Know what falls where. For instance, write a tentative thesis statement , plan what essay hook to use in your intro, and decide what the main message that supports the thesis each of the body paragraphs will harbor.

3. Conduct research

After planning your research, you need to conduct thorough research. The research aims to familiarize with the topic, collect views and perspectives on the topic, and refine the thesis statement. While researching, ensure that you take notes.

It would be prudent if you also take note of what other scholars have discussed your topic. Refine the scope of your paper and the focus of each paragraph. While researching, you can refine the outline to ensure that everything flows. Find evidence, examples, and quotes from books and scholarly articles to defend your thesis.

4. Organize your research

When you research and leave it at that – it is a recipe for failure. Instead, organize your research effectively. Here is the trick: download the downloadable scholarly articles and save them into a folder on your computer. You can also bookmark books. As you do so, use the digital bibliography or citation tools to organize the sources alphabetically as would appear on your reference page.

5. Find a suitable place to write it

Do not just write your paper anywhere. After all, you cannot do homework in the club, café, train or bus. Instead, it would help if you found a distraction-free place to do your homework . A place without distractions lets you sink in the mood of your assignment.

If your roommates are noisy, try the library or find an excellent place to complete your essay without distractions. Avoid noisy and busy places as they will steal away your concentration.

If you work well with music, find some slow music that does not distract your concentration. As well, have some water to replenish yourself as you write. Finally, have a spot with good, reliable, and safe internet to research online, write, and countercheck facts without reading hardcover books.

6. Break the paper into sections

When writing, a paper with some structure or skeleton will be completed much faster than that without broken parts.

Breaking your essay into sections helps you know what areas to focus on the most. Besides, you can jump sections and complete the easier ones without disturbing the flow of your essay or research paper.

Writing the paper as a block denies you the chance to be creative. Ideas tend to get to us when we are busy elsewhere. When you have a section, you can quickly incorporate the idea and return to the previous section, and the essay will still flow, regardless.

After finishing a section, take a break to return fresh to complete the next one until your essay or research paper is completed.

7. Write fast, then polish later

Instead of being a perfectionist as you write, focus on just writing. Leave the editing and polishing for later.

To write an essay or research paper faster, you need to write, flow your ideas, and maintain the gist of the essay. Then, you can correct the typos, errors, and omissions later. Doing so saves you the stress of rushing through polishing, which is integral for the best grades.

Parting Shot!

The truth on the ground is that writing an essay, research paper, term paper, or assignment sucks. To write an essay or any assignment, the writing process entails preparation, writing, and revision. Following these three steps ensures you get a good grade on your assignment.

Time is money, and is better if you learn how to manage it. To write a great essay, you must be diligent, patient and committed. Typically, you will develop ideas about a topic from the introduction to the conclusion. In between, you have the body paragraphs that take time and skill. Therefore, it is critical to understand the ideal time it takes to write a comprehensive essay.

Gradecrest is a professional writing service that provides original model papers. We offer personalized services along with research materials for assistance purposes only. All the materials from our website should be used with proper references. See our Terms of Use Page for proper details.

How Long Is an Essay? The Ultimate Essay Length Guide

It’s safe to say that most students struggle with the word limit within an essay. Sometimes, it’s hard to find ideas for a text and meet the word requirement for every part of the paper. With so many factors influencing essay length, it’s easy to get confused.

Luckily, our custom-writing team has your back. In this article, our custom-writing experts will answer all your questions regarding essay length. We will also help you write papers with an ideal number of words!

📜 Is Essay Length Important?

📏 essay parts: recommended length.

• 🤔 How to Make Essays Shorter or Longer
• 📑 Essay Length & Formatting
• ❓ Different Academic Levels FAQ
• 📚 Essay Length: Different Types
• ⭐ Other Aspects
• 📝 Essay Examples

🔍 References

Often, the phrase “word limit” causes panic among students. After all, if an essay is too long or too short, your grade will be lowered. However, in reality, there’s nothing to worry about. When it comes to words, limitations are beneficial for both the students and the professors.

Let’s see what exactly it means.

Many people believe that the longer an essay is, the better. However, according to Frontiers, research shows that it’s a bias that couldn’t be further from the truth. A perfect-length paper is one that allows students to express their ideas and showcase their knowledge fully while keeping it clean and simple.

What Influences Essay Length

Various factors determine the length of an essay. Here are the most important ones:

Let’s start with the essentials. Usually, assignment length is given as a number of words rather than pages. Unless your supervisor or instructor mentions any specific limitations, it’s acceptable to be 10% below or above the word limit.

It’s also worth knowing the 80/20 rule . According to it, the body should constitute 80% of the text, while the intro and the conclusion take up the remaining 20%.

Keep reading to learn more about the recommended length of each essay part. The main numbers are shown in the table below:

How Long Should an Introduction Be?

An introduction is the first section and the face of your essay. For that reason, it needs to be compelling and well-thought-out. Usually, it consists of 3 to 5 sentences or 50 to 80 words .

An introduction must have a hook, some background information, and a thesis statement. While the attention grabber and the thesis are usually brief, you may need 2 to 3 sentences for the background. To avoid going overboard, try to stay on topic and don’t add any filler.

How Long Is a Body Paragraph in an Essay?

The length of a body paragraph may vary. Sometimes, it can be limited to a single sentence. In other cases, it may take up a whole page. Usually, it’s recommended to have between 80 and 200 words (5-8 sentences) per body paragraph.

Since the paper’s body contains the most information, it’s necessary to explain and support your ideas properly. That’s why it’s no big deal if your body paragraphs go slightly over the word limit.

How Many Body Paragraphs Should Be in an Essay?

Like the word count, the number of paragraphs is determined by the type of paper and its topic. The minimum is 1. Generally, however, the body consists of 3-5 paragraphs , 1 for each argument.

To improve your paper’s structure, ensure that there are as many paragraphs as there are points in your thesis statement. Each one should have a purpose and support your arguments. If there’s any fluff, it’s better to get rid of it.

How Long Should a Conclusion Be?

Like the introduction, the conclusion consists of 50-80 words . It’s essential to keep it simple and only mention the central ideas. A weak concluding sentence may affect the reader’s understanding of the topic and spoil the overall impression of your paper.

🤔 How to Make Essays Shorter or Longer: Best Tips

Undoubtedly the essay’s content is more important than the number of words you use. But there are times when students go more than 10-15% below or over the limit. Is there a solution to this problem?

Yes, there is! In this section, we will share the most useful tips to help you stay on point with your paper’s word count.

How to Make Essays Longer

Since having enough words is essential for a good grade, we’ve collected the best tips that can help you lengthen your essay without teachers noticing:

• Use relevant quotations.  You don’t need to litter your essay with citations, but using them whenever appropriate is a great idea. For instance, if you’re working on a book analysis, referencing a couple of direct quotes from the source text will make your essay more credible and increase the word count.

• Give examples.  Go through the claims in your paper and provide additional evidence where possible. It will make your essay longer and more informative.

• Use transitional expressions.  Adding transition words and phrases is a natural way of increasing the number of words. It will also improve your essay’s readability. 

• Add more references.  Providing references is always a good idea when writing a formal essay. That way, you will increase the number of words and make your paper more credible.

• Work on your descriptions.  If you struggle to develop new ideas, go over what you’ve already written and consider adding some descriptive words. It’s a great idea for creative essays to include more imagery. 

How to Shorten an Essay

Another struggle of academic writing is cutting down the number of words in your essay to meet a set limit. We are here to tell you that it’s not that hard. Writing straightforwardly and keeping your sentences short is a key to concise content. Here are several strategies you may use to tighten a lengthy essay:

• Choose the active voice.  It takes up less space than passive voice. Using it also makes your writing more professional and compelling.

• Remove needless transitions.  Transitions can indeed maintain the flow of the paper. But some transitional phrases can be easily removed.

• Get rid of unnecessary adverbs and adjectives.  Some students tend to overuse adjectives and adverbs. It adds wordiness to their writing.

• Avoid running starts.  Some students like to start their sentences with long phrases like: “there are,” “it is believed,” or “the fact that.” Getting rid of them makes texts much more concise.

• Delete “that.”  In most cases, the word “that” can often be easily removed from texts.

Another cool trick is to use our summarizing tool as essay shortener. Try it out!

📑 How Long Is an Essay Depending on Formatting?

As we mentioned earlier, the essay’s length is usually limited by the number of words. But sometimes, a teacher may ask you to write a specific number of pages. This is trickier because the amount of text you can place on the page depends on the formatting. By using the font size and spacing properly, it’s possible to make the paper visually longer or shorter. Let’s discuss it in more detail.

Essay Spacing: How Does It Affect the Length?

• Adjusting the spacing between lines.  Try to make the changes as slight as possible. For instance, if you were asked to double-space the paper, use 2.1 or 2.2 spacing instead. Another option is to slightly extend spaces between paragraphs.
• Extending the margin size.  You can increase the right and bottom margins by a quarter to make very subtle changes in length. For example, if the margins are 1 inch , you can set them at 1.25 inches instead. 
• Increasing the spacing between characters.  It is less noticeable than the line spacing. Still, try not to overdo it and keep the numbers between 1.2 and 1.5 . 
• Adjusting the footer.  Add a footer with page numbers to stretch the bottom margin even further.
• Lengthening the header.  You can extend your header by adding your name, e-mail address, or other relevant information. Another option is double-spacing it.

Length of an Essay: Font and Size

• Using the right type of font.  If your instructor didn’t specify which font you should use, go for the bigger ones. We suggest Arial, Bangla Sangam MN, Cambria, or Quicksand. They will make your text look longer without being too on the nose.  
• Using a bigger font size.  This is another technique that can come in handy. However, be careful and don’t increase your font by more than 0.1-0.5 pt.  
• Increasing the size of periods and commas.   This is one of the less noticeable tricks you can use. For instance, if your paper’s font is 12 pt. , increase it to 14 pt. only for punctuation marks. Italicizing periods and commas will also add several lines of length to your essay. 

What to Do if There Are No Length Guidelines

Sometimes a teacher sets no word limit for a written work. What to do in that case? Well, first, you can ask your professor to confirm if they have simply forgotten to mention it. But if that’s not the case, here are a couple of helpful solutions:

• Think of the paragraph number.  Sometimes, you may be given the number of paragraphs instead of words. In that case, you can decide on the number of words depending on how many paragraphs you have. 
• Think about the topic’s complexity.  The length of your paper is also directly dependent on the theme. If the topic is simple, 4-5 paragraphs will be enough. A more complex issue may require an in-depth explanation, so your essay can be 6-8 paragraphs long.

❓ Essay Length for Different Academic Levels FAQ

The length of the elementary school essay is usually short. Usually, a paper needs to have around 3-5 paragraphs, with 4-5 sentences per paragraph. Primary school essays can be 1-2 paragraphs long.

The word limit for a middle school essay is usually between 300 to 1000 words. The most common essay length is 500 words, which is about 5 paragraphs. However, it may differ from school to school.

The length of the high school essay may differ depending on the school and the complexity of the task itself. Usually, however, a paper can be between 300 to 1000 words long.

The length of the undergraduate college essay often falls within the range of 1500 to 2100 words. It translates into roughly 5-7 pages. 5 pages is the most common essay length at this level.

When it comes to the graduate school admission essay, the word limit is usually between 500 and 1000 words. It’s possible to go slightly over or below the set limit; however, it’s best to stick to the requirements as close as possible.

📚 How Long Should an Essay Be: Different Types

Now, let’s talk about different types of essays. How long should they be? Keep reading to learn about the length of college essays, short and extended ones, scholarship essays, and research papers.

How Long Is a College Essay?

When it comes to a college essay, it’s more important to stick to the word limit than with any other paper. Some teachers may refuse to read it unless it meets all the requirements.

The shortest limit for a college essay is about 250 words which is the shortest length of a Common App personal statement. It’s also rare to see a good college essay with over 650 words . So, an average piece usually has between 150 and 650 words ; you can go over or below the limit by 50.

How Long Is a Paragraph in College Essays?

A college essay usually consists of 4-5 paragraphs . One paragraph takes about 1/3 of the page, which is roughly 5 sentences . Each sentence corresponds with one of the following components:

• Topic sentence.
• Explanation.
• Transitions.

College Essay Length Requirements: Top 5 Schools

To understand the requirements for a college application essay even better, take a look at the table below. It showcases the top 5 schools and their length criteria for personal statements. Keep it in mind when writing your college essay:

How Long Is a Short Essay?

A short essay is usually 500 words long. Using 12pt Times New Roman font with standard margins and double spacing should result in about 2 pages of text.

Extended Essay Length

An extended essay is different from a short or a standard one. It requires extensive research and thorough explanation. That’s why the upper limit for this kind of essay is 4000 words . In this case, a typical essay length is 3500 words or 18 paragraphs .

Scholarship Essay Length

Generally, scholarship papers have a limit of 500 words , which is 1 page in length. Most scholarship programs provide additional requirements that indicate the minimum number of words or pages. If there are no set limitations, you can stick to the limit.

How Long Is a Research Paper?

Typically, a research paper is between 4000 and 6000 words long. Sometimes, there are shorter papers, which have around 2000 words, or in-depth ones with over 10000 words.

⭐ Other Aspects of Essay Length

When it comes to essay length, many different aspects come into play. Here, we’ve gathered all the essential information regarding an essay’s number of pages, paragraphs, words, and references.

How Many Paragraphs Are in an Essay?

Sometimes, it is more convenient to count paragraphs rather than words. Let’s now figure out how many paragraphs are in essays of different lengths. You may also check out the examples to see what such an essay looks like:

How to Count Paragraphs in an Essay Based on Word Count

You can also count the number of body paragraphs for your essay using the formula below:

Number of body paragraphs (average) = (TWC – TWC*0.16)/100

• TWC – total word count
• 0.16 – an average percentage of total word count for introduction and conclusion
• 100 – an average number of words per paragraph

How Many Pages Are in an Essay?

The number of pages in your essay may vary from subject to subject. But it’s still possible to determine the number of pages based on word count. Check out the numbers below to see the conversions with bonus examples:

You can also use a specialized calculator such as Word Counter to determine a number of pages in your essay.

What Does an Essay Look Like when Typed?

You might be wondering: what do essays of different lengths look like when typed? Well, here’s the table where you can find out the metrics for single- and double-spaced papers.

How Many Pages Are in a Handwritten Essay?

In case you need to turn in a handwritten paper, you should check out the table below.

Counting Words in a Handwritten Essay

If you don’t have enough time to count the words in your handwritten essay one by one, here’s what you can do:

• Count how many words there are in one line. Take the first and last lines and a line in the middle of a page. Let’s say there are 15, 14, and 15 words in them. Then, the average number of words per line is 15.
• Next, count how many lines there are on one page. Let’s say there are 17 lines on a page.
• Take the number of words per line and multiply it by the number of lines per page. In our case, we multiply 15 by 17. So, there are 255 words per page on average.
• Finally, multiply the number of words per page by the number of pages. If your essay has 3 pages, it is approximately 765 words long.

How Long Does it Take to Write an Essay?

It is crucial to know how long writing will take you, especially if you are working on an exam essay or just short on time. Note that you need to consider the time for typing and researching necessary to complete a piece. Research time may vary. Usually, it’s 1-2 hours for 200-250 words .

Below, we’ve gathered the average writing time for average and slower writing speed:

And here are the results in pages:

How Many References Does an Essay Need?

Another essential part of any composition is the reference list. Different academic levels require different references. You’ll find out how many of them should be in your paper in the table below!

📝 Essay Examples: Different Length

Finally, we’ve gathered some excellent sample essays of different lengths. Make sure to check them out!

We also recommend you check out our free essay samples sorted by pages:

• 1-Page Essay Examples
• 2-Page Essay Examples
• 3-Page Essay Examples
• 4-Page Essay Examples
• 5-Page Essay Examples
• 10-Page Essay Examples
• 20-Page Essay Examples
• 30-Page Essay Examples
• 40-Page Essay Examples
• 50-Page Essay Examples

Now you know all about essay length, word limits, and ways to lengthen or shorten your text. If you know other interesting tricks, make sure to share them in a comment! Good luck with your writing assignments!

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• Word Limits and Assignment Length: Massey University
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• Hitting the Target Word Count in Your College Admission Essay: Dummies.com
• How Long Should Your College Essay Be? What is the Ideal Length?: College Vine
• Writing Personal Statements Online: Issues of Length and Form: Penn State University
• Pen Admissions: Essays: University of Pennsylvania
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• Essay Structure: Harvard University
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• Write Your Essay: UNSW Sydney
• College Writing: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 21 Helpful and Easy Tips to Make an Essay Longer: Seventeen
• How to Make a College Paper Longer: ThoughtCo
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College Essays

Figuring out your college essay can be one of the most difficult parts of applying to college. Even once you've read the prompt and picked a topic, you might wonder: if you write too much or too little, will you blow your chance of admission? How long should a college essay be?

Whether you're a terse writer or a loquacious one, we can advise you on college essay length. In this guide, we'll cover what the standard college essay length is, how much word limits matter, and what to do if you aren't sure how long a specific essay should be.

How Long Is a College Essay? First, Check the Word Limit

You might be used to turning in your writing assignments on a page-limit basis (for example, a 10-page paper). While some colleges provide page limits for their college essays, most use a word limit instead. This makes sure there's a standard length for all the essays that a college receives, regardless of formatting or font.

In the simplest terms, your college essay should be pretty close to, but not exceeding, the word limit in length. Think within 50 words as the lower bound, with the word limit as the upper bound. So for a 500-word limit essay, try to get somewhere between 450-500 words. If they give you a range, stay within that range.

College essay prompts usually provide the word limit right in the prompt or in the instructions.

For example, the University of Illinois says :

"You'll answer two to three prompts as part of your application. The questions you'll answer will depend on whether you're applying to a major or to our undeclared program , and if you've selected a second choice . Each response should be approximately 150 words."

As exemplified by the University of Illinois, the shortest word limits for college essays are usually around 150 words (less than half a single-spaced page). Rarely will you see a word limit higher than around 650 words (over one single-spaced page). College essays are usually pretty short: between 150 and 650 words. Admissions officers have to read a lot of them, after all!

Weigh your words carefully, because they are limited!

How Flexible Is the Word Limit?

But how flexible is the word limit? What if your poignant anecdote is just 10 words too long—or 100 too short?

Can I Go Over the Word Limit?

If you are attaching a document and you need one or two extra words, you can probably get away with exceeding the word limit by such a small amount. Some colleges will actually tell you that exceeding the word limit by 1-2 words is fine. However, I advise against exceeding the word limit unless it's explicitly allowed for a few reasons:

First, you might not be able to. If you have to copy-paste it into a text box, your essay might get cut off and you'll have to trim it down anyway.

If you exceed the word limit in a noticeable way, the admissions counselor may just stop reading your essay past that point. This is not good for you.

Following directions is actually a very important part of the college application process. You need to follow directions to get your letters of recommendation, upload your essays, send supplemental materials, get your test scores sent, and so on and so forth. So it's just a good general rule to follow whatever instructions you've been given by the institution. Better safe than sorry!

Can I Go Under the Word Limit?

If you can truly get your point across well beneath the word limit, it's probably fine. Brevity is not necessarily a bad thing in writing just so long as you are clear, cogent, and communicate what you want to.

However, most college essays have pretty tight word limits anyways. So if you're writing 300 words for an essay with a 500-word limit, ask yourself: is there anything more you could say to elaborate on or support your points? Consult with a parent, friend, or teacher on where you could elaborate with more detail or expand your points.

Also, if the college gives you a word range, you absolutely need to at least hit the bottom end of the range. So if you get a range from the institution, like 400-500 words, you need to write at least 400 words. If you write less, it will come across like you have nothing to say, which is not an impression you want to give.

What If There Is No Word Limit?

Some colleges don't give you a word limit for one or more of your essay prompts. This can be a little stressful, but the prompts generally fall into a few categories:

Writing Sample

Some colleges don't provide a hard-and-fast word limit because they want a writing sample from one of your classes. In this case, a word limit would be very limiting to you in terms of which assignments you could select from.

For an example of this kind of prompt, check out essay Option B at Amherst :

"Submit a graded paper from your junior or senior year that best represents your writing skills and analytical abilities. We are particularly interested in your ability to construct a tightly reasoned, persuasive argument that calls upon literary, sociological or historical evidence. You should NOT submit a laboratory report, journal entry, creative writing sample or in-class essay."

While there is usually no word limit per se, colleges sometimes provide a general page guideline for writing samples. In the FAQ for Option B , Amherst clarifies, "There is no hard-and-fast rule for official page limit. Typically, we anticipate a paper of 4-5 pages will provide adequate length to demonstrate your analytical abilities. Somewhat longer papers can also be submitted, but in most cases should not exceed 8-10 pages."

So even though there's no word limit, they'd like somewhere in the 4-10 pages range. High school students are not usually writing papers that are longer than 10 pages anyways, so that isn't very limiting.

Implicit Length Guideline

Sometimes, while there's no word (or even page) limit, there's still an implicit length guideline. What do I mean by this?

See, for example, this Western Washington University prompt :

“Describe one or more activities you have been involved in that have been particularly meaningful. What does your involvement say about the communities, identities or causes that are important to you?”

While there’s no page or word limit listed here, further down on page the ‘essay tips’ section explains that “ most essay responses are about 500 words, ” though “this is only a recommendation, not a firm limit.” This gives you an idea of what’s reasonable. A little longer or shorter than 500 words would be appropriate here. That’s what I mean by an “implicit” word limit—there is a reasonable length you could go to within the boundaries of the prompt.

But what's the proper coffee-to-paragraph ratio?

Treasure Hunt

There is also the classic "treasure hunt" prompt. No, it's not a prompt about a treasure hunt. It's a prompt where there are no length guidelines given, but if you hunt around on the rest of the website you can find length guidelines.

For example, the University of Chicago provides seven "Extended Essay" prompts . You must write an essay in response to one prompt of your choosing, but nowhere on the page is there any guidance about word count or page limit.

However, many colleges provide additional details about their expectations for application materials, including essays, on FAQ pages, which is true of the University of Chicago. On the school’s admissions Frequently Asked Questions page , they provide the following length guidelines for the supplemental essays: 

“We suggest that you note any word limits for Coalition or Common Application essays; however, there are no strict word limits on the UChicago Supplement essays. For the extended essay (where you choose one of several prompts), we suggest that you aim for around 650 words. While we won't, as a rule, stop reading after 650 words, we're only human and cannot promise that an overly wordy essay will hold our attention indefinitely. For the “Why UChicago?” essay, we suggest about 250-500 words. The ideas in your writing matter more than the exact number of words you use!”

So there you go! You want to be (loosely) in the realm of 650 for the extended essay, and 250-500 words for the “Why UChicago?” essay.

Help! There Really Is No Guidance on Length

If you really can't find any length guidelines anywhere on the admissions website and you're at a loss, I advise calling the admissions office. They may not be able to give you an exact number (in fact, they probably won't), but they will probably at least be able to tell you how long most of the essays they see are. (And keep you from writing a panicked, 20-page dissertation about your relationship with your dog).

In general, 500 words or so is pretty safe for a college essay. It's a fairly standard word limit length, in fact. (And if you're wondering, that's about a page and a half double-spaced.) 500 words is long enough to develop a basic idea while still getting a point across quickly—important when admissions counselors have thousands of essays to read!

"See? It says 500 words right there in tiny font!"

The Final Word: How Long Should a College Essay Be?

The best college essay length is usually pretty straightforward: you want to be right under or at the provided word limit. If you go substantially past the word limit, you risk having your essay cut off by an online application form or having the admissions officer just not finish it. And if you're too far under the word limit, you may not be elaborating enough.

What if there is no word limit? Then how long should a college essay be? In general, around 500 words is a pretty safe approximate word amount for a college essay—it's one of the most common word limits, after all!

Here's guidance for special cases and hunting down word limits:

If it's a writing sample of your graded academic work, the length either doesn't matter or there should be some loose page guidelines.

There also may be implicit length guidelines. For example, if a prompt says to write three paragraphs, you'll know that writing six sentences is definitely too short, and two single-spaced pages is definitely too long.

You might not be able to find length guidelines in the prompt, but you could still hunt them up elsewhere on the website. Try checking FAQs or googling your chosen school name with "admissions essay word limit."

If there really is no word limit, you can call the school to try to get some guidance.

With this advice, you can be sure you've got the right college essay length on lockdown!

Hey, writing about yourself can even be fun!

What's Next?

Need to ask a teacher or friend for help with your essay? See our do's and dont's to getting college essay advice .

If you're lacking in essay inspiration, see our guide to brainstorming college essay ideas . And here's our guide to starting out your essay perfectly!

Looking for college essay examples? See 11 places to find college essay examples and 145 essay examples with analysis !

Ellen has extensive education mentorship experience and is deeply committed to helping students succeed in all areas of life. She received a BA from Harvard in Folklore and Mythology and is currently pursuing graduate studies at Columbia University.

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How long does it take you on average to write an essay?

It takes me like a week to write a ~2,500 word essay, which seems reasonable. That usually involves all the planning, reading, and writing. How long does it take you on average?

The writer of the academic essay aims to persuade readers of an idea based on evidence. The beginning of the essay is a crucial first step in this process. In order to engage readers and establish your authority, the beginning of your essay has to accomplish certain business. Your beginning should introduce the essay, focus it, and orient readers.

Introduce the Essay.  The beginning lets your readers know what the essay is about, the  topic . The essay's topic does not exist in a vacuum, however; part of letting readers know what your essay is about means establishing the essay's  context , the frame within which you will approach your topic. For instance, in an essay about the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech, the context may be a particular legal theory about the speech right; it may be historical information concerning the writing of the amendment; it may be a contemporary dispute over flag burning; or it may be a question raised by the text itself. The point here is that, in establishing the essay's context, you are also limiting your topic. That is, you are framing an approach to your topic that necessarily eliminates other approaches. Thus, when you determine your context, you simultaneously narrow your topic and take a big step toward focusing your essay. Here's an example.

The paragraph goes on. But as you can see, Chopin's novel (the topic) is introduced in the context of the critical and moral controversy its publication engendered.

Focus the Essay.  Beyond introducing your topic, your beginning must also let readers know what the central issue is. What question or problem will you be thinking about? You can pose a question that will lead to your idea (in which case, your idea will be the answer to your question), or you can make a thesis statement. Or you can do both: you can ask a question and immediately suggest the answer that your essay will argue. Here's an example from an essay about Memorial Hall.

The fullness of your idea will not emerge until your conclusion, but your beginning must clearly indicate the direction your idea will take, must set your essay on that road. And whether you focus your essay by posing a question, stating a thesis, or combining these approaches, by the end of your beginning, readers should know what you're writing about, and  why —and why they might want to read on.

Orient Readers.  Orienting readers, locating them in your discussion, means providing information and explanations wherever necessary for your readers' understanding. Orienting is important throughout your essay, but it is crucial in the beginning. Readers who don't have the information they need to follow your discussion will get lost and quit reading. (Your teachers, of course, will trudge on.) Supplying the necessary information to orient your readers may be as simple as answering the journalist's questions of who, what, where, when, how, and why. It may mean providing a brief overview of events or a summary of the text you'll be analyzing. If the source text is brief, such as the First Amendment, you might just quote it. If the text is well known, your summary, for most audiences, won't need to be more than an identifying phrase or two:

Often, however, you will want to summarize your source more fully so that readers can follow your analysis of it.

Questions of Length and Order.  How long should the beginning be? The length should be proportionate to the length and complexity of the whole essay. For instance, if you're writing a five-page essay analyzing a single text, your beginning should be brief, no more than one or two paragraphs. On the other hand, it may take a couple of pages to set up a ten-page essay.

Does the business of the beginning have to be addressed in a particular order? No, but the order should be logical. Usually, for instance, the question or statement that focuses the essay comes at the end of the beginning, where it serves as the jumping-off point for the middle, or main body, of the essay. Topic and context are often intertwined, but the context may be established before the particular topic is introduced. In other words, the order in which you accomplish the business of the beginning is flexible and should be determined by your purpose.

Opening Strategies.  There is still the further question of how to start. What makes a good opening? You can start with specific facts and information, a keynote quotation, a question, an anecdote, or an image. But whatever sort of opening you choose, it should be directly related to your focus. A snappy quotation that doesn't help establish the context for your essay or that later plays no part in your thinking will only mislead readers and blur your focus. Be as direct and specific as you can be. This means you should avoid two types of openings:

• The history-of-the-world (or long-distance) opening, which aims to establish a context for the essay by getting a long running start: "Ever since the dawn of civilized life, societies have struggled to reconcile the need for change with the need for order." What are we talking about here, political revolution or a new brand of soft drink? Get to it.
• The funnel opening (a variation on the same theme), which starts with something broad and general and "funnels" its way down to a specific topic. If your essay is an argument about state-mandated prayer in public schools, don't start by generalizing about religion; start with the specific topic at hand.

Remember.  After working your way through the whole draft, testing your thinking against the evidence, perhaps changing direction or modifying the idea you started with, go back to your beginning and make sure it still provides a clear focus for the essay. Then clarify and sharpen your focus as needed. Clear, direct beginnings rarely present themselves ready-made; they must be written, and rewritten, into the sort of sharp-eyed clarity that engages readers and establishes your authority.

Copyright 1999, Patricia Kain, for the Writing Center at Harvard University

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, how long does it take to write a college essay.

Hi guys! I'm starting the college application process and I'm wondering how long it typically takes to write a good college essay. I want to make sure I give myself enough time to brainstorm, write, and revise without feeling rushed. Any advice?

Hello! It's great that you're thinking ahead and planning your college essay writing process. The time it takes to write a strong essay can vary greatly depending on your writing skills, the topic you choose, and how much time you spend brainstorming and revising. Some students might complete a solid essay in a week or two, while others might need a month or longer.

My child went through the college application process last year, and they started brainstorming ideas about a month before their first application deadline. They spent a couple of weeks refining their topic, writing the first draft, and then another week or two on editing and revising. In the end, they were quite happy with the result. I suggest you give yourself at least a month, but keep in mind it's always better to start early and revise as needed. Good luck!

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CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

How Long Does It Take to Write a 1000 Word Essay?

How long does it take to research an essay?

If you’re writing an opinion piece on something you already have some knowledge about, you may not have to do any research at all. It may just be a matter of organizing your existing thoughts into a coherent essay. If you need to find out about a topic before you begin to write, you can easily get information on certain topics, whilst others will be more obscure and therefore more difficult to research. Clearly, the easier it is to find information, the faster you can write.

How good are your reading comprehension skills?

Some of us can just skim a piece and pick up all the salient points. Others will have to read with more attention, and even re-read a piece several times to extract the information we need. Having good reading and comprehension skills makes writing much faster since you’re able to “get” the facts faster and organize them better. Now you know why you had to do so many reading comprehension tests at school.

How well did you plan?

Throwing yourself headlong at a 1,000-word essay and writing till you reach the word count may seem like the easy option, but it isn’t. Planning your essay so that it begins with an introduction, highlights the most important points you want to make and then wraps everything up into a conclusion actually saves you time. Sometimes, essay instructions will tell you how to structure the piece, so read them carefully and extract any information you can use to guide your essay’s structure.

How fast do you type?

Have you ever gotten lost halfway through a sentence? You know what you wanted to say, but halfway through, the thought slips away from you. The faster you can type , the more easily you can capture thoughts before your mind moves onto the next thing and you forget what you were trying to say. Typing skills are essential in the modern world. Consider using typing games to improve your speed.

How long does it take me to write a 1,000-word essay?

Faster isn’t always better. The more in-depth your report is meant to be, the longer you should spend on it. I can usually research and write a fairly technical magazine article of 1,000 words in three hours, but do remember that I’m a professional writer. I’m fast because I write all day, every day.

The longest I’ve ever spent on a 1,000-word article was 12 hours. It was absolutely brutal! The information I needed to gather was very technical, hard to find, and even more difficult to understand, and you can’t write something until you really understand the subject matter. I also had to contact experts for their opinions, but I couldn’t even ask about their opinions until I could target them with the right questions. As a result, I actually had to write most of the article before slotting in the expert comment.

The quickest I’ve ever written a 1,000-word article is one hour. In this case, I already knew the subject matter well and didn’t have to back up every fact in the essay with references.

Reviewing your work also matters

If you’re writing for grades and want a good one, you need a really good essay. Don’t start writing it the day before you have to hand it in. Try and get your first draft down at least a day or two before you have to submit your work. Then return to it and do your editing. Read your essay aloud to yourself, since this will help you pick up any careless errors you wouldn’t otherwise spot. Check to see if your information flows logically from one point to the next and make sure that you’ve presented your information clearly.

Remember, teachers get tired. They have to read the same kind of essay over and over again when they grade. If they struggle to understand what you’re saying, you might not get as good a grade as you would if you stuck to using short sentences and relatively simple language.

Your reviewing process shouldn’t take all that long. If you don’t have to make a lot of changes, you should be able to do your final edit in under half an hour.

Take your time. Whatever you do, don’t rush. You might want your essay to be written quickly, but if it’s an important essay, taking your time will give you a better finished product. Budget your time conservatively. It’s better to find that you’ve still got time left over than to run out of time and end up dashing things off with a looming deadline.

Below are some basic guidelines if you need a rough estimate on how long it will take to write an essay. It’s important to remember that there are a plethora of mitigating factors that can increase or decrease the time it takes to write. The below numbers are using an estimate that it takes about 3 hours 20 minutes to write a 1000 word essay:

How long does it take to write a 100 word essay? It takes about 20 minutes to write a 100 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 200 word essay? It takes about 40 minutes to write a 200 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 250 word essay? It takes about 50 minutes to write a 250 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 300 word essay? It takes about 1 hour to write a 300 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 400 word essay? It takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to write a 400 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 500 word essay? It takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes to write a 500 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 600 word essay? It takes about 2 hours to write a 600 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 700 word essay? It takes about 2 hours and 20 minutes to write a 700 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 800 word essay? It takes about 2 hours and 40 minutes to write a 800 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 900 word essay? It takes about 3 hours to write a 900 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 1,000 word essay? It takes about 3 hours and 20 minutes to write a 1,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 1,250 word essay? It takes about 4 hours and 10 minutes to write a 1,250 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 1,500 word essay? It takes about 5 hours to write a 1,500 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 1,750 word essay? It takes about 5 hours and 50 minutes to write a 1,750 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 2,000 word essay? It takes about 6 hours and 40 minutes to write a 2,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 2,500 word essay? It takes about 8 hours and 20 minutes to write a 2,500 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 3,000 word essay? It takes about 10 hours to write a 3,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 3,500 word essay? It takes about 11 hours and 40 minutes to write a 3,500 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 4,000 word essay? It takes about 13 hours and 20 minutes to write a 4,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 4,500 word essay? It takes about 15 hours to write a 4,500 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 5,000 word essay? It takes about 16 hours and 40 minutes to write a 5,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 6,000 word essay? It takes about 20 hours to write a 6,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 7,000 word essay? It takes about 23 hours and 20 minutes to write a 7,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 7,500 word essay? It takes about 25 hours to write a 7,500 word essay.

How long does it take to write an 8,000 word essay? It takes about 26 hours and 40 minutes to write an 8,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 9,000 word essay? It takes about 30 hours to write a 9,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 10,000 word essay? It takes about 33 hours and 20 minutes to write a 10,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 12,500 word essay? It takes about 41 hours and 40 minutes to write a 12,500 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 15,000 word essay? It takes about 50 hours to write a 15,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 20,000 word essay? It takes about 66 hours and 40 minutes to write a 20,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 25,000 word essay? It takes about 83 hours and 20 minutes to write a 25,000 word essay.

How long does it take to write a 50,000 word essay? It takes about 166 hours and 40 minutes to write a 50,000 word essay.

(Image courtesy of Miguel )

This isn’t accurate. I wrote my 1000 word essay in an hour, not three hours. You should change the times you have listed to reflect how long it actually takes to write. Obviously you don’t know since the mes you listed are not the same as what I can do!

Did you even read the article? The writer says that it’s based on what she writes and is just a general approximation. How long it takes you or anybody else to write an essay will obviously be different because you’re not the same as everybody else. Nobody writes at the same speed so how long it takes you to write an essay will be different for every person.

Someone doesn’t understand the meaning of “rough estimate”

Well then you must be superhuman or some shit I don’t care, I came here for a question not your butthurt comments. Also, if your so good at writing I wouldn’t have found 2 typos in 2 sentences 🙂

*you’re

If you already have all the research done and know what you want to say, then a 1000 word essay shouldn’t take more than an hour to write. In fact, it probably can be done in 30 minutes or less. The time-consuming part of an essay is the research and how long that takes depends on how much you have to do. But the actual writing of the essay shouldn’t take too long at all.

But research is part of the writing process. If a person writes a book, they don’t only count the time it took them at the typewriter writing. They count all the time it took to research the book as well. Trying to separate the two doesn’t make sense.

I think an important thing to point out here is that there’s a huge difference between writing a 1000 word essay and writing a good 1000 word essay. You can write an essay in hardly any time at all if you don’t do the proper research and don’t spend time editing what you wrote. If you’re going to write a good essay, it’s going to take more time. You should always give yourself more time than you think you’re going to need to get it done.

This applies to all writing. Writing and writing something something well will have a huge time discrepancy even if both writings are the same length. Just because you are able to finish something quickly doesn’t mean that’s the best way to do it.

Exactly! Actually, it can take hours or days to come up with the right line – or it can come in seconds. There’s no real counting in terms of the creative process.

Days to come up with the right line? 😀

It does. Sometimes, no matter how hard you look at something, you won’t be satisfied with it. It may take you days to figure it out. And then, one fine day, you suddenly stand up right in the middle of breakfast and then run upstairs and then type out the right line. Source: personal experience

I just spent 8 hours on a 500-word monologue… This comment made me feel better.

Wow, your advice is excellent it motivated me to do a lot better in my essay.

In my opinion, hours that are presented here a partially true. It may take about an hor to write 300 word essay but editing also takes some time. So on averege, I count the time to write the piece itself + time edit everything.

Research, first draft writing, editing, and rewriting are all part of the writing process. I think the time it takes to do all of them should be counted in the time it takes.

It takes way too long! Teachers should not be allowed to assign essays more than 250 words. They always complain they don’t have enough time and work too hard. It’s only because they make their students do too much work!!

This comment just makes you look lazy. 250 words is nothing. Any topic that needs to be explored will take many more words than this. If you don’t want to write, just admit it and don’t try to project that on others.

If you do your research, use annotations for resources and understand to whom and what you have to transfer than the fewer words the better. Remember that you are demonstrating deep knowledge of the topic by making it accessible to the audience without them doing the research. Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Contrary to what academia self-righteously preach, its imperative for any writing and explanation of thought to be simplified. If you cant explain it in short time/short essay you don’t understand it enough.

I disagree, I feel 250 words is way too less to explain any topic. In my opinion, the maximum word count for an essay should be 1500.

It should take long enough that you get all the points you want across in the writing, but not too long as to bore the reader. Writing should be engaging, not boring.

Nice philosophy, but completely unhelpful if you have a paper due tomorrow and limited amount of time to write. The real world doesn’t work that way.

If someone has an essay due tomorrow and they waste time reading this, then they are a bit of an idiot for giving themselves even less time to work with. If they’re leaving work to the last minute like that, then the only thing they should be doing is jumping right in and writing (or planning the essay, but that should be done much sooner).

This is so arbitrary and will depend on the individual. It’s like asking the question, “how long does it take to write a book?” For some, it will only take a couple of months while for others it will take a lifetime. it also depends on the type of writing you’re doing. Some writing is easy and quick and other writing is difficult and requires huge amounts of research.

The uphill task of writing an essay is doing thorough research. Once you have completed the research, you can deliver a 1000 word paper per hour

I completely agree with you on that one. I recently worked on a 4000 word essay, and while the research did take me three hours to conduct, I completed the essay itself in a bit less than four hours and scored a total of 32/34 points.

So happy to read that! That’s because I just realised, that that is what I needed to read. I’ve got two months to write six 2500 word essays. I’ve been procrastinating because I’m simply in fear of doing a bad job. I’ve done lots of research; made lots of notes; collected citations and written nothing. It’s time. I can do this!

I’m writing a 1600 word essay right now as I type this lol

Then show me after you have finished.

Im writing a 2500 word essay, almost done, I can’t even imagine writing a 10000 word essay in university, that sounds EXTREMELY painful 🙁

I found these estimations quite accurate, thank you.

I’m writing a narrative for my English class right this moment and the word requirements are 800-1000. I’ve only been working for two hours and I’m at 1,157. I’m nowhere near done…

your word requirements are 800-1000 and u have 1157? You’ve been done for a while I would say

Wow i have to write a 1 500 word essay in 4 days and I have about 1050 words left Dono how long thats gonna take me 😂😭😭😭

I am writing a dissertation and those estimations made me positive because just 41 hour to write 12,000 essay seems nothing. But at the moment I just finished literature review(though the hardest part yet) without editing I am already at over 35 hours of work. And that’s not even a half! But I am aiming for a good grade though…

I’ve found these estimates incredibly accurate in my years in college. I’m about to graduate next week and have one more 3500 word paper to write. We’ll see if the estimates hold true. However, the estimates (for me at least) don’t include the time it takes to edit so I usually add a little time depending on how long the essay/paper has to be.

Wow, these tips are helpful, Thank You to the creator of this website. These tips helped me a lot in my essay for school.

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Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

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Extracurriculars.

A Guide to College Application Essay Timelines

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Robert Crystal and Christopher Kilner in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered

Make a plan.

• September and October

November and December

Anyone can write an excellent essay if they have enough time, and it’s important to prioritize writing a strong essay because it plays such an outsized role in the application process. With sufficient time and preparation, you can also decrease your word count and produce a piece of writing that is brief and high quality. “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter,” is a phrase often attributed to many famous scholars and statespeople. The best thing that you can do to set yourself up for success is to plan ahead, giving yourself plenty of time to engage in the writing process and produce multiple drafts of your essay.

It is most helpful to use the summer before your senior year of high school—or the year during which you are applying—to prepare your college application essays, with the goal of completing at least your personal statement by early September. The following timeline roughly outlines the steps of the writing process that you should take each month to achieve this goal.

For more guidance on writing your personal statement, read our article on how to write the Common Application essays for 2022-2023 .

Review the Common Application essay prompts for the most recent application season. These prompts often remain the same as the previous year. Pick a few essay prompts that resonate with you, and start to contemplate them as you go through your day. Maybe you can use your daily bus ride or afternoon stroll to brainstorm possible topics for the prompts that interest you. It is always helpful to have a journal, a note-taking app on your phone, or scratch paper on hand where you can record your ideas. 

In addition to journaling about potential material for your essays, it’s helpful to practice thinking about and articulating your responses to various questions about who you are and how you think and view the world. Here are a few examples:

• What are your core values? How did you develop this system of values? 
• What motivates you? How do you motivate yourself? 
• What are you passionate about? If you could study anything, what would you want to learn more about? 
• What issues in your local community or at the city, state, national, or global level are most concerning to you?
• What are your short-term goals and long-term dreams and aspirations? Where would you like to see yourself in five or 10 years? What are lifetime goals that you have?

For more brainstorming questions, read “ 7 Questions to Help You Start Writing Your College Essays .”

Your goal for May is to outline and write a complete rough draft of your personal statement. The hardest part of writing your essay is committing something to paper, and the best draft is often a bad first draft. Everything becomes easier once you have words to edit. Your first draft does not need to be amazing or even passable; it can be completely awful, and it will still be better than a blank page.

Use June to edit the rough draft that you produced in May. This is where you will dive into the process of constructing your narrative. Then, you should aim to produce at least three or more additional drafts. These will likely be the most time-intensive drafts that you produce.

At this point in the process, you should work on developing your ideas mostly on your own. You do not need to share your essay with anyone else unless you feel confident that your draft is ready for others to review or that you cannot progress without outside input. 

You should continue producing new drafts of your personal statement. This means you should read aloud your essay from beginning to end and make changes to word choice, grammar, sentence structure, paragraph structure, and content. You should do this every three or so days. 

Now is a great time to share your drafts with a close family member, friend, teacher, or high school counselor. In addition to showing your essays to members of your inner circle, you should prioritize finding a neutral third party to review your essays and provide critical feedback. This third party should be someone familiar with the college admissions process, such as a current college student, a recent college graduate, or a college consultant, like a CollegeVine Advisor . 

Ask each person who reads your essay to provide written feedback, or have a conversation with them about their impressions, suggestions, and questions. Of course, too many cooks can spoil the broth, as the saying goes. Show your essay to enough people to get a broad range of opinions but not so many that you feel overwhelmed or confused.

This month should be devoted to incorporating feedback from people who have read your essay and doing the final polishing work that will take your essay to the next level. By the end of August, you should have a final draft of your personal statement that you would feel confident submitting.

September and October 

Work on and complete your supplemental essays in preparation for meeting the early action and early decision deadlines.

Work on and complete your supplemental essays in preparation for meeting the regular decision deadline.

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How Long Does it Take to Write an Essay? (Quick Answer!)

by  Antony W

September 13, 2022

How long does it take to write an essay? An hour? A day? Maybe even more than that? We take an in-depth look into this question and give you a response that will help you plan your essay and write it accordingly.

And let’s be honest on one thing:

Writing an essay paper sucks.  

You cannot just flip a book open and begin writing. You need to brainstorm, research, write an outline, draft, edit and then make sure that the work is properly cited, not to mention you must know how to write a killer essay without missing your deadline. 

A good essay is detailed and it contains sufficient information. One secret to writing your paper first is to manage information overload.

It is important to know how long you will take to finish your essay, as this enables you to divide the time among the days you have to submit your paper.

So keep reading to find out how long it takes to write an essay.

How Long Does It Take to Write an Essay?

There is no fixed answer to this question, as there are many factors that come into play.

For instance, how long is your essay 500 words, 3000 words or 10 pages? The longer the essay, the more time it will take to complete it.

The time you take to complete an essay also depends on the complexity of the subject. Generally, science and technical subjects are more difficult to write and hence take more time.

Your writing skills will also determine how quickly you finish your essay. Also, the research methods you use and how organized you are will affect the time you take to finish a paper.

If your task is to write a simple TOK essay that doesn’t require research, you will need a minimum of one hour to be done writing 500 words. If you add in citations, research, distractions of life and difficulty to understand the topic, this time can increase significantly. 

To be on the safe side, you need to do all you can to save as many hours as possible. And to get an idea of how long it will take you to finish your essay, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

• How much research do I need to do?
• Are the resources needed to write the essay available?
• Will the essay require citations, or are you just required to share your opinions and thoughts?
• Do I struggle with writing or does it come naturally?
• Will I need an outline, a bibliography, or a title page?
• Will I be busy with family, social obligations, or work?
• What do I know about the topic?

To get an idea of the time it might take you to complete your essay, use this method. Assume you want to write a 5-page essay. Here is a quick guideline you might want to go with.

• Pre-writing
• Post-writing

1. Prewriting – Takes About 8 Hours

This includes brainstorming, outlining, and researching. Time to allot to each specific activity is:

• Brainstorming – 2 hours
• Outlining – 1 hour
• Research – 5 hours.

Writing will be a lot easier if you have researched your topic thoroughly and write a detailed outline.

The time you take to finish any essay will also depend on the length of the paper.

If you have all the information you need and you have good typing speed, you will take 1 hour to write a 500-word essay. So if your essay is 3,000 words, you will take more time to write it, probably 3 hours with 15-minute breaks per hour.

We can break down the writing into the following parts:

• Title – 20 minutes
• Introduction – 10 minutes
• Body (depends on the length of the article but 2 hours will do for a 5-page essay)
• Conclusion – 20 minutes.

3. Post Writing – 2 hours 30 minutes

After writing, you cannot just hand in your work like that. You will need to proofread it and rewrite as necessary, format your work, and also write a bibliography.

This is how the time slices are apportioned for each specific post-writing task:

• Rewriting or editing – 1 hour
• Proofing – 1 hour
• Formatting – 30 minutes

Tips to Improve Your Essay Writing Speed

1. make a plan.

Like they say, failing to plan is planning to fail, and there is nowhere this saying makes more sense than in writing your essay.

Granted, writing an outline takes time. But the good news is that you will more than recover this time later when you are writing and it’s sure to enable you write your essay much faster.

A prior plan is important elements that you want to sort before you start to write your thesis statement as well as the arguments and evidence that you intend to use to support your essay. Once you have figured these things out, you’ll have a clear roadmap that will help you complete your essay.

2. Do Your Research 

The research process is best done together with the above step. After all, it’s pointless to write a thesis if it cannot be supported with research.

Your outline needs to include your research, and this also means the direct quotations you take from primary sources.

If you take time to find quotations from books and scholarly articles to support your thesis statement before you start to write, it will make your writing a lot faster. This is because you will have reduced interruptions.

3. Identify a Distraction-Free Place to Work

If you don’t find a place that’s clear of distractions, then you can be sure that you are going to write much more slowly. If you have noisy roommates, then writing your essay is going to be more difficult.

Similarly, avoid working in a crowded café or a busy library. People shouldn’t think that it’s okay for you to be constantly interrupted.

That’s why top students identify 2-3 out-of-the-way places that are quiet and free of distractions. This enables them to work uninterruptedly and most efficiently.

You just need to ensure that the spot you have selected has Wi-Fi. It should also be free to work in for as long as you want. Also, the spot needs to have sufficient lighting and space for spreading out your work.

4. Break Your Essay into Sections 

Writing your essay in one massive chunk is akin to travelling halfway around the world in one day. This simply means that it’s impossible to without dividing your essay into parts. When a task is broken down into chunks, it becomes a lot easier to accomplish.

Rather than trying to do everything all at once, divide your essay into meaningful sections. After that, try to complete just a single section at a time.

Also, allow yourself a few minutes’ breaks between one section and the next. This will make the task less tiresome and boring.

5. Remember Organization is Key

How do you know that you are not properly organized?

One of the main signs of disorganization is when you have to constantly fumble around in search of notes, your textbook, pen etc.

You can avoid all these by maintaining a tidy work area by clearing everything not related to the essay at hand. To ensure your notes are categorized and organized, use some special apps such as Evernote.

6. Make an Inventory of all the Research You Do

Take stock of every research that you make.

Write down the site, date, and the result of the information you got from that source. This prevents a situation where you go round in circles. It also helps you to organize your bibliography later on.

A Few Tips for an Excellent Essay

Here are some tips that can help you write a great essay: 

1. Hire Essay Writing Help 

There's no harm in seeking for essay writing help online.

So if you don't have the time to do the work, or you have only a few hours left before the deadline, you can pay someone to write an essay for you and get the work done fast. 

2. Know your instructor’s demands

Different teachers and schools may have varying requirements for completing assignments. You need to be aware of these demands and ensure you stick to them during research and writing processes.

3. Manage Your Time

The worst mistake you can make is assuming that the lecturer has given you too much time to complete the essay.

It is always better to start early so you have lots of time to proofread your work and do the final touches.

4. Get a good template

Being armed with a good example of work is sure to help you a lot.

Therefore, take some time to search for a sample text to work with. However, do not copy somebody else’s ideas.

5. Edit Your Work

After completing your writing, you must edit your work. Read and re-read your text and see what you can improve.

Also, it helps you to spot any obvious mistakes that you may have missed earlier.

Also Read: Why Essay Writing Should Not Be Cheap

Few things are more boring than writing an academic essay. It takes a great deal of research, writing, editing, and finally submitting the work.

More importantly, these writing tasks have tight deadlines so you need to plan yourself well and make sure you submit in time. 

About the author 

Antony W is a professional writer and coach at Help for Assessment. He spends countless hours every day researching and writing great content filled with expert advice on how to write engaging essays, research papers, and assignments.

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How Long to Write an Essay or Paper: Both in Pages and Words

How long should you take to write that essay or paper

Writing an essay is a process that involves preparation, research, drafting, and polishing your content. All these steps take time and need to be done well if the essay is to score a good grade. The question of how long it takes to write an essay lingers on every writer.

Producing a good essay needs patience, even as you develop your ideas from the introduction to the conclusion. Each part takes time. However, knowing the total time it will take you to write the entire essay is good. While this is not certain, we can estimate the optimal time.

The time it takes to write an essay or a paper varies with its length, technicalities of the content, research needed, and your skills, among other factors. While a simple 600-word essay may take 2 hours for an average writer, a technical task of the same length may take 5 hours.

A 1200-word essay can take as short as 4 hours to write and as long as a day, depending on the technicalities and skills of the writer.

Estimating the right amount of time you will take to write a basic essay, you should consider writing time, research, and many other factors like;

• How much do you know about the topic you are about to write
• Is your instructor strict when giving grades?
• Will you require a bibliography, a title page, or an outline?
• How much research are you required to do?
• Is writing an essay natural to you, or perhaps you struggle?
• Are all the resources required for me to write an essay available?
• Are citations needed, or do I share my opinions and thoughts?

Need Help with your Homework or Essays?

How long should it take to write an essay.

If the essay you are writing is simple and doesn’t require much research, it will take very little time.

However, if you include citations, research, life disruptions, and a lack of understanding, the time you take to complete the essay writing steps will be much longer. If possible, pick a topic that you are familiar with; this will help you to start your writing quickly.

However, this is not to say that you will not take any notes or do research, but rather it means you will find good resources easily and be in a position to present good arguments for your essay.

This will make the writing process of your essay move faster. However, if you have no doubt about whether an essay writing service works, you can hire some of the best writers to speed up your writing process.

How Long does it Take to Write a 10-page paper?

A 10-page paper is the most regular assignment that students get during their coursework. It appears to be a good length in many topics that professors want students to write and research about.

Again, it doesn’t seem discouraging; regarding the number of words in a double-spaced 10-page paper, it will range between 2500 and 2750 words.

Researching from sources and reading through them takes more time.

The amount of time you will take to write a 10-page paper depends on how long you will take to go through the steps in the process of essay writing a ten-page paper.

From our essay writing guide, the essay writing steps are as follows;

• Choosing a topic
• Finding that research
• Identifying sub-topics
• Writing two drafts; the rough and the final one
• Editing and polishing the paper.

It is possible to write a ten-page paper in a day if you use a professional paper writing service like GradeBees.com.

This is because the website has several expert writers who are always on standby, ready for action after your order. Since they have done this for a long time, their experience makes the task a piece of cake, and with excellent grades.

How long does it take to write a 5-page paper-spaced

Before drafting an essay, most students ask how long it will take them to write a five-page essay. How much time you will take depends on various factors.

Such factors include the number of materials you have to read, the complexity of your topic, and the depth of the research. These factors determine the amount of time you will spend when writing a five-page essay or paper.

However, it is not possible to approximate the time required to write a five-page double-spaced spaced-paper. All the requirements of essays differ.

Some papers that have simple topics need little research, while a complicated assignment requires you to study many materials and read many books. Some students say they take 2 hours, others five hours, while some say they can take a day or two.

Let our team take short time on your paper

We have a pool of writers ready to handle the hard task and deliver great grades for all your essays and papers. Get an ORIGINAL paper today!

Can I write a 1000-word essay in 2 hours?

A 1000-word essay is about four pages, typed and double-spaced. In case you can type 50 words per hour, it should take you 20 minutes to type 1000 words.

However, this doesn’t mean that the quicker you can write your essay, the better it shall be. Note that a good essay takes more time than that one written carelessly.

For example, our professional essay writers can write 1000 words in one to three hours. If you are starting your writing career, writing a 1000-word paper can take you up to ten hours.

The subject you want to write on could be very complicated, and research can take much time. Moreover, sometimes, it is very hard to comprehend the gathered data.

 Nevertheless, a 1000-word article can take one to two hours if you know the topic you want to write about, and you don’t have to give evidence for each statement.

How long will it take to write a 5000-word paper or essay

Some students say it is impossible to write 5000 words in a day, while others say they can write it in a day. The simplest way of writing 5,000 words is by writing from existing notes or write a long paper outline if you do not have it already made.

First of all, you need to have read your source materials and digested them mentally, bookmarked them, and highlighted them where necessary. If you are yet to read your essay readings, then add a minimum of four to six hours to the essay you intend to write.

However, analysis and technical content makes the paper take longer than a normal essay or simple research papers

It’s possible to write 5000 words in 24 hours; however, it is not easy.

Generally, the complexity of writing is determined by the topic of your essay.

To determine how long it will take you to finish a 5000-word essay, add to your writing time the time to correct mistakes, check plagiarism, add something new, or change a paragraph’s structure.

An effective way to write fast is to plan your work and research your topic in detail. All in all, know that Research and data analysis determines how long you will take to write a paper.

How long to write a 20-page Research Paper

A 20-page paper can take from 2 days to write for a fast writer to a week for a slow writers. However, the time depends on the complexity of the past or the technicality of the essay you are writing. Also, your writing skills determine how long you will take to write a 20-page essay, it also depends on how much information you have on the subject and what you are using to write either.

Such equipment could be a typewriter, handwriting, or computer. Also, the number of grammatical errors enforces how interested you are in the subject making a big contribution to the time you will take.

However, to write 20 pages, you will need to gather much information, which takes much longer than writing the paper.

When you start your research and take quality notes, you could take one to two days to write the whole paper, not forgetting the time you will need to proofread.

How Long does it Take you to Write a 10-page Paper

Research and learn more than what your teacher has not asked. You need to be an expert, draft an outline, and then write the paper. You will not have to research more.

For less than a week, you’ll write smoothly; make sure you write it in one piece, then let it rest for a few days, and then get back to it and improve it while editing. 

Within two weeks, you should have your ten-page paper ready. How fast you write depends on the subject, how well you know it, how much time you want to spend on it, and how much of the paper is graphs and data.

How long does it take to write a 6-page research paper

Writing a six-page research paper depends on how helpful your sources are. If you are familiar with the topic and you have organized your research sources well, you won’t have to spend a lot of time gathering information, and you can get the actual writing over in a few hours.

However, everyone has the pace with which they do their work, but the more time you spend doing your research, the better your paper will be.

While writing is important in college , completing a paper or an essay is not easy or fun for most students. Most of them leave their assignments until the last few hours for submission.

The longer time you take with your paper, the better the quality of your work will be. Research takes the most time in paper writing.

Therefore, always choose subjects that interest you and topics that you know well, and the actual writing will take little time. However, if you are stuck with your assignment, you can reach out to our custom essay writers for help with your essay or research paper. 

Jessica Kasen is experienced in academic writing and academic assistance. She is well versed in academia and has a master’s degree in education. Kasen consults with us in helping students improve their grades. She also oversights the quality of work done by our writers.

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How to write a 2000-word Essay: What works Best?

Writing a remarkable 2000-word essay is an overwhelming task for students. This type of essay requires an overwhelming amount of knowledge, time to write, and the ability to organize your thoughts concisely. This guide will explain everything you need to complete a 2000-word essay.

How long is a 2000-word essay?

In academic writing, a 2000-word essay is the same as four pages of a single-spaced document or eight pages double-spaced one . Double spacing means there should be blank lines between each line of text that prevent them from blurring together. Your instructor may ask you to double-space the essay to make it easier to read and to allow reviewers to make comments or suggestions about the assignment.

Each page of single-spaced content has 500-550 words, while a double-spaced page has 250-275. If you are using MLA or APA formatting style, the formatting standard for an essay should be (1) double-spaced, (2) Times New Roman font, and (3) one-inch margins all around. If you use Ariel font pages

How Many Paragraphs is a 2000 Words Essay

A 2000-word essay consists of between 7 and 9 paragraphs, each having between 3 and 5 or more full and coherent sentences. Please note that there are no proper rules on how many sentences your paragraph should have since each paragraph discusses different ideas relating to the main topic of your essay.

Some paragraphs could be shorter and others longer. Some paragraphs could be a sentence shorter, and others about half a page long. What matters more is how you structure and complete the paragraphs.

However, you should not concern yourself with the length of your paragraph that you forget what matters most: the content of the paragraphs. Communicate effectively the quality of the message to ensure you answer the topic.

Can I Write 2000 Words in Two Hours?

Writing a 2000-word article in two hours is challenging but not impossible. Typically, a good essay requires in-depth research, a clear structure for the paper, and an organization of your ideas, which requires adequate time.

However, quickly completing an essay depends on your familiarity with the topic and typing speed. Most adults have an average typing speed of 40 words per minute (WPM). However, for experienced typists, the average typing speed is about 76 words per minute. Many college students trying to finish their assignments on time usually type 60-70 words per minute.

If you are having an essay crisis and can’t seem to figure out how to write a 2000-word essay in two hours, use the following tips;

Plan your essay

Take 10 – 15 minutes to organize your thoughts by identifying your essay's main topics and ideas. Focus only on key ideas and avoid unnecessary details to save time. Then, decide how you will organize them in your paper. A great tip is to have a logical order, ensuring a link between all ideas.

Research Efficiently and effectively

All academic papers, especially long-form essays like a 2000-word essay, require in-depth research to gather supporting information for your topic. You need to dedicate a few minutes to gather sources before writing.

Write the Introduction

Use 5-10 minutes to write a compelling introduction, beginning with a hook to grab readers' attention. Then, provide some context about the topic and state your thesis statement.

Write the Body Paragraphs

Allocate 10- 15 minutes to discuss each idea supporting your main topic. If you have 5 ideas, it will take you about 50 minutes to finish writing the body of your essay.

Write Your Conclusion

Use 10-15 minutes to finalize your essay by restating your thesis statement, summarizing the main points, reminding the readers why they should care, and providing recommendations/ suggestions for the main topic.

Revise Your Essay

Use 20 minutes to review your draft to correct any mistakes you made while writing. The final draft should be free of any errors (punctuation, grammar, and spelling) and be plagiarism-free. You must also ensure that all ideas are clearly and concisely written.

Please note that writing a 2000-word essay under time constraints will likely affect the quality of your work; however, following the above tips ensures you finish a well-structured 2000-word essay quickly.

What is the Format for a 2000 Word Essay?

A 2000-word essay is an academic paper with the same format as others. This means it has an introduction, a body paragraph, and a conclusion. Your introduction and conclusion should comprise approximately 25% of the total word count of the essay, while the rest of 75% should be dedicated to the body.

Introductions

An introduction of a 2000-word essay is 5-10% of the total word count. It should be between 100 – 150 words of concisely written content. If you have no idea what to include in the introduction, the following tips will offer a starting point.

• Set the scene
• Introduce the topic or problem under discussion.
• If needed, provide definitions of complex concepts.
• An explanation of why the topic or problem matters. (provide the size or the scope of the matter).
• The purpose of the essay.
• Introduce the thesis statement, which is the central idea of the essay.
• Briefly provide the outline you will use to explain the paper's logic.

Your introduction should be a paragraph or two long since a paragraph is made of 100 words.

The Main Body

A body of a 2000-word essay will make up about 75% of the total word count. It should be divided into 5-7 paragraphs, each discussing one central idea that identifies the main topic. These paragraphs should be 150- 250 words, each supported by 2 or more references. Note that the longer the assignments, the more important it is to provide links that refer to earlier points, thus connecting ideas.

When you begin writing the body, your ideas will likely flow randomly from the mind. Since you are writing for readers with different backgrounds and viewpoints, you must organize these ideas to make it easier for them to process and understand. Use the following format to organize the body of your essay;

• Write a topic sentence that identifies the paragraph topic you will discuss.
• Supporting information , such as examples, details, and evidence, contributes to the main topic. When you provide evidence, ensure you explain why it is relevant to the topic.
• A concluding sentence also acts as a transition to the next paragraph. Provide a conclusion that reminds readers of what they have read and shows the topic's significance.

Use the above format to organize the rest of the body paragraphs. Consider writing this plan on paper and pinning it on your desk to remind yourself whenever you write an essay. 

Additionally, consider using the following writing techniques and tools to help finish your essay in under two hours.

Technique 1: The Pomodoro technique

The Pomodoro Technique. This technique involves working continuously for 25 minutes and then taking a 5-minute break. The Pomodoro technique is effective because it allows you to focus while avoiding burnout. Research shows that taking regular breaks can increase well-being and performance.

Technique 2: Write in Batches

Writing in batches is an effective method to finish a 2000-word essay in two hours. It involves dividing your essay into sections and working on them before taking a break.

Use tools such as Grammarly and Hemingway Editor to help edit your work and ensure no errors before submission.

This is the final paragraph of your essay. Like an introduction, a conclusion makes up about 5-10% of a 2000-word essay. This means that a conclusion for a 2000-word essay has approximately 100-150 words.

If you follow the above format, the total word count will 2050.

How Long Will It Take to Write a 2000 Words Essay?

Finishing a 2000-word essay will take 6-8 hours on average. However, if you are just typing the essay without doing any in-depth research, outlining the work, or adding citations and references, it will take about 50 minutes. For a handwritten essay, it takes about 1.7 hours to finish a 2000-word essay.

Please note that some students can finish a 2000-word essay in just under two hours, while others can take at least five days (2 for in-depth research, 2 for writing the essay, and one for revising and editing) to finish. All this will depend on the complexities of the topic. A complex topic will probably require more time for research, especially if getting the sources for the topic is challenging.

The assignment deadline will also influence whether someone can finish the essay quickly or not. Many students often find themselves swamped with assignments, wondering which to prioritize. If you have a 1000-word essay and another for 2200 words, prioritize the latter and focus on finishing the shorter one later.  

If you want to finish your essay quickly, avoid distractions such as social media, TV, friends, etc.

How Many References Are in a 2000 Words Essay

A 2000-word essay should have between 10 and 20 high-quality references. Please take note that these are just suggestions. Logically, there should be a source in every paragraph. Each argument supported by credible evidence must have a reference. Some factors that will determine how many references each of your paragraphs will have include:

The Type of Research

If you are conducting empirical research, you will need more references compared to doing research for a theoretical paper. This is because the latter focuses on synthesizing existing concepts.

Depth of the Research

If your 2000-word essay is about a complex topic, you must do more thorough research to locate all the evidence supporting or refuting your claims. This means your essay will have more references than one that does not need much research.

Assignment’s Requirements

Your instructors will specify the number of references to use in your essay; they might verbally communicate this in class or highlight it on the assignment prompt. Thus, it's essential to always read and understand your prompt before working on the assignment.

If there are no specifications about essay references, check with your instructor how many are appropriate for the type of essay you are writing.

Writing Time by Word Counts

The following table outlines how long it takes to complete an essay, depending on the number of words.

From the above table, it's clear that a person's typing speed will dictate whether they can finish an assignment quickly or not.

Writing Time by Page Counts

Wondering how long it takes to complete a page? The table below will let you know how long it will take to finish an essay based on page counts.

This rough estimate is based on slow, average, and fast writers.

Tips to Help You Finish a 2000 Words Essay

So, you left your 2000-word essay until the last minute and can't seem to figure out how to finish it on time? No worries. The following tips can help.

Eat a Good Breakfast

A study published in the National Library of Medicine has shown that eating a good breakfast is associated with positive outcomes for learners and professionals. Breakfast gives you energy after fasting overnight for more than 7 hours. Take some brain food fuel, such as yogurts topped with berries, to give you steady energy as you write your essay. This will prevent you from feeling hungry, which could be a distraction.

Pick Your Equipment and Workstation

When you sit down to write, everything must be within reach. So, pick a conducive environment away from distractions and collect all materials like your laptops, pens, notebooks, etc.

Set Time Management Goals

When you have an urgent assignment that is 2000 words long, time management is key to success. Good time management skills will help you finish the task quickly while avoiding distractions. You can break up your tasks into chunks and work on them individually.

Use Online Tools to Speed Up the Research Process

Research can take an awful amount of time, especially for a complex topic. So, speed up the process by using online tools like Google Scholar to find sources for your essay.

Also, check if your instructor has published a list of sources on your module's online platform. Most of them are kind enough to put them online.

Write Your Notes directly on Your Laptop.

Normally, when researching a topic, you will write ideas in a notebook and then use it later when typing on your laptop. However, since you are in a hurry, skip this step and directly type the ideas and their sources on our computer. Once you are done, you can drag and drop paragraphs in the correct order.

An essay that is 2000 words long is a common type of essay you will encounter in school. You must be well prepared by understanding what it takes to complete this type of essay. Whether you are a seasoned writer or a beginner, the above guide will be helpful when writing a 2000-word essay.

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How Long It Takes to Type 1,000 Words

Last Updated: April 3, 2023 Fact Checked

Typing Time for 1,000 Words

What increases writing time, tips for writing faster, average writing times.

This article was reviewed by Gerald Posner and by wikiHow staff writer, Hunter Rising . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. There are 13 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 14,844 times.

Are you trying to hit a word count goal of 1,000 words and want to know how long it takes? Even though 1,000 words sounds like a lot to type out, it’s easy to finish within the day when you’re focused. There are a few factors that make your writing speed slow down, but we’ll help you find strategies to speed up the process. Keep reading so you know how long to take for your writing and how you can boost your writing pace.

Things You Should Know

• Writing 1,000 words at an average typing speed takes about 25 minutes or less.
• If you need to do light research for the writing topic, 1,000 words takes about 1–2 hours.
• Give yourself 3–4 hours to write 1,000 words if you need to do heavy research, citations, or editing.

• If you plan on handwriting 1,000 words, it may take an additional hour or so.

• Researching is an ongoing process, so you may need to continue doing it even after you start writing. It’s tough to say how much time researching takes since it depends on how well you know the topic and how detailed of information you need.

• Editing and proofreading will probably take at least 30–60 minutes, but it could take longer if you need to reword sections of your writing.

• Take a typing speed test to determine your average words per minute.

• If you already have all the points you want to hit on outlined, it saves you time since it’s a lot easier to fill in the information without wondering what’s coming next.

• Example: Make a goal to finish 250 words in 30 minutes before taking a short break.
• Reward yourself when you reach your writing goal by taking a walk, having a small treat, or playing a video game so you stay motivated.

• Step away from your writing every 30 minutes to stretch your legs, get some water, and catch up on notifications before you dive back in.

• If you’re stuck in a certain spot of your writing, jump to a different section and keep going. You’re always able to come back and fill in areas when you have a better idea of what you want to write. [14] X Research source

Expert Q&A

• Try your best not to procrastinate when you have a deadline for your writing. Starting early gives you more time to write and edit without all the stress of an approaching due date. [15] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.ramoswriter.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-write-500-words/
• ↑ https://youtu.be/GpywysWTxtE?t=39
• ↑ https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/centers/writing/writing-resources/writing-longer-papers
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/
• ↑ https://www.herzing.edu/blog/5-tips-improving-your-typing-speed-accuracy
• ↑ https://www.uis.edu/learning-hub/writing-resources/handouts/learning-hub/writers-block
• ↑ https://writingprompts.com/improving-essay-writing-speed/
• ↑ https://goinswriter.com/writing-speed/
• ↑ https://writetodone.com/how-to-write-without-distractions/
• ↑ https://erinwrightwriting.com/four-tips-boost-writing-speed/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/procrastination/

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The COVID-19 vaccine is very good at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death. Because the virus that causes COVID-19 continues to change, vaccines are updated to help fight the disease. It is important to check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 vaccine information for the latest details. (Posted 11/22/23)

What is the COVID-19 vaccine?

The COVID-19 vaccine lessens the severity of COVID-19 by teaching the immune system to recognize and fight the virus that causes the disease.

For fall/winter 2023–2024, the updated COVID-19 vaccine is based on the XBB.1.5 variant. The updated vaccine is made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax. This season, only one shot of the vaccine is needed for most people, and there are no boosters. (People who are immunocompromised or ages 6 months to 4 years may need more than one 2023–2024 vaccine.)

How is the 2023–2024 COVID-19 vaccine different from previous COVID-19 vaccines?

The 2023–2024 COVID-19 vaccine targets XBB.1.5, a subvariant of Omicron. While none of the variants currently circulating are exact matches to the vaccine, they are all closely related to the XBB.1.5 strain. Studies show that the updated vaccine is effective against the  variants currently causing the majority of COVID-19 cases  in the U.S.

Who should get a COVID-19 vaccine?

Because the 2023–2024 vaccine is effective for recent strains of COVID-19, it is recommended that everyone stay up to date with this vaccine. Previous vaccines or boosters were not developed to target the more recent strains. For 2023–2024, the CDC recommends:

• Everyone age 5 and older receive one shot of the updated vaccine.
• Children ages 6 months to 4 years may need more than one shot to be up to date.
• People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised may need more than one shot.

You can review the full recommendations on the CDC’s Stay Up to Date with COVID-19 Vaccines webpage . Be sure to talk to your primary care doctor or pediatrician if you are unsure about vaccine recommendations.

What are the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine?

Side effects vary and may last one to three days. Common side effects are:

• Soreness at the injection site

COVID-19 Vaccine and Pregnancy

COVID-19 vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are safe and recommended for people who are pregnant or lactating, as well as for those r intending to become pregnant.

People who are pregnant or were recently pregnant are at a greater risk for severe COVID-19. Having a severe case of COVID-19 while pregnant is linked to a higher risk of pre-term birth and stillbirth and might increase the risk of other pregnancy complications.

What should parents know about the COVID-19 vaccine and children?

The CDC recommends the 2023–2024 vaccine for adolescents and teenagers ages 12 and older, and for children ages 6 months through 11 years.

• Children age 5 and older need one shot of the updated vaccine.

Children are less likely to become seriously ill from COVID-19 than adults, although serious illness can happen. Speak with your pediatrician if you have questions about having your child vaccinated.

If I recently had COVID-19, do I need a 2023–2024 vaccine?

If you recently had COVID-19, the CDC recommends waiting about three months before getting this updated vaccine. If you encounter the virus again, having the updated vaccine will:

• Lessen your risk of severe disease that could require hospitalization
• Reduce the chance that you infect someone else with COVID-19
• Help keep you protected from currently circulating COVID-19 variants

How long should I wait to get this vaccine if I recently had an earlier version of a COVID-19 vaccine or booster?

People age 5 years and older should wait at least two months after getting the last dose of any COVID-19 vaccine before receiving the 2023–2024 vaccine,  according to CDC guidance .

Is natural immunity better than a vaccine?

Natural immunity is the antibody protection your body creates against a germ once you’ve been infected with it. Natural immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19 is no better than vaccine-acquired immunity, and it comes with far greater risks. Studies show that natural immunity to the virus weakens over time and does so faster than immunity provided by COVID-19 vaccination.

Do I need a COVID-19 booster?

The 2023–2024 vaccine is a one-shot vaccine for most people, and there is no booster this season. (People who are immunocompromised or ages 6 months to 4 years may need more than one 2023–2024 vaccine.)

The FDA calls this an updated vaccine (not a “booster” like previous shots) because it builds a new immune response to variants that are currently circulating. This change reflects the current approach of treating COVID-19 similarly to the flu, with preventive measures such as an annual vaccination.

When should I get a COVID-19 vaccine?

Like the flu and other respiratory diseases, COVID-19 tends to be more active in the fall and winter, so getting a vaccine in the fall is recommended.

How quickly does the COVID-19 vaccine become effective?

It usually takes about two weeks for the vaccine to become effective. The CDC website provides more information on how the COVID-19 vaccines work .

How long does the COVID-19 vaccine last?

Studies suggest that COVID-19 vaccines are most effective during the first three months after vaccination.

Is it safe to get a flu and COVID-19 vaccine at the same time?

Yes, it safe to get both shots at the same time. Keep in mind that each has similar side effects and you may experience side effects from both.

Is the COVID-19 vaccine safe?

Yes. COVID-19 vaccines approved by the FDA meet rigorous testing criteria and are safe and effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death. Millions of people have received the vaccines, and the CDC continues to monitor their safety and effectiveness as well as rare adverse events.

Where can I get a COVID-19 vaccine?

The COVID-19 vaccine is available at pharmacies. See vaccines.gov to find a convenient location.

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How to Write an Essay Introduction | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on February 4, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A good introduction paragraph is an essential part of any academic essay . It sets up your argument and tells the reader what to expect.

The main goals of an introduction are to:

• Catch your reader’s attention.
• Give background on your topic.
• Present your thesis statement —the central point of your essay.

This introduction example is taken from our interactive essay example on the history of Braille.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

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Table of contents

Step 1: hook your reader, step 2: give background information, step 3: present your thesis statement, step 4: map your essay’s structure, step 5: check and revise, more examples of essay introductions, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.

Your first sentence sets the tone for the whole essay, so spend some time on writing an effective hook.

Avoid long, dense sentences—start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

The hook should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of the topic you’re writing about and why it’s interesting. Avoid overly broad claims or plain statements of fact.

Examples: Writing a good hook

Take a look at these examples of weak hooks and learn how to improve them.

• Braille was an extremely important invention.
• The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

The first sentence is a dry fact; the second sentence is more interesting, making a bold claim about exactly  why the topic is important.

• The internet is defined as “a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities.”
• The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education.

Avoid using a dictionary definition as your hook, especially if it’s an obvious term that everyone knows. The improved example here is still broad, but it gives us a much clearer sense of what the essay will be about.

• Mary Shelley’s  Frankenstein is a famous book from the nineteenth century.
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement.

Instead of just stating a fact that the reader already knows, the improved hook here tells us about the mainstream interpretation of the book, implying that this essay will offer a different interpretation.

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Next, give your reader the context they need to understand your topic and argument. Depending on the subject of your essay, this might include:

• Historical, geographical, or social context
• An outline of the debate you’re addressing
• A summary of relevant theories or research about the topic
• Definitions of key terms

The information here should be broad but clearly focused and relevant to your argument. Don’t give too much detail—you can mention points that you will return to later, but save your evidence and interpretation for the main body of the essay.

How much space you need for background depends on your topic and the scope of your essay. In our Braille example, we take a few sentences to introduce the topic and sketch the social context that the essay will address:

Now it’s time to narrow your focus and show exactly what you want to say about the topic. This is your thesis statement —a sentence or two that sums up your overall argument.

This is the most important part of your introduction. A  good thesis isn’t just a statement of fact, but a claim that requires evidence and explanation.

The goal is to clearly convey your own position in a debate or your central point about a topic.

Particularly in longer essays, it’s helpful to end the introduction by signposting what will be covered in each part. Keep it concise and give your reader a clear sense of the direction your argument will take.

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As you research and write, your argument might change focus or direction as you learn more.

For this reason, it’s often a good idea to wait until later in the writing process before you write the introduction paragraph—it can even be the very last thing you write.

When you’ve finished writing the essay body and conclusion , you should return to the introduction and check that it matches the content of the essay.

It’s especially important to make sure your thesis statement accurately represents what you do in the essay. If your argument has gone in a different direction than planned, tweak your thesis statement to match what you actually say.

To polish your writing, you can use something like a paraphrasing tool .

You can use the checklist below to make sure your introduction does everything it’s supposed to.

Checklist: Essay introduction

My first sentence is engaging and relevant.

I have introduced the topic with necessary background information.

I have defined any important terms.

My thesis statement clearly presents my main point or argument.

Everything in the introduction is relevant to the main body of the essay.

You have a strong introduction - now make sure the rest of your essay is just as good.

• Argumentative
• Literary analysis

This introduction to an argumentative essay sets up the debate about the internet and education, and then clearly states the position the essay will argue for.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

This introduction to a short expository essay leads into the topic (the invention of the printing press) and states the main point the essay will explain (the effect of this invention on European society).

In many ways, the invention of the printing press marked the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval period in Europe is often remembered as a time of intellectual and political stagnation. Prior to the Renaissance, the average person had very limited access to books and was unlikely to be literate. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century allowed for much less restricted circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.

This introduction to a literary analysis essay , about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , starts by describing a simplistic popular view of the story, and then states how the author will give a more complex analysis of the text’s literary devices.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale. Arguably the first science fiction novel, its plot can be read as a warning about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, and in popular culture representations of the character as a “mad scientist”, Victor Frankenstein represents the callous, arrogant ambition of modern science. However, far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to gradually transform our impression of Frankenstein, portraying him in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

The “hook” is the first sentence of your essay introduction . It should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of why it’s interesting.

To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

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