how long do essay take

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.

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The picture enumerates the factors influencing essay length.

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:

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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.

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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.

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🤔 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.

The picture describes how formatting affects essay length.

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 .

The picture shows the fact about the average speed of writing.

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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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the best college essay length: how long should it be.

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.

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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 !

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download them for free now:

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 is an Essay

How Long is an Essay?

High school essays typically range from 300-1000 words, focusing on a 5-paragraph structure. College admission essays are brief, 200-650 words, showcasing personal interests. Undergraduate essays vary, spanning 1500-5000 words, depending on course and institution specifics. Graduate admissions require more detailed essays of 500-1000 words, while graduate-level essays often extend from 2500-6000 words, reflecting deeper research and analysis.

The question of how long should an essay be– whether you are a pro or not–should come from something OTHER than your liking 💯.

Sure, you can always follow your heart whenever you want to put your sentiments and purpose into words. It is, however, another truth that there is an external factor that always determines how effective you are as an essayist: the WORD COUNT.

Let us not all lie. No matter how good or bad we are at writing things, word count always matters. This factor may come into play when it becomes one of the criteria for judging one’s written output or a measure of someone’s writing prowess if it is made out of a career. Thus, one thing is for sure: even if it sucks, we always consider how long should an essay be.

But just like any other factor influencing good writing, managing an ideal word count for essays can be quite a breeze. All you have to do is pan out your purpose, know your audience, and be strategic in monitoring your word count. All of the know-how, and many others, will be discussed thoroughly in this blog, so stick around to see the magic!

How Long is an Essay Considering the Factors that I Have to Follow?

Factors everywhere. A good result cannot be determined well and objectively without these factors. Sure enough, good writing, while considering its word count, can be a walk in the park if one considers the following factors that regulate an ideal (or sometimes, required) word count.

Academic essay varies depending on multiple factors. Asking the “WHY” on something provides you with a clear way how you can finish it. In writing, this “why,” which represents your intention or purpose, gives you an outline of how you may navigate the entire process– and manage your word count as well.

Once you have set your writing goals before the writing process, you can prepare the right information that you will inject into the sections of your manuscript, as well as an approach (more than two is fine; do not be shy!) that will serve as your structure. Writers have different purposes– dictated or not, explicit or implicit, thus producing different preferences for word count.

One may have many demands in its purpose, making the word count a bit overboard. Some do not demand that much, translating to a permissible count. One thing is for sure, though: purpose drives your writing journey, so whether you measure your essay length or not, it must be clearly stated on the paper!

When we say that your feelings matter so much in your writing, that has to be minimized considerably because maintaining word count and determining how many words should an essay be sometimes depends on the people who read and use it.

A specific group of people always know what they want in a writing piece– either they like it long and extensive or short yet succinct. With this reality (arguing about it will not give you good marks) in mind, you have to be a sucker for their preferences.

The good thing about this, though, is you already have some ideas on how you will create your piece (versus thinking about it from scratch), and your horizons will widen since you will craft a piece that reflects other people’s liking. A little note when considering the audience as one of your considerations for word count is that they are already giving you a favor.

Nature of the Writing Task

Along with the wish to maintain an average essay word count, you must know WHAT you are writing about. Mostly common among academic institutions, the nature of a writing task may come off as explicit through the name itself (is it a traditional expository essay? A narrative report? A critical essay?) or implicit through the specifications of the task (Should there be an outline to adhere in the task? Should one use a specific structure or approach to the creation of a text?).

Determining how many words should there be in an essay will largely depend on what you are writing about, and the elements and features of these various tasks may shorten or lengthen the word count.

In Studyfy, however, you can see these factors come into play and create a concoction of a text like no other. With a tailor-fit custom essay writing service that offers a variety of academic, business, and personalized research papers that vary in word count depending on your purpose, you can yield personal success in your sheer convenience.

How Long is an Essay in High School?

In high school, essays typically vary in length based on the assignment type, ranging from 500 to 1500 words for narratives, 800 to 1500 words for expository essays, 500 to 1000 words for reflective essays, and 600 to 1200 words for process essays. Always follow your teacher's guidelines.

High school is the period in education where students’ lower and higher-order thinking skills (LOTS/HOTS) are put into practice, and essays and other related written tasks are manifestations of their learning of these skills.

Although there is a tendency for students to ask someone “to write an essay for me ” because of being overwhelmed with too much information, writing an essay in high school is the best starting point for students to practice writing and presenting information by counting what is important and relevant.

The following is the list of common essay types and their ideal word count:

Narrative Essays

Its primary purpose is to narrate a specific event or describe a scenario using quotations, vivid descriptions, and imagery to convey the situation in writing accurately. Although adjectives, literary devices, and other strategies for vivid conveyance may mean a considerable amount of words to be injected into the piece, the essay length of a narrative text may range from 500-1500 words.

Expository Essays

Typically following the traditional and rigid 5-paragraph format, these essays present information about a topic or clarify a particular concept, phenomenon, or entity. While some sources may put the count range from 300-1000 words, the extensiveness of this essay type may enlarge the range from 800-1500 words.

Reflective Essays

Also known as reflection entries, these essays are beneficial for developing students’ metacognitive skills, as they are expected to recall personal thoughts and experiences about a certain topic. A typical reflective essay falls within the range of 500-1000 words, depending on how downright or deep your reflection is.

Process Essay

These kinds of essays are pretty common in Science courses, such as Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Sometimes, coupled with a diagram or chart, a process essay explains how a certain practice, concept, or phenomenon happens step-by-step.

While some process essays may be words because some steps have to be elaborated for clarity, most are straightforward and do not need to be intricate since they are practical and mass-oriented. Because of this, process essays range from 600-1200 words.

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How Long is an Essay in College? Ideal Essay Length and Word Count

In college, essay lengths vary widely. Admission essays are typically 200-650 words, undergraduate essays range from 1500-5000 words, graduate admission essays are around 500-1000 words, and graduate-level essays can span 2500-6000 words. Always adhere to your assignment's specific word count guidelines.

To say that the essays in college get a lot more difficult than in high school, well– it is more complicated than that. Now that you are expected to have harnessed the necessary skills to process and interpret certain information, you now have to deal with types of writing tasks that are often extensive and time-consuming, to say the least.

Admission Essay

Impressing the admissions committee with a personalized essay is the number one goal, and guess what: You do not need a long string of words to do that. How long should essays be without using too many words in a college acceptance letter?

An admission college essay can be as short as a word count of 200-650 words, while graduate admission letters are more detailed with 500-1000 words. A quick tip: Show your personality and make an impact by clinching them with a few yet powerful or attention-catching quips.

Critical Review Essay

Critiquing a text, film, book, or any other body of literature may require every bit of your research effort and HOTS. You have to dissect the subject into components and make sense of these components while making sure that you find gaps, associations, and relevance to a particular “lens” that helps a seemingly oblivious observation to become apparent.

It is thus safe to say that your word count may go bonkers, with an ideal range of 1500 to 3000 words, depending on the structure of your paper and the approach to criticism.

Persuasive Academic Essay

A persuasive college essay may land you a good harnessing of marketing and sales skills. This essay enables you to take a stand and advocate something for your audience to do the same thing by presenting credible and evidence-based claims and arguments.

A unique thing about persuasive college essays is that they use the technique called “Call to Action” to magically turn readers’ attention to your claim realistically and feasibly. Considering the elements that must be included in this essay, an 800-1500 word count is preferred.

Comparative Analysis Essay

Comparing and contrasting two ideas, phenomena, or concepts may take a while to provide total comprehensibility. Since the points of comparison may exceed the usual threshold, the word count may also swell up. Still dependent on the elements being compared in this analysis essay, the ideal word count is 1800-3000 words.

This writing task encapsulates the various documentation, research, and analysis of a specific case or scenario, most preferably something peculiar or novel. When creating a case study, it is somewhat impossible to be concise in describing the locale of the scenario.

You have to exhaust your vocabulary and presentation skills to convey the case into analysis effectively. With that being said, its ideal word count is 2000 to 3500 words, depending on the case’s complexity.

College Essays: Help is Near

College writeups can be difficult to do, and to pay for an essay may take a bit of shame and courage. However, the feeling of shame will change to relief if you know that a custom writing service that serves personal writing style and needs like Studyfy gets everything covered.

All of the specifications you need to be in the write-up, plus the necessary information that is pivotal to the success of your paper, will be yours if you sign up for a Studyfy service!

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FAQs: How Long Should An Essay Be?

How long is a typical essay if you will be using the ibc format.

IBC format, for starters, is the basic “Introduction-Body-Conclusion” format conventionally used for essays. Just like the IMRAD format in research papers, this format is standardized and widely accepted in academic institutions and other fields.

To determine the typical word count of an essay following this format, you must understand the weight of relevance each section holds. For instance, it is typical for an introduction to weigh less than the body, which should habituate the most significant information in the essay.

The same goes for conclusion. If the IBC format follows a 20-60-20 ratio and you aim for a 150-word minimum count per section, the entire count can be 750 words minimum.

How long are essays in college, considering that it will be a lot more difficult to write one?

Difficulty may translate to a longer word count, and we understand if it has been kept as a notion in your experience as a current or future college student. If you keenly noticed the type of essays presented at the collegiate level, the minimum word count is 250 (for admission essays) while the maximum is 3500 (mostly common among case studies).

Regularly, however, typical essay writing tasks range from 800-1000 words, especially if you are talking about concept, term, or research papers that are being done at the end of a unit of work or as a terminal course requirement.

Whether an undergraduate college essay, research paper, graduate school essays, or any type of academic writing, it's important to adhere to a specific word count and word limit. As college essays tend to be lengthy, an additional challenge is to incorporate all relevant information in a clear and succinct way.

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‍ How many words should an essay have if I wanted to fill an entire page?

Although this question is a bit practical and unhinged at the same time, we are also guilty about this, as we seldom check the word count of our paper when we finish a page. From our experience, you can fit 500-700 words in a page, but the count still depends on the font size, spacing, justification, and other formatting elements of your document.

How long is an essay supposed to be in one paragraph?

The answer is invariable since we have to consider lots of factors about the purpose and nature of the writing task. From a general approximation, however, an essay paragraph can be within a hundred words. Exceeding it may render it lengthy and too tiring to read.

How many words should a high school essay be if no one provided an outline to adhere to?

When there is no explicit instruction about the word count of a high school essay task, you might find the 150-word minimum rule per section handy, in consonance with the 20-60-20 rule discussed briefly in the first question (although this is widely used if you are following the IBC format). You may adjust the minimum word limit depending on the difficulty or nature of the task.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, how long does writing a college essay usually take.

I'm starting my essay for college applications and I'm curious about how long this process may take. Can you guys give me an estimate on how many hours or days it took you to complete your essays? I really want to manage my time wisely. Thanks!

Hey there! The amount of time it takes to write a college essay varies greatly depending on the individual. Some students can finish a solid draft in a few days, while others may take weeks or even longer to perfect their essay. From my experience with my own child, it took them about a week to finish their first draft and then a few more days for revisions.

To manage your time wisely, I'd recommend setting aside a specific time each day to focus on your essay and breaking it into smaller tasks. For example, you can start with brainstorming and outlining, then move on to drafting, editing, and polishing.

Don't forget to seek feedback from others, like teachers, peers, or mentors, as that can also help improve your essay and provide insight on areas you might not have considered. CollegeVine has a great article on crafting a compelling college essay that you might find helpful: https://blog.collegevine.com/how-to-write-the-common-application-essays

Good luck with your essay, and remember, it's important to give yourself enough time to create something you're proud of!

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

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 1000 words? (ESSAY PLANNING MASTERCLASS)

November 15, 2022

Essay writing involves more than just writing—it’s a multi-stage process that’s partly an art and partly a science. The good news is that you can use a simple, repeatable method to get consistent results in a predictable timeframe. This article breaks down a reliable approach you can use for any essay question.

Let’s start with the most common question people new to academic writing have: how long does it take to write an essay?

How long does it take to write 1000 words?

Writing 1000 words should take you between 60 to 90 minutes. But this is only true if you have already done your research and know what you need to write.

If you haven’t prepared well and don’t have a good understanding of your topic, it will take you considerably longer to write 1000 words—at least two or three days. That’s because the actual *writing* part is only one stage of the essay writing process—and it’s not the first stage. The real work is the preparation you must do before you start writing.

Here is what a complete essay writing process looks like:

Stage one: understanding the question
Stage two: brainstorming initial ideas
Stage three: conducting research
Stage four: outlining an essay plan
Stage five: writing your essay draft
Stage six: editing your essay
Stage seven: formatting for submission

So writing your essay is the fifth out of seven stages. If you try to shortcut the process by starting with the writing stage, you’re in for a world of pain. Let’s look at each step in more detail to understand why skipping stages makes things harder, not easier.

Step one: Understanding the question

Before you write anything, you must first understand the essay question’s scope and purpose. If your tutor has given you the essay’s assessment criteria, review them. This is a cheat sheet that tells you exactly what they’ll be looking for when they mark your essay—and, therefore, exactly what you should include in it—so don’t ignore it.

Pay close attention to the question phrasing and the instruction words it uses (“evaluate”, “discuss”, “review”, etc.). Think about what you are being asked to do (and also what you aren’t being asked to do).

Carefully considering the essay question and assessment criteria in this way will help you focus your research, structure your argument, and write your essay efficiently. It will save you from going down dead ends and doing unnecessary work, so start here before you jump into researching or writing anything.

Step two: brainstorming initial ideas

Jot down your initial ideas about the topic and group them into key themes (you can do this by making lists under different subheadings or by drawing a mind map). This will give you a starting point to help you identify what to research and how to plan your essay. Don’t spend too long on this. You will develop (and possibly reject) these ideas during the following two stages.

Three: conducting research

Once you know how you will approach your essay topic, begin your research. This is the most important (and time-consuming) part of the process. Quality research is the foundation on which strong essays are built. Getting it right will make writing your assignment much easier, so don’t half-ass it.

Start with any sources your tutor recommended. As you read the source material, note down any key themes and talking points you could use in your essay. Then seek out additional sources for the specific information you need to support (or counter) each point.

Using a wide range of sources will help you construct a stronger argument (and gives you a diverse list of references, which is always a bonus). But avoid the trap of doing endless research and getting lost in the weeds—this is a common way people procrastinate to put off the writing stage.

You don’t need to know everything about your topic—just enough to answer the essay question.

You only want to use highly relevant source material. Refer to your list of key themes and initial talking points to keep your research focused and efficient. Skip over anything that isn’t relevant to your core argument. When you make notes on the research you want to use in your essay, write down the source so you can easily find and reference it later.

Done correctly, your discussion points and research notes should form the outline of your essay. This brings us nicely to the next stage.

Step four: outlining your essay plan

Now it’s time to structure your essay draft using bullet points. This will give you a framework on which to hang your argument, making it far easier (and quicker) to write.

Think of your essay plan as the written equivalent of the preliminary sketch an artist does before they start a painting. It allows you to get your thoughts in order and structure your essay to ensure it flows before you get stuck into writing it.

Start by writing a subheading for each theme and/or key discussion point in your essay. Then list the details you will use to expand on each item (such as which referenced pieces of supporting evidence you will include) as bullet points underneath.

Organise your bullet points to form a logically flowing argument. Each item should build on the previous one to lead to a conclusion. Allocate rough word counts to each section and talking point to ensure you have enough source material to hit your word count.

A good working estimate is 200-250 words per discussion point, plus 5-10% of your target word count for your introduction and the same again for your conclusion.

An example 1000 word draft essay plan might look something like this:

Introduction: 150 words
Discussion point 1: 250 words (2 references)
Supporting point: 200 words (1 reference)
Counter-argument: 250 words (2 references)
Conclusion: 150 words

If you have too many points to stay within your word count, you have the difficult task of deciding what to leave out. This is an excellent problem to have, as it will force you to choose only the best talking points and evidence, which will help you write a strong essay.

If your essay plan shows you will fall short of your word count, you have two choices:

Expand on your existing talking points with a deeper, more detailed analysis (which may require more references)
Do some further research to find more talking points that round out your discussion

Don’t buffer your word count by going off on tangents and adding irrelevant talking points or examples. A good essay must be tightly focused. Use the outlining process to solve this problem early and make sure you have enough relevant material to write a solid first essay draft.

Get your outline right, and the writing process becomes a simple case of expanding on each bullet point one by one. Tackling your essay in small chunks like this is far more manageable than taking on the whole thing at once. This is where the outlining process pays off—it allows you to write 1000 words in an effortless hour instead of a few frustrating days.

Once you’re happy with your draft essay plan, you can move on to the writing stage.

Step five: writing your essay draft

Your best friend when writing is momentum . You don’t want to stop writing to think about what you need to say or to go off and find things out. That’s why you get the research out of the way and make an outline first.

When writing your first essay draft, you should focus on one thing only—getting the ideas out of your head and onto the paper (or, more likely, the screen).

Don’t get hung up on typos, sentence construction, or word count. They are all distractions that will slow you down. Right now, you just want to hit the milestone of completing your first draft from start to finish.

Work through your essay outline, starting a new paragraph for each discussion point. Begin each of these paragraphs with a topic sentence that clearly states the point you are about to discuss. Expand on this with further detail and supporting evidence (with references). Finish with a concluding statement that explains the significance of the point you’ve just made by linking it back to the essay question.

Do this for each discussion point in your essay outline. Use linking phrases like “supporting this idea . . .”, “in contrast . . .”, etc., to make your points flow into one another as you expand on them. This will make your essay more coherent and speed up the editing process.

If you realise you need to look up a specific detail or do some further research to sufficiently expand on a point, don’t stop writing to find the information. Instead, write some unique placeholder text (such as “***” or “jjj”, etc.) to mark the spot so you can easily find and replace it later. Then keep going so you don’t lose momentum.

Expand on all your bullet points until you reach the end. Congratulations, you’ve now finished your first essay draft.

Check the length of your draft. Hopefully, it is close to (or slightly over) your target word count. If so, you now have enough raw material to polish into your final submission. Be happy—you’re almost there.

What if my essay is too short?

If you’re under the required word count, read back through your essay and look for any of the following:

Weak arguments you can strengthen with further supporting evidence
Sections lacking sufficient depth or detail that could be expanded
Gaps in your logic that need filling in with extra information
Unbalanced viewpoints that would benefit from additional counter-arguments

Each is an opportunity to increase your wording and improve your essay.

If you used any placeholder text, research the information you need to fill in the blanks, then add it to your essay to complete your first draft.

You can now move on to the editing stage.

Step six: editing your essay

Many people skip this step, but you shouldn’t. Editing is how you turn your raw first draft into a tight, crisp, written argument that is easy to follow and—importantly—mark. Ideally, you should do three rounds of editing:

Macro editing: Read through your essay and sense-check it. Does it answer the question? Is your argument coherent and well-structured? Are there any contradictions or repetition? Is anything missing or irrelevant? Fix this big picture stuff first before worrying about any smaller details. That might mean adding or deleting significant chunks of information or moving paragraphs around to improve your essay’s flow.
Copy editing: Does your essay meet the word count? Is your writing clear and concise? Are your arguments and sentences well-phrased? Make any necessary tweaks to improve your essay’s readability (this will make it easier for your tutor to understand what you’re saying and award you marks.)
Proofreading: Here you’re just looking for nitpicky details and minor mistakes like typos, minor grammatical errors, and missing references you didn’t catch on your previous two rounds of editing.

Give your essay a final read through. Check it flows well and makes sense. It should move from the introduction to a conclusion with a logical, balanced argument constructed of points that build on one another and are supported by relevant examples.

Refine everything until you’re happy and your essay hits the word count. Now finalise your references and formatting, and you’re done.

Step seven: formatting your essay

Most essay briefs will include formatting specifications covering the preferred text size, line spacing, and referencing style. Adhere to any guidelines you are given.

If you aren’t given any guidelines, you can use these generally accepted formatting conventions :

Body text: 10-11pt, with 1.5x line spacing
Titles and heading: 24pt
Sub-headings: 14pt bold
Verbatim quotes: italicised in speech marks
Titles of books, movies, songs, etc.: italicised, no speech marks
Referencing: Harvard system

Essay planning — there are no shortcuts

If this process seems long-winded and you think you can cut some steps, think again. If you try skipping a stage, you’ll end up merging it with another one. This is actually a slower, more complicated process that ends up being counter-productive.

Look at it like this: If you skip the research, you won’t know what to write about and will have no references. If you skip the outlining stage, you’ll be trying to figure out how to structure your essay while you’re writing it. You will keep having to stop and figure out what to write next, which kills your momentum.

Writing is the process of putting your thinking onto paper. The main reason people struggle with it is because they’re not sure what they’re trying to say. Starting with an outline gives you clarity and structure, which makes writing your essay much easier and saves you a ton of time.

The other reason people struggle with writing is because they try to edit as they go. Don’t do this. It causes you to lose your train of thought and forget what you are about to say, which makes the writing process slow and frustrating.

Though it may not seem so at first glance, working through each stage of this process one by one is actually the quickest and most efficient essay writing method. It also happens to create the best results, so follow it precisely.

Writing your essay draft—time management

Here are some rough estimates for how long it will take to write an assignment if you follow this process. Can you write 3000 words in a day? Yes, but not in one sitting. It’s hard to write more than 1500 words in one go, so we’ve included the number of writing sessions you can expect to need for essays of different lengths.

1000 words: 1-1.5 hours (1-2 sessions)
1500 words: 1.5-2 hours (1-2 sessions)
2000 words: 2 hours (1-3 sessions)
3000 words: 3-4 hours (2-4 sessions)
5000 words: 5-8 hours (3-6 sessions)
10000 words: 10-20 hours (6-15 sessions)

These estimates are just for the writing stage and assume you have done your research and made a solid outline essay plan. The editing stage will require additional time.

Shorter essays will take about as long to edit as they took to write. The editing time for longer essays should be similar to the lower end of the time range for the writing phase (so editing a 5000 word essay would take 4-5 hours).

Following this seven-stage process is the most reliable way to avoid writer’s block and consistently write quality essays. It simplifies the part people often struggle with the most—the writing phase—and compresses it from a matter of days to a few hours.

We’ll leave you with our top tips to help you execute the process efficiently and make the most of your time.

Essay writing—top tips

The human brain works in mysterious ways. You may find your best ideas come to you when you’re not actively working on your essay. If this happens, capture them in your phone so you don’t forget them. (Make this style of on-the-go information capture a general habit for any uni work.)
Research, writing, and editing all require mental focus. Distraction is your biggest enemy, so turn your phone off and/or put it in another room when you sit down to work on your essay. You’ll work so much faster without it.
Your tutor should provide you with the marking criteria for your essay along with the essay question. This tells you exactly what they will be looking for—use it as a cheat sheet to guide your research and essay plan.
When you write your essay, start with a single sentence that defines your main argument. This will keep you focused while you write your first draft. Once you’ve done this, move on to the main discussion section and leave writing your introduction and conclusion until the end. What you need to say in these sections will be dictated by what you write in your main discussion, so leave them until last.
Don’t underestimate the importance of the editing stage —it’s how you make average work good and good work great, making it a good way to pick up extra marks. Get a good night’s sleep between the writing and editing stages and take a break between each round of editing so you see the work with fresh eyes and a clear mind.
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How Long Does It Take to Write a 1000 Word Essay?

How long does it take to write an 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.

How long does it take to write a good essay?

by team@blp

In miscellaneous.

There may have been times when you had to produce an essay in a short period for an exam that was scheduled, such as on a high school entrance test. At other times, you might find yourself in an embarrassing situation that requires you to finish an essay quickly because you’ve put it off several times or because you’ve been caught off guard. Although an essay written at the last minute is never as good as an essay, you spent more time producing an appreciable essay quickly. With a bit of planning and a lot of hard work, you can write a perfect (or if you prefer good enough!) essay in a short period.

1) Develop a plan. Consider the time frame you have to finish your essay and develop a writing plan based on that. This will help you determine how much time you will spend on each part of the essay and follow the various instructions.

Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses as you develop your plan. For example, if you are excellent at researching but not so good at writing, spend less time when it comes to researching so that you can spend more time editing. Also, be sure to schedule breaks for yourself to refresh your brain and recharge.

An example of a plan for a one-day essay project might look like this:

8:00 – 9:30 am – come up with a problem and an argument for the topic
9:30 – 9:45 am – take a short break
10:00 – 12:00 – do the research
12:00 – 1:00 – develop the essay outline
1:00 – 2:00 pm – take a lunch break
2:00 – 7:00 pm – write your essay
7:00 – 8:00 pm – take a lunch break
8:00 – 10:30 pm – proofread and edit your essay
10:30 – 11:00 pm – print and prepare to submit your work

2) Consider the issue. You may know the topic when your professor asks you to write an essay, but even if you don’t, think about the question and the different ways you can argue about it first. This initial thinking will not only direct you to the appropriate research but will also help you move more quickly through the writing process.

3) Develop your argument or thesis. Your argument or thesis is the point of view you make in your essay through examples and analysis. Develop your argument to focus your research and speed up the writing process.

If you don’t have too much experience with your topic, it might be challenging to develop an argument. In this case, you can seek help from Online Essay Writing Service , thus solving the problem of missing expertise. You can still analyze your discussion and then use your research to support or refute the ideas you will want to make.

An excellent exercise to help you quickly come up with the problem and argument of your essay is to write this: “I am studying (choose a topic) because I want to understand better (what you want to know) to show (this is the time to develop the arguments)”.

Here is an example. “I am studying the witch trials in medieval times because I want to understand how lawyers used evidence in their trials to demonstrate that the judicial process influenced legal and modern medical practices.” Consider the counterarguments to strengthen your essay.

4) Research your essay topic. You will need to strategically research your topic to find ideas that will help you build your argument and form the body of the assignment. You can use several sources for research, including online newspapers and newspaper archives and primary sources at the library. Since you don’t have much time to write, focus on an option or two to research. For example, the Internet and libraries offer enough helpful information.

Make sure you use reliable sources, such as scientific journals, university or government websites, and professionally written newspapers and magazines. Do not use personal blogs, which are biased or unprofessional sources. You can draw on the information you have to speed up the research process. Just find a reference (but a reliable one) to back up your essay and add it to your assignment.

Doing the preliminary research online can lead you to sources in a library like journal articles or books. It can also direct you to online sources like archives of journal articles or other research on your topic.

If you are reading books, “dump” the book to quickly go through it and move on to the other sources. To do this, try skimming the introduction and conclusion to find the main arguments, then pull some details from the body of the book to use as evidence.

Make notes on the sources of your research. These will show that you have legitimately researched the topic while crediting the author of the ideas. This is especially important if you plan to use direct quotes and will also help you add cross-references and bibliographic information to your essay without requiring the reader to consult the sources.

5) Write the outline of your essay. Develop an outline for your essay to guide you through the writing process. Structuring it in the same form as your essay and adding examples will simplify and speed up the writing process. You will also be able to identify any parts that need further development.

Structure your outline, just as you would with your essay, using an introduction, body, and conclusion. The more detailed your outline, the easier and faster you can write your essay. For example, instead of writing a simple paragraph for the essay’s body, flesh it out with big points or sentences that present arguments and evidence.

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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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Extracurriculars.

How Long Do College Applications Take?

Technically, the college application process begins when you first enter high school as a freshman. The classes you take, the extracurriculars you choose, and your grades all throughout high school are all reflected in the final college applications that you send in during your senior year. That being said, the process of actually filling out your college applications and completing all of the necessary parts doesn’t start until you are an upperclassman, and there are several time-consuming steps involved.

Luckily, you don’t need to worry about remembering everything you need to do to complete your college applications. We’ve outlined exactly what steps you need to take during the college application process, broken out by year of high school, as well as how long each should take you, on average. This way, you can plan and allocate time for your college applications far in advance and set yourself up for success.

Junior Year

Many students make the mistake of thinking that their college application process starts during their senior year. However, there are a few key things that you need to do during your junior year that will be necessary when filling out your applications.

1. Take The SAT/ACT and SAT Subject Tests (40-60 hours)

The SAT/ACT are standardized tests that assess your aptitude and college readiness on an identical scale to all other students who take the exam. You are usually required to take at least one of these tests and submit your test score for your college applications, though it is worth noting there are some schools that don’t require it, and some schools that have waived that requirement due to Coronavirus.

You should also check whether your colleges require the SAT Subject Tests. These are hour-long, subject-specific exams, and you can take up to three in one sitting. Many students don’t realize they need to take these for more competitive schools and programs (like engineering), so that unfortunately limits where they can apply. To get a more comprehensive overview of SAT Subject Tests, check out our post What are SAT Subject Tests? .

Now, preparing for these exams properly often takes 4-6 months, with some time studying each day, and a handful of full-length practice tests, which take 3-4 hours.

Here are some free resources to help you prepare for these exams:

Links to Every SAT Practice Test + Other Free Resources

Your Guide to Free SAT Prep Classes

Your Guide to Online ACT Prep Classes

25 Tips and Tricks For The SAT

10 Tips to Improve Your ACT Score

SAT Subject Tests: Everything You Need to Know

2. Think About Who To Ask For Recommendation Letters (2-3 Hours)

Since you apply to college during the fall semester of your senior year, your senior year teachers won’t have had enough time with you to write your letters of recommendation for college applications. So, your choices for recommenders are usually restricted to your teachers from your first three years of high school, though you’ll ideally pick teachers from your junior year (since you had them recently).

Now, choosing a recommender is more than just selecting a few teachers at random. You should think carefully about which teachers would write you the best recommendation letter based on which teachers:

Know you best and can speak best to your academic accomplishments
Would be willing to take the time to write you a thoughtful recommendation letter
Would be most reliable in submitting the letter on time.

Then, once you’ve chosen your recommenders, you need to reach out to them for a recommendation letter kindly and respectfully, making sure that you’ve given the recommender all of the information about you that they need to craft a stellar letter (they may ask you for a brag sheet , so be prepared to make one).

Want a more thorough explanation of how to choose which teachers to ask for recommendation letters? Follow our comprehensive guide.

3. Research Colleges and Visit Them (20+ Hours)

You should narrow down the list of which colleges you want to apply to during your junior year because this is a big decision with a lot of factors at play. You need to think about whether you want to go to a big college or a smaller college, which colleges are best for your intended major, where in the world you want to be during college, how much each college is going to cost, etc.

Thinking about all of these factors and choosing colleges that fit your criteria takes quite a bit of time and a lot of research. Plus, if you decide to visit some colleges to get a better idea of whether they would be right for you, those visits can sometimes take days, depending on how far you go for your visit.

Luckily, we at CollegeVine have given you a great place to start your research and plan your college list from the comforts of your home. Our School List Builder helps you form your college list by taking into account your preferences, your chances of acceptance based on your profile, and each school’s cost of attendance.

Moreover, if you want to get a first-hand view of what it is like to attend some of the schools you’re considering, join CollegeVine’s Livestreams , where you’ll not only gain some helpful college application tips from the experts, but also have the opportunity to have Q&A’s with current students from the top schools.

Discover your chances at hundreds of schools

Our free chancing engine takes into account your history, background, test scores, and extracurricular activities to show you your real chances of admission—and how to improve them.

Senior Year

1. decide whether or not you’re applying early (5-10 hours).

Most students know that the majority of colleges set their college application deadline around January 1st. However, if you are really passionate about a school, you have the opportunity to submit your college application earlier in the semester to be given early consideration for acceptance. However, many of these early decision options come with large caveats (e.g. if you get accepted early, you are obligated to attend). So it’s important to know what each early applying option is and how it might affect you:

Early Decision (ED): Early November

Applying to a college Early Decision means that you submit your application months before the Regular Application deadline, and you commit yourself to attending that specific university if you are accepted. You can’t apply to more than one school Early Decision.

Early Action (EA): Early November

Early Action differs from Early Decision in that your acceptance to the school in question is not binding, and you can apply to more than one school Early Action. You could apply to a school Early Action in order to indicate your interest in the college, but you would have the option to turn down the acceptance in favor of another college if given the opportunity.

Restrictive Early Action/Single-Choice Early Action (REA/SCEA): Early November

Like Early Action, REA/SCEA is non-binding, but you can only apply to one private school using this option. For more information on this option, check out our comprehensive post on Restrictive Early Action.

Early Decision 2 (ED 2): Early January

Some colleges offer an Early Decision 1 deadline and an Early Decision 2 deadline. The two are very similar in that they are binding decisions that require you to submit your applications early. However, ED 1 deadlines are usually earlier than ED 2 deadlines. For more details on this, see ED I vs. ED II: Frequently Asked Questions .

Regular Decision (RD): Early January

This is the college application process that most people are familiar with. You submit your application by the Regular Application deadline (usually January 1), and you’ll be considered for admission amidst the much larger Regular Decision pool of students.

Rolling Decision

Larger public universities often use rolling decisions, which is when they review applications on a first-come, first-served basis. The earlier you apply, the more spots there are available, and the more lenient the standards tend to be. The good thing about schools with rolling admissions is that they tend to accept applications well into the spring, but you should always apply as early as you can to increase your chances of acceptance.

Deciding whether to apply early can take anywhere from 5-10 hours because you need to assess whether there’s a school that you want to attend enough to apply early, and also whether you can complete the application in the shortened time frame. Here are some helpful blog posts to help you make this decision:

What Are the Differences Between Early Action and Early Decision?

Does Applying Early Decision Increase My Chances?

Should I Apply Early Decision If I Need Financial Aid?

2. Write The Common App Essays (20-30 hours)

Now it comes time to actually fill out your college applications. When you submit the Common App, you will need to use the essays to showcase who you are and why you stand out from other applicants.

The Common App essay is one of a portfolio of essays that you will send to colleges, but it is arguably the most important. This essay will be seen by every college you apply to using the platform. Good essays are deeply personal and show how you think, solve problems, make decisions, and what you’re passionate about.

These essays can take anywhere from 20-30 hours as you need to carefully choose a prompt, brainstorm ideas, organize your thoughts, draft, edit, re-draft, edit again, and so on. You also need to make sure you proofread before you submit for any grammar mistakes and have someone else who knows you proofread as well.

To learn more about the Common Application Essays, the Coalition Application Essays (another major application platform), and receive strategic tips on how to tackle this year’s prompts, check out:

How to Write the Coalition Application Essays 2020-2021

How to Write the Common App Essays 2020-2021—With Examples

11 Stellar Common App Essay Examples to Inspire Your Writing

3. Complete Each School’s Supplemental Essays (5-10 hours per school)

Supplemental essays are the college-specific essays that you may or may not have to write, depending on which colleges you are applying to. Some colleges require several short supplemental essays on prompts that are specific to their school. For example, one of MIT’s supplemental essay prompts during the 2019-2020 school year was:

“At MIT, we bring people together to better the lives of others. MIT students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community, whether in your family, the classroom, your neighborhood, etc. (200-250 words)”

On the other hand, some colleges don’t require supplemental essays at all . If you do find yourself with numerous supplemental essays to write, you may notice that there are common themes among the prompts for different colleges. There will probably be essays you can write that would be applicable to multiple supplemental essay prompts for different schools.

For example, many colleges ask for an essay describing your extracurricular involvement. With a little bit of tweaking, you could make one extracurricular essay speak to every prompt that asks about it. Since there is likely to be overlap in your supplemental essay prompts, we expect this process to take less time than the general Common App/Coalition Application essays.

That being said, there are some essays that you absolutely should not reuse for multiple schools. For example, the famous “ Why This College? ” essay needs to be unique to the school and mention specific aspects of each college that appeal to you. If you find yourself thinking you can reuse a “Why This College?” essay, you probably haven’t been specific enough with the essay.

4. Fill Out Financial Aid Documents (5-10 hours)

Once all is said and done and your application is complete, you still need to figure out how you plan to pay for college. Of course, before you apply to colleges, you should have a conversation with your family outlining just how much they can contribute financially and how much outside funding you’ll need.

If you need financial aid to fund your college tuition, you’ll have to submit applications. The most common financial aid applications are the FAFSA and the CSS Profile. The FAFSA is an application for U.S. citizens to apply for federal government-funded need-based student loans. The CSS Profile is a financial aid form administered by The College Board that helps over 400 colleges across the nation determine what financial aid package to offer you.

To learn more about how to fill out the FAFSA, see The Ultimate Guide For Filling Out The FAFSA . For more information on the CSS Profile, check out Every School That Requires The CSS Profile.

Filling out these forms can take a bit of time, as you’ll need to gather your family’s financial info and relevant documents. It can be helpful to have a parent/guardian nearby while you’re going through these forms.

The Bottom Line

The college application process starts during your Junior year and can take at least 100 hours to complete. This process includes completing your standardized tests, asking for recommendation letters, researching colleges, writing essays and more.

Once you’ve done all the preliminary steps for filling out the application, actually filling out each school-specific application and writing their supplemental essays should only take 5-10 hours.

As you begin your College Application and research process, you may be asking yourself important questions: What test scores should I aim for? What colleges should I apply to? What colleges do I have a chance of getting into? To help you answer those tough questions, CollegeVine offers a free Chancing Engine that lets you know your chances of acceptance at the schools of your choice, plus how to improve your profile. Sign up for a free CollegeVine account to get started today.

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College essay

How to Write a College Essay | A Complete Guide & Examples

The college essay can make or break your application. It’s your chance to provide personal context, communicate your values and qualities, and set yourself apart from other students.

A standout essay has a few key ingredients:

A unique, personal topic
A compelling, well-structured narrative
A clear, creative writing style
Evidence of self-reflection and insight

To achieve this, it’s crucial to give yourself enough time for brainstorming, writing, revision, and feedback.

In this comprehensive guide, we walk you through every step in the process of writing a college admissions essay.

Why do you need a standout essay, start organizing early, choose a unique topic, outline your essay, start with a memorable introduction, write like an artist, craft a strong conclusion, revise and receive feedback, frequently asked questions.

While most of your application lists your academic achievements, your college admissions essay is your opportunity to share who you are and why you’d be a good addition to the university.

Your college admissions essay accounts for about 25% of your application’s total weight一and may account for even more with some colleges making the SAT and ACT tests optional. The college admissions essay may be the deciding factor in your application, especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurriculars.

What do colleges look for in an essay?

Admissions officers want to understand your background, personality, and values to get a fuller picture of you beyond your test scores and grades. Here’s what colleges look for in an essay :

Demonstrated values and qualities
Vulnerability and authenticity
Self-reflection and insight
Creative, clear, and concise writing skills

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

It’s a good idea to start organizing your college application timeline in the summer of your junior year to make your application process easier. This will give you ample time for essay brainstorming, writing, revision, and feedback.

While timelines will vary for each student, aim to spend at least 1–3 weeks brainstorming and writing your first draft and at least 2–4 weeks revising across multiple drafts. Remember to leave enough time for breaks in between each writing and editing stage.

Create an essay tracker sheet

If you’re applying to multiple schools, you will have to juggle writing several essays for each one. We recommend using an essay tracker spreadsheet to help you visualize and organize the following:

Deadlines and number of essays needed
Prompt overlap, allowing you to write one essay for similar prompts

You can build your own essay tracker using our free Google Sheets template.

College essay tracker template

Ideally, you should start brainstorming college essay topics the summer before your senior year. Keep in mind that it’s easier to write a standout essay with a unique topic.

If you want to write about a common essay topic, such as a sports injury or volunteer work overseas, think carefully about how you can make it unique and personal. You’ll need to demonstrate deep insight and write your story in an original way to differentiate it from similar essays.

What makes a good topic?

Meaningful and personal to you
Uncommon or has an unusual angle
Reveals something different from the rest of your application

Brainstorming questions

You should do a comprehensive brainstorm before choosing your topic. Here are a few questions to get started:

What are your top five values? What lived experiences demonstrate these values?
What adjectives would your friends and family use to describe you?
What challenges or failures have you faced and overcome? What lessons did you learn from them?
What makes you different from your classmates?
What are some objects that represent your identity, your community, your relationships, your passions, or your goals?
Whom do you admire most? Why?
What three people have significantly impacted your life? How did they influence you?

How to identify your topic

Here are two strategies for identifying a topic that demonstrates your values:

Start with your qualities : First, identify positive qualities about yourself; then, brainstorm stories that demonstrate these qualities.
Start with a story : Brainstorm a list of memorable life moments; then, identify a value shown in each story.

After choosing your topic, organize your ideas in an essay outline , which will help keep you focused while writing. Unlike a five-paragraph academic essay, there’s no set structure for a college admissions essay. You can take a more creative approach, using storytelling techniques to shape your essay.

Two common approaches are to structure your essay as a series of vignettes or as a single narrative.

Vignettes structure

The vignette, or montage, structure weaves together several stories united by a common theme. Each story should demonstrate one of your values or qualities and conclude with an insight or future outlook.

This structure gives the admissions officer glimpses into your personality, background, and identity, and shows how your qualities appear in different areas of your life.

Topic: Museum with a “five senses” exhibit of my experiences

Introduction: Tour guide introduces my museum and my “Making Sense of My Heritage” exhibit
Story: Racial discrimination with my eyes
Lesson: Using my writing to document truth
Story: Broadway musical interests
Lesson: Finding my voice
Story: Smells from family dinner table
Lesson: Appreciating home and family
Story: Washing dishes
Lesson: Finding moments of peace in busy schedule
Story: Biking with Ava
Lesson: Finding pleasure in job well done
Conclusion: Tour guide concludes tour, invites guest to come back for “fall College Collection,” featuring my search for identity and learning.

Single story structure

The single story, or narrative, structure uses a chronological narrative to show a student’s character development over time. Some narrative essays detail moments in a relatively brief event, while others narrate a longer journey spanning months or years.

Single story essays are effective if you have overcome a significant challenge or want to demonstrate personal development.

Topic: Sports injury helps me learn to be a better student and person

Situation: Football injury
Challenge: Friends distant, teachers don’t know how to help, football is gone for me
Turning point: Starting to like learning in Ms. Brady’s history class; meeting Christina and her friends
My reactions: Reading poetry; finding shared interest in poetry with Christina; spending more time studying and with people different from me
Insight: They taught me compassion and opened my eyes to a different lifestyle; even though I still can’t play football, I’m starting a new game

Brainstorm creative insights or story arcs

Regardless of your essay’s structure, try to craft a surprising story arc or original insights, especially if you’re writing about a common topic.

Never exaggerate or fabricate facts about yourself to seem interesting. However, try finding connections in your life that deviate from cliché storylines and lessons.

Admissions officers read thousands of essays each year, and they typically spend only a few minutes reading each one. To get your message across, your introduction , or hook, needs to grab the reader’s attention and compel them to read more..

Avoid starting your introduction with a famous quote, cliché, or reference to the essay itself (“While I sat down to write this essay…”).

While you can sometimes use dialogue or a meaningful quotation from a close family member or friend, make sure it encapsulates your essay’s overall theme.

Find an original, creative way of starting your essay using the following two methods.

Option 1: Start with an intriguing hook

Begin your essay with an unexpected statement to pique the reader’s curiosity and compel them to carefully read your essay. A mysterious introduction disarms the reader’s expectations and introduces questions that can only be answered by reading more.

Option 2: Start with vivid imagery

Illustrate a clear, detailed image to immediately transport your reader into your memory. You can start in the middle of an important scene or describe an object that conveys your essay’s theme.

A college application essay allows you to be creative in your style and tone. As you draft your essay, try to use interesting language to enliven your story and stand out .

Show, don’t tell

“Tell” in writing means to simply state a fact: “I am a basketball player.” “ Show ” in writing means to use details, examples, and vivid imagery to help the reader easily visualize your memory: “My heart races as I set up to shoot一two seconds, one second一and score a three-pointer!”

First, reflect on every detail of a specific image or scene to recall the most memorable aspects.

What are the most prominent images?
Are there any particular sounds, smells, or tastes associated with this memory?
What emotion or physical feeling did you have at that time?

Be vulnerable to create an emotional response

You don’t have to share a huge secret or traumatic story, but you should dig deep to express your honest feelings, thoughts, and experiences to evoke an emotional response. Showing vulnerability demonstrates humility and maturity. However, don’t exaggerate to gain sympathy.

Use appropriate style and tone

Make sure your essay has the right style and tone by following these guidelines:

Use a conversational yet respectful tone: less formal than academic writing, but more formal than texting your friends.
Prioritize using “I” statements to highlight your perspective.
Write within your vocabulary range to maintain an authentic voice.
Write concisely, and use the active voice to keep a fast pace.
Follow grammar rules (unless you have valid stylistic reasons for breaking them).

You should end your college essay with a deep insight or creative ending to leave the reader with a strong final impression. Your college admissions essay should avoid the following:

Summarizing what you already wrote
Stating your hope of being accepted to the school
Mentioning character traits that should have been illustrated in the essay, such as “I’m a hard worker”

Here are two strategies to craft a strong conclusion.

Option 1: Full circle, sandwich structure

The full circle, or sandwich, structure concludes the essay with an image, idea, or story mentioned in the introduction. This strategy gives the reader a strong sense of closure.

In the example below, the essay concludes by returning to the “museum” metaphor that the writer opened with.

Option 2: Revealing your insight

You can use the conclusion to show the insight you gained as a result of the experiences you’ve described. Revealing your main message at the end creates suspense and keeps the takeaway at the forefront of your reader’s mind.

Revise your essay before submitting it to check its content, style, and grammar. Get feedback from no more than two or three people.

It’s normal to go through several rounds of revision, but take breaks between each editing stage.

Also check out our college essay examples to see what does and doesn’t work in an essay and the kinds of changes you can make to improve yours.

Respect the word count

Most schools specify a word count for each essay , and you should stay within 10% of the upper limit.

Remain under the specified word count limit to show you can write concisely and follow directions. However, don’t write too little, which may imply that you are unwilling or unable to write a thoughtful and developed essay.

Check your content, style, and grammar

First, check big-picture issues of message, flow, and clarity.
Then, check for style and tone issues.
Finally, focus on eliminating grammar and punctuation errors.

Get feedback

Get feedback from 2–3 people who know you well, have good writing skills, and are familiar with college essays.

Teachers and guidance counselors can help you check your content, language, and tone.
Friends and family can check for authenticity.
An essay coach or editor has specialized knowledge of college admissions essays and can give objective expert feedback.

The checklist below helps you make sure your essay ticks all the boxes.

College admissions essay checklist

I’ve organized my essay prompts and created an essay writing schedule.

I’ve done a comprehensive brainstorm for essay topics.

I’ve selected a topic that’s meaningful to me and reveals something different from the rest of my application.

I’ve created an outline to guide my structure.

I’ve crafted an introduction containing vivid imagery or an intriguing hook that grabs the reader’s attention.

I’ve written my essay in a way that shows instead of telling.

I’ve shown positive traits and values in my essay.

I’ve demonstrated self-reflection and insight in my essay.

I’ve used appropriate style and tone .

I’ve concluded with an insight or a creative ending.

I’ve revised my essay , checking my overall message, flow, clarity, and grammar.

I’ve respected the word count , remaining within 10% of the upper word limit.

Congratulations!

It looks like your essay ticks all the boxes. A second pair of eyes can help you take it to the next level – Scribbr's essay coaches can help.

Colleges want to be able to differentiate students who seem similar on paper. In the college application essay , they’re looking for a way to understand each applicant’s unique personality and experiences.

Your college essay accounts for about 25% of your application’s weight. It may be the deciding factor in whether you’re accepted, especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurricular track records.

A standout college essay has several key ingredients:

A unique, personally meaningful topic
A memorable introduction with vivid imagery or an intriguing hook
Specific stories and language that show instead of telling
Vulnerability that’s authentic but not aimed at soliciting sympathy
Clear writing in an appropriate style and tone
A conclusion that offers deep insight or a creative ending

While timelines will differ depending on the student, plan on spending at least 1–3 weeks brainstorming and writing the first draft of your college admissions essay , and at least 2–4 weeks revising across multiple drafts. Don’t forget to save enough time for breaks between each writing and editing stage.

You should already begin thinking about your essay the summer before your senior year so that you have plenty of time to try out different topics and get feedback on what works.

Most college application portals specify a word count range for your essay, and you should stay within 10% of the upper limit to write a developed and thoughtful essay.

You should aim to stay under the specified word count limit to show you can follow directions and write concisely. However, don’t write too little, as it may seem like you are unwilling or unable to write a detailed and insightful narrative about yourself.

If no word count is specified, we advise keeping your essay between 400 and 600 words.

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Trump's hush money trial could last six-to-eight weeks: What to know about the timeline

Donald Trump's hush money trial that begins Monday in Manhattan could last as long as eight weeks.

It is the first time a former president has been criminally charged, although Trump has now also been charged in three other criminal cases in other jurisdictions for attempting to overturn the 2020 election and hoarding classified documents after leaving office.

In New York, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for allegedly disguising hush money payments issued to porn star Stormy Daniels. He has pleaded not guilty.

On his way into the Manhattan courthouse Monday morning, he said without evidence that the trial is “political persecution” and “an assault on America.”

While the lengthy proceedings could take him off the campaign trail, his campaign has already used the trial as a fundraising hook .

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

Trump trial live updates: Will we get 12 jurors on Day 3? Jury selection continues today.

How long will the Trump trial last?

The trial will last about six-to-eight weeks, according to a court media advisory .

Trump trial timeline: What to expect

Jury selection is up first on Monday, which could be an especially lengthy process given many potential jurors will likely have opinions about Trump that both sides may want to explore. New York law requires unanimity from a 12-person jury to convict a criminal defendant in a felony case.

Normally, the trial then proceeds into opening arguments, which give both sides the chance to provide an outline to jurors of what they believe the evidence will show , followed by the prosecution calling witnesses to testify and introducing evidence.

The defense will then try to poke holes in the prosecution's case through cross-examination, followed by the opportunity to call its own witnesses and introduce its own evidence.

Finally, the parties will give closing arguments, and the jury will be tasked with rendering a verdict.

The proceedings are scheduled to take place weekly Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The court may make some accommodations for the Passover holiday in April. Trump has asked for May 17 off for Barron Trump's high school graduation, but the judge has not yet issued a ruling on the request.

If Trump is convicted, Judge Juan Merchan will decide on a sentence that could range from probation to four years in prison , according to experts.

Contributing: Bart Jansen

Esma Odille

Explore ideas, tips guide and info Esma Odille

How Long Does The Sat Take 2024

How Long Does The Sat Take 2024 . Feb 23, 2024 february 27, 2024: We've listed international test dates in separate tables since the.

We’ll lay out everything you need to know about the 2024 sat test dates, including registration deadlines and score release dates. Students testing outside the u.s.

The Sat Takes A Total Of Three Hours, Or Three Hours And 15 Minutes Including The Breaks.

The exact release date will vary depending on the test date and the time of year.

How Long Does It Take To Get Sat Scores?

Each year, college board announces the dates for upcoming sat exams, including registration deadlines.

Starting In 2023 For International Students And In 2024.

Images references :, each year, college board announces the dates for upcoming sat exams, including registration deadlines..

This change will apply to every sat exam date from january 2024 forward.

And If You Choose To Sign Up For The Optional Essay , The Sat Takes 3 Hours And 50.

How long does the sat take?

Sats Are Taken On Saturdays, And Scores Generally Come Out On The Second Friday After Your.

Max Releases October 2024

Max Releases October 2024. Every month, hbo and max streaming add new movies and tv shows to their libraries. Here's everything coming to the max […]

Santa Parade Route 2024

Santa Parade Route 2024. Welcome to the largest christmas parade in chilliwack: Find out more information on the parade and how to participate! The 2024 […]

Senate quickly votes to dismiss impeachment articles against DHS Secretary Mayorkas

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats successfully voted to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday, just hours after the trial formally opened.

The speed of the impeachment trial was an embarrassing blow to Republicans who had threatened to gum up the Senate and delay the proceedings in a bid to highlight what they argue is Mayorkas’ failure to secure the border and stop the flow of thousands of undocumented migrants at the border.

However, Democrats, who control the upper chamber, easily dispensed with the pair of impeachment articles — as well as several motions to adjourn the Senate.

They passed a motion declaring that the first impeachment article — accusing Mayorkas of failing to enforce immigration laws — “does not allege conduct that rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor” and “is therefore unconstitutional.” The party-line vote was 51-48, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voting “present.”

Democrats also passed a motion declaring the second article — alleging that Mayorkas lied to Congress under oath — unconstitutional. That strictly party-line vote tally was 51-49.

The Senate then voted to end the trial "sine die," meaning for good, less than 3 1/2 hours after it began.

"Once and for all, the Senate has rightly voted down this baseless impeachment that even conservative legal scholars said was unconstitutional," said Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson.

“President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas will continue doing their jobs to keep America safe and pursue actual solutions at the border, and Congressional Republicans should join them, instead of wasting time on baseless political stunts while killing real bipartisan border security reforms.”

There was never a scenario in which Mayorkas would have been convicted, which would have required two-thirds, or 67 votes. From early on, the Democrats, led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, pledged to "expeditiously" deal with impeachment and then move on to other business.

Republicans, who had hoped to drag out the process and make it as politically painful as possible for Democrats, cried foul over how quickly the trial wrapped up. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said Democrats set a horrible precedent by rapidly dismissing the articles; he suggested this could mean the end of any future impeachment.

"It just won't make any difference, right? If you can impeach and then it will come over here and just be like, boom, gone, done, you don't have to do anything," Hawley said. "Why wouldn't a future Senate avail themselves of that to get rid of it and not have to go through a trial?"

Schumer fired back, arguing that it was Republicans who had set the "dangerous precedent" by "letting impeachment take the place of policy disagreements."

"Cabinet person after Cabinet person could be subject to this; we cannot have that happen," Schumer told reporters after the trial.

Senate President Pro Tem Patty Murray, D-Wash., presided over the trial on Wednesday.

A day earlier, the 11 House GOP impeachment managers, or prosecutors, walked across the Capitol to the Senate chamber and hand-delivered the two articles , accusing Mayorkas of failing to enforce immigration laws and secure the border, as well as lying to Congress under oath, including by saying the U.S. border with Mexico is “secure.”

After they read the articles on the Senate floor, the managers joined conservative senators at a news conference where they demanded a full trial and said a motion to quickly dispense with the articles would be unprecedented.

After the Senate voted to dismiss the articles, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and his GOP leadership team issued a strong rebuke to Democrats.

“By voting unanimously to bypass their constitutional responsibility, every single Senate Democrat has issued their full endorsement of the Biden Administration’s dangerous open border policies," the GOP leaders said in a statement.

"Secretary Mayorkas alongside President Biden has used nearly every tool at his disposal to engineer the greatest humanitarian and national security catastrophe at our borders in American history."

DHS spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg dismissed the "baseless" impeachment in a statement, saying, "Secretary Mayorkas will continue working every day to enforce our laws and protect our country. It’s time for Congressional Republicans to support the Department’s vital mission instead of wasting time playing political games."

Scott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News.

Frank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.

Iran’s Attacks Bring Long Shadow War With Israel Into the Open

The volley of drones and missiles was the first time that Tehran directly attacked Israel from its own territory, one expert said.

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A building reduced to rubble in Damascus, Syria.

By Cassandra Vinograd

Published April 14, 2024 Updated April 18, 2024

Follow live updates on Israeli military strikes in Iran.

For decades, Israel and Iran have fought a shadow war across the Middle East , trading attacks by land, sea, air and in cyberspace. The barrage of drones and missiles Iran launched at Israel on Saturday — though nearly all were shot down or intercepted — represented a watershed in the conflict.

It was the first time that Iran directly attacked Israel from its own territory, according to Ahron Bregman, a political scientist and expert in Middle East security issues at King’s College in London, who called it a “historic event.”

Iran has largely used foreign proxies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia to strike Israeli interests, while targeted assassinations of Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists have been a key part of Israel’s strategy. Here is a recent history of the conflict:

August 2019: An Israeli airstrike killed two Iranian-trained militants in Syria, a drone set off a blast near a Hezbollah office in Lebanon and an airstrike in Qaim, Iraq, killed a commander of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia. Israel accused Iran at the time of trying to establish an overland arms-supply line through Iraq and northern Syria to Lebanon, and analysts said the strikes were aimed at stopping Iran and signaling to its proxies that Israel would not tolerate a fleet of smart missiles on its borders.

January 2020: Israel greeted with satisfaction the assassination of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani , the commander of the foreign-facing arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in an American drone strike in Baghdad.

Iran hit back by attacking two bases in Iraq that housed American troops with a barrage of missiles, wounding about 100 U.S. military personnel .

2021-22: In July 2021, an oil tanker managed by an Israeli-owned shipping company was attacked off the coast of Oman, killing two crew members, according to the company and three Israeli officials. Two of the officials said that the attack appeared to have been carried out by Iranian drones.

Iran did not explicitly claim or deny responsibility, but a state-owned television channel described the episode as a response to an Israeli strike in Syria.

In November 2021, Israel killed Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh , and followed up with the assassination of a Revolutionary Guards commander, Col. Sayad Khodayee , in May 2022.

December 2023: After Israel’s bombardment of Gaza began in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assault, Iranian-backed militias stepped up their own attacks . And late last year, Iran accused Israel of killing a high-level military figure, Brig. Gen. Sayyed Razi Mousavi , in a missile strike in Syria.

A senior adviser to the Revolutionary Guards, General Mousavi was described as having been a close associate of General Suleimani and was said to have helped oversee the shipment of arms to Hezbollah. Israel, adopting its customary stance, declined to comment directly on whether it was behind General Mousavi’s death.

January 2024: An explosion in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, killed Saleh al-Arouri , a Hamas leader, along with two commanders from that group’s armed wing, the first assassination of a top Hamas official outside the West Bank and Gaza in recent years. Officials from Hamas, Lebanon and the United States ascribed the blast to Israel , which did not publicly confirm involvement.

Hezbollah, which receives major support from Iran, stepped up its assaults on Israel after Mr. al-Arouri’s death. Israel’s military hit back at Hezbollah in Lebanon, killing several of the group’s commanders .

March and April: An Israeli drone strike hit a car in southern Lebanon, killing at least one person. Israel’s military said it had killed the deputy commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile unit. Hezbollah acknowledged the death of a man, Ali Abdulhassan Naim, but did not provide further details.

The same day, airstrikes killed soldiers near Aleppo, northern Syria, in what appeared to be one of the heaviest Israeli attacks in the country in years. The strikes killed 36 Syrian soldiers, seven Hezbollah fighters and a Syrian from a pro-Iran militia, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group that tracks Syria’s civil war.

Israel’s military did not claim responsibility. But the country’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, wrote on social media, “We will pursue Hezbollah every place it operates and we will expand the pressure and the pace of the attacks.”

Three days later, strikes on an Iranian Embassy building in Damascus killed three top Iranian commanders and four officers, an attack Iran blamed on Israel.

Matthew Mpoke Bigg contributed reporting.

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College Essay Tips

COMMENTS

How Long is an Essay? Guidelines for Different Types of Essay
Essay length guidelines. Type of essay. Average word count range. Essay content. High school essay. 300-1000 words. In high school you are often asked to write a 5-paragraph essay, composed of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. College admission essay. 200-650 words.
How Long Is an Essay? The Ultimate Essay Length Guide
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.
How Long Should a College Essay Be?
Revised on June 1, 2023. Most college application portals specify a word count range for your essay, and you should stay within 10% of the upper limit. If no word count is specified, we advise keeping your essay between 400 and 600 words. You should aim to stay under the specified limit to show you can follow directions and write concisely.
The Best College Essay Length: How Long Should It Be?
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.
The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay
The conclusion is the final paragraph of an essay. It should generally take up no more than 10-15% of the text. A strong essay conclusion: Returns to your thesis; ... How long is an essay? Guidelines for different types of essay The length of an academic essay varies by type. High school essays are often 500 words, but graduate essays can be ...
How Long Should Your College Essay Be? What Is the Ideal Length?
Personal statements are generally 500-650 words. For example, the Common Application, which can be used to apply to more than 800 colleges, requires an essay ranging from 250-650 words. Similarly, the Coalition Application, which has 150 member schools, features an essay with a recommended length of 500-650 words.
How Long Should a College Essay Be?
Some expect one longer essay, while others expect responses to multiple prompts using a shorter word count for each answer. However, that's not always the case. If your institution doesn't provide a specific word count, it's best to keep your essay between the length established by the longer college admissions essay format: 250 to 650 words.
How Long is an Essay
In college, essay lengths vary widely. Admission essays are typically 200-650 words, undergraduate essays range from 1500-5000 words, graduate admission essays are around 500-1000 words, and graduate-level essays can span 2500-6000 words. Always adhere to your assignment's specific word count guidelines.
How Long is an Essay? ️ Average Essay Length Guide
Sentence length will vary based on the paper type you're working on. In narrative essays, you have to tell a story, which means sentences can be very long (up to 50 words). But general advice would be to keep sentences shorter than 25 words. Considering that, a 500-word essay would have somewhere between 20 to 45 sentences.
How long does it take to write a college essay?
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.
How long does it typically take to write a college essay?
7 months ago. It's completely normal to feel stressed about writing your college essay. The time it takes to write one can vary greatly depending on the individual and the topic. Some students can finish a draft in a few hours, while others may take days or even weeks to perfect it. To manage your time effectively, start by setting a realistic ...
How long does writing a college essay usually take?
Hey there! The amount of time it takes to write a college essay varies greatly depending on the individual. Some students can finish a solid draft in a few days, while others may take weeks or even longer to perfect their essay. From my experience with my own child, it took them about a week to finish their first draft and then a few more days for revisions.
How long does it take to write 1000 words? (ESSAY PLANNING MASTERCLASS
10000 words: 10-20 hours (6-15 sessions) These estimates are just for the writing stage and assume you have done your research and made a solid outline essay plan. The editing stage will require additional time. Shorter essays will take about as long to edit as they took to write.
How to write a 3,000 word essay in a day
1.45pm - 6pm: Write the body of the essay. 6pm - 6.45pm: Dinner break. 6.45pm - 10.30pm: Edit, improve and meet the word count. 10.30pm - 11pm: Print (if needed) and get everything ready for the morning. Remember to schedule a few short 10-minute breaks (one every 45-60 minutes should do the trick).
How Long Does It Take to Write a 1000 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 good essay?
Also, be sure to schedule breaks for yourself to refresh your brain and recharge. An example of a plan for a one-day essay project might look like this: 8:00 - 9:30 am - come up with a problem and an argument for the topic. 9:30 - 9:45 am - take a short break. 10:00 - 12:00 - do the research. 12:00 - 1:00 - develop the essay ...
How Long to Write an Essay or Paper: Both in Pages and Words
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 to write 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 a day, depending on the technicalities ...
How Long Is a 3000-Word Essay? Length and Formatting Tips
A 3000-word essay can take anywhere between six and 24 hours to write, depending on the topic and the writer's proficiency. When single-spaced, a 3000-word essay is approximately 6 pages long, whereas double-spacing can extend it to 12 pages. Factors such as font type, margin size, and paragraph spacing can affect the length of the essay.
How Long Does the SAT Take?
The total time for the digital SAT is 2 hours and 14 minutes, not including breaks, and the test consists of: Reading and Writing: 64-minute section with 54 questions (1 minute 11 seconds per question) Math: 70-minute section with 44 questions (1 minute 35 seconds per question) Compared to the ACT®, the SAT® provides 67% more time per question.
How Long Do College Applications Take?
The Bottom Line. The college application process starts during your Junior year and can take at least 100 hours to complete. This process includes completing your standardized tests, asking for recommendation letters, researching colleges, writing essays and more.
How to Write a College Essay
How long does it take to write a college essay? While timelines will differ depending on the student, plan on spending at least 1-3 weeks brainstorming and writing the first draft of your college admissions essay, and at least 2-4 weeks revising across multiple drafts. Don't forget to save enough time for breaks between each writing and ...
How long does it take to fill out a college application?
You may need a month or more to gather the materials needed, such as letters of recommendation and transcripts. Once you have all your materials gathered, you can complete the basic information on an application in less than an hour. Writing the essay and personal statement can take a few days up to a few weeks, depending on the content and number of revisions.
[Question] Any video essay makers out here? How long does it take you
6-18 hours depending on the depth and quality of the video. It gets faster and higher quality each time. Funny enough, my best performing essay-style video was the product of 8 straight hours of work after a spontaneous idea one night. I'm very very small so idk how this would compare to channels with better quality and larger audiences.
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