9 Ways How to Make an Essay Longer and meet the Word Count

Students are often faced with a dilemma when they are asked to write long essays. This is because they are unable to come up with enough words to fill the multiple pages. Students may have the points for the essay but fail to have enough content to fill the pages.

If you need help with lengthening an essay, the best solution is to have one of our professional essay writers for hire do the task for you.

However, if you want to do it yourself, read on. This article will explore how students can make their essays longer without making them look shoddy.

9 Practical Ways to Make an Essay Longer

You can make your essay longer by adding more evidence, examples, and illustrations, quotations, applying longer phrases, and adding more content on the topic. This way, you will meet the required word count and enrich the essay’s contents. This increases the chances of scoring a better grade.

Let us explore the best 9 ways to lengthen an essay and teach you the most optimal that will not water down the content or the arguments.

1. Choose a Longer Assignment Prompt

As you finish your essay, you may be thinking that you have responded to every prompt given to you by the instructor. However, in some cases, you may have skipped or missed something that would have added more content to your essay.

In this case, you should double-check all the instructions and be sure to include everything that has been asked to make your essay longer.

At the same time, if you check the instructions or prompt again, you may find a new perspective or angle to tackle the assignment.

This is where you look at the assignment in another way so that you can include new perspectives on top of what you have already written. This has an added advantage because your essay will be more thorough while making it longer.

If you find yourself unable to look at the prompt from a new angle, you may seek help from your instructor or classmates. They can give you new ideas from which you can expand your essay and make it longer. 

2. Include every Detail in your Essay

Before writing an essay, the first step is usually to create an outline that will guide you while drafting the final essay. The outline contains points from which you will expand or explain within the body of your essay.

To make your essay longer, it is important to check the outline again to ensure that you have included everything that has been outlined in it.

For example, while drafting the essay, you might have skipped some things that seemed unnecessary at the time. If that is the case, it is better to include the skipped things so that you can make your essay longer.

However, if you did not create an outline before writing the essay, you can write it even after you have completed the essay.

It is never too late to write an outline because it will help you focus more on what your target audience or the instructor wants to know. You might find new ideas that will add content to your essay. This will make an essay longer.

Read Also: 5 Parts of an Introduction Paragraph in an Essay or Paper

3. Lengthen your Introduction

In every essay, an introduction is very important. This is because the paragraph helps capture the attention of your readers so that they can be motivated to read the rest of the essay.

The introduction also sets a tone that will be used in the essay. Though it is a single paragraph in most of the essays, it is not a must for it to be short. It can be a long paragraph.

When you review your introductory paragraph, ask yourself this question: How can I make it better by expanding on the existing ideas or by adding more information to them?

You can expand the existing ideas that will help prepare your readers for what they will read in the body paragraphs. 

By adding more information, you will elaborate more on the topic so that when the target audience reads the rest of the paper, they will better understand the concepts or arguments.

You can also enhance the attention-grabbing capability of your introduction and add a quote or a story to make the essay longer.

4. Add more References and Evidence

This is a very practical way of making an essay longer. This is because it makes the arguments stronger or more credible. When writing an essay, you are supposed to have points that are supported by evidence from credible sources.

Therefore, the more the supporting evidence and the references that go with it, the stronger your points.

One method of adding more evidence and references into your essay is going back to your original outline.

In each point that has been outlined, find a way to support every point better using the new evidence and references. This will make your essay longer.

When writing a persuasive essay, it is important to anticipate refutations or the things that will make your readers disagree with your thesis statement.

Find the evidence that will neutralize the opposing perspectives and add them into every paragraph that contains your topic sentence. This will increase the length of your essay.

Also Read: Can you Use References in the Introduction Paragraph of an Essay

5. Using Relevant Quotations

This is also a very pragmatic approach that can make an essay longer. While using evidence and references to strengthen or support your points, you can also reinforce those arguments using relevant and credible quotes from the evidence.

The quotes should be relevant to your argument and should not be too long (not more than two sentences). 

Let us imagine you have been given a prompt whereby you are supposed to write about a case study or a book you have read.

In such a situation, you can strengthen your essay by adding relevant quotes from the case study or book. In the process, your essay will become longer without violating any writing conventions.  

Quotes will not only make your essay longer but will also save you writing time because you will just copy-paste the text into your essay.

However, to avoid plagiarism, it is imperative to add an in-text citation immediately after the quote and add the reference of the source at the end of the essay (reference page). 

6. Expand and Improve your Examples and Descriptions

Another way to make an essay longer is to provide relevant examples while elaborating on your points. This can be crucial in helping your readers understand and even relate to what you are trying to explain in your essay.

Here is where you start your sentence using the phrase “for example….” Examples can come from personal experience or facts from credible sources accompanied by citations. 

In descriptive essays or personal essays, you can add detailed descriptions to make your essay longer. You can use sensory details or imagery to enhance your descriptions.

For example, you can describe what a person is feeling, hearing, tasting, smelling, or seeing. When you select any of such senses, you will have an image in your mind while describing the situation.

This will increase the length of your body paragraphs and your essay. Examples and descriptions can also help expand your body paragraphs and enhance clarity.

7. Enhance the Transitions to Lengthen the Essay

This is a brilliant way to make an essay longer because transitions are necessary when crafting a good essay. Students should include smooth transitions between paragraphs.

Transitions signify that one paragraph is ending and a new one is on the way. They occupy more space on a page, hence why they make an essay longer. They also make the essay better or more professional.

Examples of good transition phrases or words that can make your essay longer include, but are not limited to, “because,” “on the contrary,” and “with this in mind.” Transitional phrases or words can come at the beginning or end of a new paragraph. 

When they come at the beginning of a new paragraph, it signals to the reader that a new point is about to be tackled within the paragraph.

If it comes at the end of a paragraph, it signals that the explanation of a point has come to an end and a new point is about to be discussed in the new paragraph. 

Also Read: Starter Sentences for Essays: Examples and How to Write Them

8. Eliminate Contractions to make Paragraphs Longer

Though there is nothing wrong with utilizing contractions within your essay, they end up making your essay sound casual to your readers.

When you wish to make your work sound serious, eliminate contractions and replace them with much lengthier versions. The lengthier versions will ultimately make your essay longer.

When it comes to abbreviations, using them in an essay can make a sentence shorter and, in the process, shorten the essay. However, if you use real words instead of abbreviations, your essay will be longer. 

Take, for example, in the following two sentences: “The WHO has provided a strict protocol that should be followed to help combat coronavirus disease”. “The World Health Organization has provided a strict protocol that should be followed to help combat coronavirus disease.”

The first sentence is comparatively shorter compared to the second sentence because the first uses an abbreviation. This is the opposite of ways that shorten an essay as we discussed in that post.

9. Enhance your Conclusion to make it long

Finally, enhancing the conclusion can make an essay longer while making it better. A conclusion will allow you to restate your thesis statement, review the main points of your essay, and provide the implications of your essay to future research, topics, or community. Therefore, you should ensure that you have included such points.

The implications of your essay can significantly lengthen your essay because you have the opportunity to write what you want and elaborate more on what you have written. 

Again, you can enhance your conclusion by thinking about it from the readers’ perspectives. In this case, you will add more content to the conclusion that will resonate with the readers. This makes an essay longer. 

Dos and Don’ts of Lengthening an Essay

Dos (tips) to Increase the Length of your Essay

1. Use Examples

This is a very useful tip because it not only provides clarity to your readers but it also increases the length of your essay without breaking any writing conventions.

If your essay has failed to reach the required length, go back to your arguments within each paragraph and try to include relevant examples.

Examples can be from personal experience or facts got from the source.

2. Use Quotes

This is also a great tip to use when you have written an essay that has failed to reach the required length. In the body paragraphs, find a point that can be enhanced by relevant quotes from a credible source.

Copy-paste the quote into your essay, and don’t forget to include an in-text citation at the end. However, avoid too many or long quotes.

3. Use of Phrases to Transition Between Ideas

This is a pragmatic way of making your essay longer. It makes the essay seem professionally written because the reader will know when a paragraph has ended and when another is about to begin. Such phrases or words can be: therefore, in light of, firstly/secondly, likewise, in conclusion, however, and so on. 

Also Read: Using Questions on a College Essay: Tips How to do it Right

Don’ts when Increasing the Length of your Essay

1. Making your Header or Subheadings Longer than Necessary

If you want to increase the length of your essay, avoid making the headers too long. This is because they will appear shoddy or unprofessional.

Your instructor will also notice and even penalize you for forcing your essay to be longer. After all, long headers add nothing to the content.

2. Making the Spacing Larger

You should avoid this at all costs because in most cases, your instructor will give requirements for the essay that will specify the spacing required.

If the essay is to be single-spaced, don’t make it double-spaced because the instructor will notice and penalize you.

3. Expanding the Space between Characters or Increasing the Font Size

This should also be avoided because there are specific instructions that should be followed when writing the essay. If they are not followed, your essay will be penalized. 

List of tools to make your Essay Longer

1. Essay Lengthener
2. Text Inflator
3. The Write Practice
4. CS Generator
5. ACA Planning Tool
6. Symmetric Book
7. Paraphrasing Tool
8. Word Count Tools
9. More Than A Tech

Jessica Kasen

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.