The Open University Students Association (OUSA)
in the West Midlands

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Word counts and ways to shorten them
(Shortening word counts)

"That loquacious tautological colloquialism is an egregiously verbose redundancy."

You have written your essay and counted the words - it is too large! The word count is well over that required - what can you do about it? The ideas below can be useful guides but the examples given are general and cannot be specific. These can apply to whole paragraphs, sentences or parts of sentences.
I have not given any examples of deleting paragraphs because this will depend on many factors and will be subject specific.

General points General points        
Particular points Some particular points Delete unnecessary words Delete unnecessary stuff Remove repetition Remove repetition.
    Remove adjectives & verbs Remove adjectives and adverbs Remove secondary information Remove secondary information.
    Rephrase Rephrase sentences One word not more Use one word instead of two or three
    Use numbers Use numbers instead of words. List Use a list
    Use a chart Use a chart or graphic Use a thesauras Using the word processors thesaurus
    Abbreviations Use abbreviations Avoid some words Avoid some words
    Course buzz words Dont forget course buzz words Autosummarize Autosummarize
           


General points
You should not shorten an essay by hacking out pieces in a way that destroys the meaning. Instead, see if you can improve the meaning by making the essay less verbose and more precise. Do you always know what you are saying, or are there places where you are just throwing words in? Replace vague passages that do not say anything important, and passages that ramble, with sentences that are to the point.

Try focusing your introduction more on the title, and then checking to see that the body of the essay sticks to what you focused on and does not wander all over the place. Remove material that is not relevant to what you say you are doing.
Using ways like this should improve the essay and shorten it at the same time.

A summary of the salient points is called a Précis.
Précising and paraphrasing are good practice for any writer.

You could précis any piece of writing, including your own. In the traditional précis students reduce a passage of writing to a third or a quarter of its original length by taking these steps:

  • Reading through the whole passage to get an overall view
  • Reading it through again, underlining each important point. These will all need to be included in the précis.
  • Writing a summary of the passage with all the underlined points in the appropriate order, omitting all unnecessary matter.
  • Comparing the summary with the original and adding anything of importance that has been left out.
  • Checking the length of your essay is to see how close to the target word count.
  • Re-reading carefully to see if the summary flows smoothly and is grammatically correct
  • Polishing

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Some particular points

  • Delete unnecessary stuff.
    Example 1: What is sound? Sound is defined as a vibration of any substance. ...
    Fix 1: Sound is defined as a vibration of any substance. ...
    There was no need to ask the rhetorical question. (reduced from 13 to 10)
    Example 2: John was employed and now works for the company Levis Strauss.
    Fix 2: John now works for the company Levis Strauss. (reduced from 11 to 8)
  • Remove repetition.
    Example: Our student is a physically ill student today
    Fix: Our student is physically ill today
  • Remove adjectives and adverbs
    Example: He wore a brown coat
    Fix: He wore a coat
  • Remove secondary information.
    Do you really need to hammer the point home with two arguments and quotes?

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  • Rephrase sentences
    Example: He had to work late into the night.
    Fix: He worked late into the night. (reduced from 8 to 6)
A feature sometimes referred to as This is called
As a means of entering To enter
Despite the fact that Although
Have been designed to provide Provide
is also displayed on the screen is displayed
It is important to remember that [none]
It should be borne in mind, however, that if However, if
Respond with Type
Select the command to insert the protocol entry by typing Type
The word processor provides a set of commands to allow you to You can
The system also provides you with the opportunity to create You can also create
The text can be modified in the required fashion Modify the text
To record the fact that To record that
Type the exact wording of the item you want to encode Type the new code
Using this technique also allows you to move You can move
It is my opinion that it should be outlawed It should be outlawed

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  • Use one word instead of two or three.
    Example: He wore a light brown coat
    Fix: He wore a fawn coat
  • Use numbers instead of words.
    Example: One thousand, four hundred and fifty five
    Fix: 1,455 (reduced from 7 to 1)
  • Use a list.
  • Use a chart or graphic.
    On some courses, you are allowed (and sometimes expected) to use charts or graphics. You can use these to good effect and reduce the word count. You can sometimes get away with words within a Figure and reduce your count further.
    Example: If you have a quote from a newspaper or magazine to discuss, instead of typing it all in and increasing your word count try scanning it. Then insert it as an image as Fig.1 Sunday Times, 25th March 2003. Ensure the content is readable and it shows that it IS from a paper by including a little bit of the surrounding text.
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  • Using the word processors thesaurus.
    Using the MS Word thesaurus can sometimes help you find a shorter word or phrase. Just right-click the word you want to change and point to Synonym in the shortcut menu.
  
  • Use abbreviations.
    At the first mention of, for example, the Open University Students Association introduce the abbreviation of OUSA - i.e. ….the Open University Students Association (OUSA). This allows you to use just the abbreviation throughout your essay
    Example: Open University Students Association
    Fix: OUSA (reduced from 4 to 1)
  • Avoid some words
    Avoid "just" and "so." Completely delete these two words. They are just so unnecessary.
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  • Dont forget course buzz words.
    These often replace several words
    Example: The country had major changes in the balance of the classes
    Fix: The demographic's of the country were altered.
    and
    Example 2: The towns were run by committees comprised of the gentry
    Fix 2: The towns were oligarchical
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  • If you are using Microsoft Word to write your essays
    Look under the 'tools' menu and try 'autosummarize' - this will cut your essay by whatever criteria you ask. Be aware that this particular software has no idea what you are talking about and will say anything to please. The result may well make sense but you cannot trust it to say what you want it to say. Check everything it does. Give it a seperate document to have a go at and see how it gets on.
  

 

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