Homeschool Coffee Break: High School Writing Tip Sheets

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Homeschool Coffee Break helps fuel this blog.

For the last couple of years I have been teaching high school writing in our homeschool tutorial co-op. Having seen several groups of students through the courses, I've noticed some issues and questions coming up regularly. I hope these Tip Sheets will be helpful to my students, their parents, and perhaps to other students and parent/teachers as well.

**********

Students sometimes wonder how much the word count requirement on writing assignments matter. What if they are under the word count? What if they go over? How far over or under before it's a problem? And what can they do if their paper is quite a bit too short or too long?

Personally, I generally follow the word count suggestions for assignments that are given in the textbook. The author does know a lot more about teaching writing than I do, and those word count suggestions are based on her experience and expertise in how long certain types of essays should be in order to handle the subject matter. In addition, some assignments have word counts based on practical concerns, such as article length for newspaper or magazine type publications. I read an interesting article at Inside Higher Ed suggesting A Teaching Experiment: Eliminate the Word Count and it was intriguing. The idea was that students will often just stop writing when they hit the word count target, regardless of whether they've adequately handled the subject or told a complete story. While that's likely very true, the experiment is suggested for college students, and I don't know that it's a great idea for high school students. At least not students writing non-fiction.

One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand. ~Quintilian

You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say. ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

How important is it to get the right number of words?

This does depend somewhat on the instructor and on the assignment, but in general you can be over or under the target by 5-10% without it being a problem. So an assignment requiring 500 words could be between 450 and 550 words. The minimum word count is usually more important than the maximum. You are probably not covering the subject adequately if you are not hitting the minimum word count. I hesitate to give a maximum word count, but some students actually do need to know when to stop! If you are going way over the suggested upper limit, you are probably trying to cover more subject material than necessary.

When grading, yes, I will take off points for assignments that are noticeably short or much too long. Essays that are too short may indicate that the student didn't put enough time or effort into the assignment. Essays that are too long may indicate that the student has not organized the material well, or that he is rambling or repeating himself. It could also be that it's something the student is passionate about, and has a lot to say, but he should still learn to say it concisely.

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people. ~William Butler Yeats

Any one who wishes to become a good writer should endeavour, before he allows himself to be tempted by the more showy qualities, to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid. ~H.W. Fowler

My paper is too short! How can I make it longer?

This is a pretty common concern from students. They don't have enough words in their essay and don't know what else they can say. If this is your situation, ask yourself these questions:

Is my topic too narrow? If you're trying to write a how-to paper, for example, and the process you've chosen to describe is very small and only has a couple of steps, your topic is likely too narrow.

Did I do thorough research? Use reputable sources, and use more than one when doing research. For a high school essay based on research, using at least three sources is recommended. Make sure you have plenty of source material from which to craft your essay.

Did I include all the parts and elements of the essay required? Almost all persuasive essays at high school level need at least five paragraphs - an introduction, a conclusion, and at least three paragraphs explaining the arguments. Make sure you develop each of your points well, and that your conclusion includes a clear and measurable call to action if it's required for the essay. Check that you have a separate paragraph for each point and that each one is developed well.

Did I deliver on the thesis statement? First, make sure your thesis statement is clear and well-stated, and that it's where it belongs in the essay. Many essay types should have the thesis statement at the end of the introduction, but in some essays it may appear in a transition paragraph somewhere in the middle, or in the conclusion. Wherever it is, make sure your essay supports it and backs it up.

Be grateful for every word you can cut. Writing improves in direct ratio to the things we can keep out of it that shouldn’t be there. ~William Zinsser

My paper is getting too long! How can I trim it down?

While some students do find themselves getting too wordy without meaning to, it may surprise you to hear that there are some students that are genuinely unhappy that they must limit their word count to whatever the teacher has specified! Don't fall into the trap of thinking that more words and longer papers demonstrate more intelligence. Respecting the word count requirements will help you to be concise and clear if you have a tendency to be wordy. If your paper is bigger than it should be, ask yourself the following:

Is my topic too broad? You've got a how-to essay assignment that's supposed to be around 500 words and your topic is home repairs and maintenance. Chances are you will have way too much material to cover properly in the word count range. Try narrowing it down to just one area like plumbing basics and you'll have a better chance. If you've got reams of notes from your research, that's another clue that your essay topic needs to be narrower. A brief biography of a well-known historic figure, for example, probably will need to focus on a particular aspect of their life rather than try to cover their entire life and career.

Am I including unnecessary details? Review your thesis statement, and then your supporting points and make sure you're supporting the thesis and not going onto rabbit trails. If you're including a little historical background to frame an argument, keep it as brief as possible. The tangents may be fascinating, but if they're not essential to making your point, they may not be essential to your essay. Just as the student with a too-short essay should ask Did I deliver on the thesis statement? the student with a too-long essay should ask the same. Focus your essay on that thesis statement and save the extras that aren't related for another time.

Am I choosing words wisely? Prefer the active voice. Trim adjectives and adverbs and use strong nouns and verbs instead. The simplest explanation is most often the best. Be concise. State it simply and don't try to be flowery and fancy. Also make sure you are not repeating yourself.

Am I quoting too much? It's tempting to use lengthy quotations from the experts to back up your opinion, but the essay should be mostly your words, not a collection of other people's words. If you have a lot of quotes, see if you really need all of them. Can you summarize what the expert said rather than including the entire quote? Can you trim down to just a phrase or two from the quote rather than the entire paragraph?

Did I stick to the assignment specifics? Often students that turn in too-long assignments are trying to include elements that are not part of the assignment. A logical persuasive essay doesn't need the emotional appeal. A hard news story should stick to just the facts and quotes from witnesses.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subject only in outline, but that every word tell. ~William Strunk and E. B. White

**********

Do you have any other questions about word counts in high school writing? Do you have some advice to add for writers that are struggling to get their essays to just the right length? Please leave some feedback in the comments - or let me know what other writing topics I could talk about.

(Most of the quotes were collected from PlainLanguage.gov)

This post is part of the Write 28 Days Blogging Challenge hosted by Anita Ojeda. Find all my posts for the challenge here: Write 28 Days Blogging Challenge - Disappointed. The challenge took place during February 2021, and I did create content every day, but some articles - like this one! - were not ready to be published during those 28 days.

Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to Homeschool Coffee Break by Email!

©2006-2021 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.