how to check how many words are in your essay

Essay Word Counter

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What Is Essay Word Counter?

An essay word counter is a simple yet powerful tool that has the ability to quickly count the number of characters and words within an essay. While the primary goal of an essay word counter is to measure characters and words, this tool allows you to determine the number of sentences and paragraphs that your essay consists of.

If you're tasked with reading your essay aloud in front of a classroom, this online word counter can help you prepare by providing you with an estimated speaking time and reading time. If you're asking yourself "How do I count the words in my essay?", plugging your essay into an online word counter will allow you to receive nearly instantaneous results.

Benefits of Using This Tool Compared to Alternatives

Online word counter tools offer the functionality you need to determine what your current essay word count is. There are several additional tools that can provide you with similar functionality, which include Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and PDF documents. Even though all of these alternatives allow users to measure the word count and character count for their essay, they lack many of the extra features that set the online tool apart from the competition.

Wordcounter vs Microsoft Word

When comparing this online word counter to Microsoft Word, the online word counter allows users to paste any kind of text into the box. Even if the text comes from a PDF file, it can be easily copied into the word counter. Among all of the alternatives for an essay word counter, Microsoft Word may be the most comprehensive of the three. Along with measuring the number of words, it can also count characters, pages, lines, and paragraphs. The main issue with Word, however, is that it's less intuitive than using an online tool.

When you click on word count in Microsoft Word, you'll be provided with data on the lines, paragraphs, words, and other aspects of your essay. However, the word count extends to every page of the Word document. To identify the number of words and characters in a specific section, you'll need to highlight the section and select the word count option again.

Wordcounter vs Google Docs

As for Google Docs, this tool doesn't display a status bar that tells you how many words are present in the document. To receive an updated word count, you must select the "Tools" tab that's found in the "Menu" section. From here, you'll be able to select "Word Count". When compared to the online word checker tool, Google Docs doesn't include information about how many sentences are in your essay or the frequency of a specific word.

Wordcounter vs PDF Tool

When it comes to a PDF document, you'll find that these documents are similar to Google Docs in that they don't include a status bar. You're also unable to access any kind of menu that allows you to view the word count of the essay you're writing. There are two distinct options for identifying the word count in your essay. First, you can convert the PDF file into what's known as the Rich Text Format, which makes it easier for you to count the words. You could also upload the file directly into this online word counter, which will give you an accurate word total.

The primary benefit of using the online word counter tool is that there are a number of exclusive features like speaking time and reading time that can't be found in other tools like Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

Essay Length Best Practices

Whether you're writing an essay for a high school class or for graduate school, there are some best practices that can guide you through the process and help you write the best essay. The most important element of writing an essay is getting the length right. If the essay is too long, there's a good chance it isn't as succinct and direct as it should be. The essay length guidelines you should adhere to include:

High school essay

The average essay word count for a high school essay is 300-1,000 words. Most high school essays are five paragraphs long with an introductory paragraph, three total body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph.

College admission essay

This essay should be around 200-650 words long. Along with having a set word limit, these essays should include a look at your motivations and interests.

Undergraduate essay

This essay can be around 1,500-5,000 words long. The content and length depend on the college and program you're entering.

Graduate admission essay

An admission essay should be 500-1,000 words in length. Make sure you include a lengthy personal statement that details your motivations and academic achievements.

Graduate school essay

This extended essay word count is usually around 2,500-6,000 words. The assignment you receive depends on the course you're in. Most graduate-level essays are lengthy and can involve research papers.

IB extended essay

The IB extended essay word count is 4,000 words. This essay is mandatory for every student of the International Baccalaureate program and is based on independent research.

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COMMON QUESTIONS

How many pages is 750 words.

A word count of 750 words will equal about 1.5 pages single spaced or 3 pages double spaced.

How Many Pages is 400 Words?

How many pages does 400 words take? A word count of 400 words will result in around four-fifths of a page single spaced and and one and three-fifths of a page double spaced.

How Many Pages is 10000 Words?

How many pages is 10000 words? Single spaced 10000 words is 20 pages; double spaced 10000 words is 40 pages.

How Many Pages is 600 Words?

How many pages will 600 words take up? The short answer is about one and one-third of page single spaced, and two and two thirds of a page double spaced.

About Word Counter

Word Counter is an easy to use online tool for counting words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and pages in real time, along with spelling and grammar checking. Get started by typing directly into the text area above or pasting in your content from elsewhere. Word and character counts will display at the top, any writing mistakes will be underlined and your most frequently used keywords will appear to the right.

You can also use Word Counter to track your text length against common web standards like Twitter's tweet character count (140), Google's meta description (300), and Facebook's average post display length (~250). If your text is longer than 360 characters the counter will show you the number of sentences, paragraphs and pages instead; useful metrics for blog posts, articles, papers, essays, dissertations and other long-form content.

What is Word Counter?

Word Counter is an easy to use online tool that can help you quickly and accurately count the number of words in your text. Suppose you're a student working on a paper, a writer crafting a novel, or a professional preparing a presentation. In that case, we can help ensure you stay within your word limit and keep your text understandable to the audience you are focusing on. You will see the number of characters and words increase or decrease as you type, delete, and edit them.

WordCounter has a simple and intuitive interface that allows you to paste your text and instantly calculates the number of words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, reading time, reading level, and any other metric to help you achieve your goals. Understanding the text word count holds significance. As a case in point, an author must meet a specific word range for an article, report, story, book, or any writing piece.

In addition to basic word counting, it offers advanced features such as keyword density analysis, readability scores like Reading Level , and the ability to compare texts side-by-side. These tools can help you improve the clarity and effectiveness of your writing and ensure you are communicating your ideas clearly and concisely.

Disclaimer: We try to make our tools as accurate as possible, but we cannot guarantee it will always be so.

Recent Posts

How to find word count in powerpoint.

Go to File -> Info -> Show all properties and you will see the "Words" property with the word count.

How to count words in PDF document?

Different tools will offer different or no ways to count words in a PDF document.

How to find the word count on Google Slides?

Google Slides does not have a built-in tool to count words. Alternative ways to count the words are possible but require more effort from you as a user.

How to see word count in OneNote?

OneNote does not word count natively, but you can get it to word count with the Word Count Add-In.

How many words can you make out of Police?

Cope, Clip, Cole, Coil, and Pile are a few of the 48 words that can be made out of the word Police.

All the real time features WordCounter currently offers

Features coming soon

Features we're working to make available to you

• Character Counter
• Words Per Page
• Word Unscrambler
• 5 Letter Words

Word Counter

A brief overview of word counter.

As the users’ demand for writing and editing develops day by day, counting words and characters, checking sentences, detecting grammar mistakes, and plagiarism cannot be done manually. As a result, the need for an online tool that helps writers as well as editors to utilize the above tasks is the major premise for creating the useful free tool, Word Counter.

Frankly speaking, Word Counter is a free online tool that can calculate how many words are in a paragraph and even the total word count for an essay, book, or novel.  

The Word Counter’s main functions

To meet the users’ demands from basic to advanced, Word Counter is featured with some main functions:

- Word count.

- Character count.

- Sentences.

- Paragraphs.

- Reading Level: Reading Time & Speaking time.

- Keywords density.

How to make use of Word Counter’s functions:

1. word count.

To calculate the number of words in a document, this function was created to find out the accurate indicator that helps the author/writer reach the specific requirement of length in their document.

• Difference between Word Count and Character Count:

Word count is the number of words contained in the text or documents. 

Character count is the number of characters in the text or document, including special characters like dots, commas, semi-commas, and blank spaces.

The number of words is always fewer or at least equal to the number of characters.

For example, in the word "hello," there is only one word, but the number of characters is up to five.

• How to use Word Count:

To calculate the number of words in a document, you simply place your cursor into the text box and start typing. You'll immediately see the number of words change (increase or decrease) when you do the typing, deleting, and editing. On the other hand, you can also copy and paste text from the document into the mentioned box above. Afterward, the number of words will appear quickly.  

2. Character Count  

Knowing the number of characters in a text is very important. For example, if a writer has to write an article, report, story, book, or essay that meets the specific requirements of length, this function will help them to make sure its character count doesn’t go beyond the limit.

• How to use Character Count:

Similar to the instruction of using Word Count, you may calculate the number of characters in a text by directly typing into the text box or doing a copy-paste of the available paragraph instead. Then, the Character Count function will indicate the number of characters in the document.   

3. Sentences  

This function was created and developed to satisfy the need to count the number of sentences in a paragraph, essay, report, or book.

• How to use Sentences in Word Counter:

To use the Sentence’s function, the writer just copy-paste the paragraph/essay/report... into the text box. No matter how long the text is, the tool can indicate the number of sentences quickly and accurately.  

4. Paragraphs  

Besides the number of words, characters, and sentences, the number of paragraphs in an essay, report, or book is considered an important piece of information that writers need to know.

This free function will help you to find out how many paragraphs are in your document.  

• How to use Paragraphs in Word Counter:

To utilize this function, you simply put the document into the textbox. Subsequently, the number of paragraphs will appear quickly and precisely.   

5. Pages  

In the printing industry, the demand for knowing the number of pages is a key factor before printing and publishing a document. With this function, you can easily estimate the exact number of pages in your document with the following simple instruction:

• How to use Pages in Word Counter:

Simply copy-paste your document into the content box, The number of pages will be shown in real-time, along with spelling and grammar checking.

6. Reading Level: Reading Time and Speaking Time  

• The importance of Reading Level’s usage:

Have you ever wondered how long a speech lasts? How long does it take to finish an interesting book? This words per minute (WPM) calculator can assist you in converting the number of words and the amount of time needed to read or speak them. You will be able to estimate how many words a small speech has as well as how long it takes you to read a text with a thousand words if you do this.

• How to use this function:

Foremost, select the Reading speed or Speaking speed. There are three modes for each function: Slow, Average, and Fast. The tool will calculate the time needed to accomplish the document based on your chosen mode.   

7. Keywords Densit

There is a fact that the frequency of keywords appearing in your text on the web page can affect the page's ranking.

The percentage of times a keyword appears is referred to as "Keyword Density."

That means using a keyword or phrase too many times will make the search engines undervalue your site. However, repeating it at a too low frequency can’t bring the desired effect.

The Keywords Densit function in Word Counter can help you accurately indicate how many times keywords appear on a website or a post.  

In a nutshell, you can use Word Counter to track your text length to meet specific requirements like the number of characters, words, sentences, paragraphs, and grammar check as well . If you are looking for a useful and free online tool to help you handle the above tasks, Word Counter is definitely a good choice.

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Word Counter

Track word and character count, fix grammar, summarize text, extract keywords and more for any text with this advanced free tool.

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How long should my text be? Typical word counts for:

Use cases of word counter.

Word Counter tool helps you with efficiency, precision, and adherence to specific requirements across professional and creative fields.

Academic Assignments : Ensure compliance with word count requirements for essays, research papers, and assignments.

Professional Documents : Maintain clarity and professionalism in reports, proposals, and business documents.

SEO Content : Craft blog posts and articles that meet optimal word lengths for search engine visibility.

Social Media Messaging : Stay within character limits on platforms like Twitter and Instagram for effective communication.

Manuscript Submissions : Submit literary works within specified word count limits for publications.

Freelance Writing Projects : Manage progress and meet client requirements with accurate word counts.

Academic Presentations : Prepare and refine presentations to fit within allocated time constraints.

Email Correspondence : Compose concise and impactful professional emails for effective communication.

Translation Services : Estimate costs and manage workloads efficiently based on word counts in source texts.

Novel Writing : Track progress and ensure adherence to word count goals in novel or fiction projects.

The technology behind Word Counter

Word Counter tool uses a language model that learns patterns, grammar, and vocabulary from large amounts of text data – then uses that knowledge to generate human-like text based on a given prompt or input. The generated text combines both the model's learned information and its understanding of the input.

Characters without space

Reading time

Speaking time

Top keywords

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What Is Meant by Word Count?

The term word count means the number of words contained within a document or passage of text. Checking your word count can ensure your text reaches or stays within a certain limit.

There are lots of reasons why a word count may be required for a passage of text, including readability and reliability reasons. Different word counts may be set depending on the audience of the text, its purpose, or both.

For example, a word count for a college essay may be set at 10,000 words to ensure the text contains significant research and is considered a reliable, in-depth paper. Whereas a journalist may have a 1,000-word count target to ensure the text is a short, easy-to-read summary for their target audience.

Professionals, students, authors, journalists, or anyone that needs to write a passage of text will usually find it important to know the word count.

What Is the Word Counter Tool?

The Word Counter Tool is an online website that tells you the word count of a passage of text. The tool instantly counts the number of words and shows you the results. It can be used to make sure your text is of a certain length.

The Word Counter Tool can be used on a computer, laptop, or mobile device.

How Does the Word Counter Work?

The Word Counter Tool works by calculating the total number of words contained within a passage of text in real time.

It will count the words as you write, or it will show you the total number of words within text that you have copied and pasted into the box.

Using the tool, you can check the following information:

• Unique word count
• Character count (with and without spaces)
• Sentence count
• Paragraph count
• Reading time

The Word Counter Tool is especially helpful if you are working on a mobile device and need to quickly check your word count.

How to Use the Word Counter

It's easy to check your word count using the Word Counter.

To use the tool, simply:

• Start typing or copy and paste your text into the box
• Check your word count

Word Counter

Sentences count, characters count, what is word counter.

Our word counter is a free online tool for effortlessly tallying the word count, character count, and sentence count of any piece of text. Whether you're crafting an essay, drafting an email, or composing a social media post. Paste or type your text into the provided field , and our word counter will instantly generate detailed statistics.

How do I use the word counter?

Using the word counter is easy. Begin by typing or pasting your text into the input field above on this page. Below the input field, you will find three statistics displaying the word count, character count, and sentence count of your text.

How are words counted?

To calculate the number of words within a piece of text, we split the text by spaces and then count each individual word . Our calculation ignores spelling mistakes, grammar, and double spaces.

For example, the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" comprises of 9 words in total.

How are characters counted?

Characters are counted by totalling the number of letters, punctuation marks, and spaces within the text. E.g., "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" has 43 characters altogether.

An additional count for characters without spaces is provided. E.g., "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is 35 characters without spaces in total.

How are sentences counted?

A sentence is any string of text that is separated by either a full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark . We treat back-to-back punctuation as a single sentence (e.g., "?!" or "!." is only one sentence).

For example, the sentence "Hello John! How is the weather today?" would count as two sentences.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this word counter free to use.

Yes, our word counter is 100% free to use . We believe everyone should have access to great word tools and, therefore, will not charge for a simple word counter.

Is this tool suitable for academic or professional use?

Absolutely! Our word checker is suitable for various writing tasks , including academic essays, professional documents, translation work, and casual writing.

It can also be used for checking if a piece of text is within the limit for social media networks’ maximum post lengths such as Facebook or X (formerly Twitter).

Can I use the word counter on any device?

Yes. The word counter is accessible on any device , from desktops to tablets and mobiles. You will need an internet connection to initially load the page.

Do we store inputted text?

No. We understand that you may want to use our word counter for checking personal and private pieces of text. Therefore, we do not store any input text entered into our word counter.

Whilst we do not store the text you input on this page, we do collect standard analytical events on this page, such as page views and interactions, in line with our privacy policy .

Is there a limit on the maximum length I can enter?

No, we set no hard limit on the maximum length of your input. However, please allow the tool additional computational time for larger pieces of text.

3 Easy-to-Use Tools to Count Your Words

by Joe Bunting | 38 comments

So you need to get a word count for the latest chapter of your novel or an essay assignment for school ? Don't worry, here are three easy-to-use tools to count your words.

Need to get a word count on your latest writing project? Here are three tools that can help.

Why Count Words?

If you're an experienced writer, this might already be obvious to you. However, if you're new to writing, you need to know that keeping track of your word count is a central habit of a writer.

You count words for two main reasons.

1. Because Publishers Count Words

In school, writing assignments are usually measured by page length (e.g. please turn in a three-page essay on Jane Austen's use of satire in Emma by Friday ).

However, measuring by page-length is inaccurate and, in many cases, unhelpful. Font, spacing, and formatting changes can alter the number of pages, and if you're writing a newspaper, magazine, or book, the pages will be in a variety of different sizes anyway. Measuring by word count, on the other hand, is consistent.

Furthermore, publishers often pay on a per-word basis, and so it makes sense for professional writers to keep track of how many words they write.

But what if you're not a professional writer? Why should you count words then?

2. Counting Words Can Motivate You

Many famous writers have kept daily word count goals. Ernest Hemingway is reported to have written 500 words per day. Stephen King writes 2,000 words per day, even on holidays. Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope wrote 3,000 words per day.

Setting a daily word count goal can inspire you.

One of the best known word count goals is  NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month). Every November, thousands of writers challenge themselves to write 50,000 words in a month (that's 1,667 words per day, by the way).

Another resource for writers is my friend Jeff Goins' 500 Words a Day Challenge , which is a 31-day writing challenge that over a thousand writers have participated in.

3 Tools to Count Words

How do you keep an accurate word count?

1. Count Words With Microsoft Word

The most-widely used word processor makes it easy to count your words.

On Windows , there are two ways to see the word count. On the Review tab, just next to Spelling and Grammar Check, and on the home ribbon beside the page number.

On Mac , you can find the word count under Tools -> Word Count.

2. Take Word Counts to the Next Level With Scrivener

While Microsoft Word is a decent word processor for writing essays and articles, if you're writing a novel or book, you need a more powerful tool.

Scrivener  is a perfect tool for finding your word count because it not only keeps your word count visible, it allows you to track your daily word count and the word count for your entire project. You can learn more about Scrivener on our review here .

In Scrivener, you can set the project targets to your daily word count and track your progress. Also, notice the word count visible at the bottom of the application.

3. A Fast, Online Word Counter

If you don't have access to either of these tools, you can find, free online word counters. One of the best, in my opinion, is  WordCounter.net .

Word Counter is a free, online word count tool.

Challenge Yourself to Write 1,000 Words Today

These tools can change your life.

How would your life be different if you challenged yourself to write 1,000 words a day? ( Share that challenge on Twitter )

Even if you took the weekends off, in just a month, you would have 22,000 words. In six months, you would have written 132,000 words, easily enough for a long novel. After the first year, you could have written  two  books.

It starts by taking just a few seconds to track your words.

Do you have a daily word count goal? What is it?

Write 1,000 words today. Keep track using one of the tools above.

When you're finished, share your best 250 words in the comments section below . And if you share, please be sure to give feedback on a few practices by other writers.

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

38 Comments

I participated In NaNoWriMo myself. My novel concluded before I reached the word count but it was still a great experience. I’ll have to post my practice later when I have time. (WOOT FIRST COMMENT)

Nice, Miriam. That’s a huge accomplishment. Also, way to get in first! 🙂

The following is EXACTLY 250 words:

I never lied before I worked here. It started with little comments, like telling a caller the boss, Robert, wasn’t in, when he was on a personal call. Next I found myself assuring a caller that our Director of Marketing had sent out the requested materials the previous Friday, when in fact Hannah had returned from lunch drunk, passed out in the lobby, and we called her husband and told him to take her home.

People tell you, “The watched pot never boils”, meaning some things happen so imperceptibly, that if you dedicate yourself to watching for the smallest advance, you’ll never see it. The lesson, I suppose, is that it won’t do any good to watch a process too closely, as there is nothing to see.

I wonder if maybe people are getting this lesson backwards. If something can happen slowly and nearly undetectably to the naked eye, then shouldn’t we watch it very, very vigilantly, to catch it before it boils over? That’s how the lying exploded. Over time Robert and Hannah escalated their expectations of us, that we say any damn thing they wanted us to say, to get them out of their chronic bungling.

That is how, today, I found myself insisting to that nice man, Tom Contreras, that Robert could not meet with him. I gave him my best “trust me, would I lie to you” smile, and convinced him he had made a grievous error, and his appointment had been for the prior day.

This is so true. After a while and after being asked to do it over and over, we are able to block even the slightest twinge of guilt. I like your line: …trust me, would I lie to you. Nice piece.

Thank you 😉

Wow this is so good, Avril. I loved the way you combine story with psychological observation so deftly. And I really like the way you bring us into the lives of these characters so completely in just a few paragraphs. Great job!

Thank you for the compliment and encouragement Joe.

Wow this is really good Avril. I love the way it sounds when I read it. Great job!

Thank you Miriam. The feedback from you and Joe today is especially helpful as I hone in on my “voice.”

It is only 811 words. Hope that’s enough. Thanks for yet another great prompt.

2012 Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, California, is a tri-era promenade: pre-earthquake, early post-quake, and now. Something to note as you look up and down the stretches of the Pacific Garden Mall. Parts of each era remain and shoulder up, intermingled and interwoven, in a strange dichotomy of style and sensibilities, palpable to six senses – senses that must include “feel.” Before the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, old family businesses struggled against a fluctuating economy and decay – Leask’s, Ford’s, the stately Cooper House, the Hihn Building – only to disappear into quake rubble and oblivion. From the earthquake ruins, the silent overgrown lots have slowly and painfully risen, Phoenix-like, to house modern replicas and buildings, saved from demolition, clothed in new paint, giving concrete testament to the power of Mother Nature’s onslaught.

It looks somewhat new, somewhat tidy, with new business owners, full of dreams, bringing new energy, unaware of the strange angles. It’s all here, the very Gen X storefronts of The Gap, Border’s, Starbuck’s, Cinema 9 and the upper-storied upper-classed condos to old fringe establishments – Logo’s, The Avenue Bar, Book Shop Santa Cruz – and the eminent Santa Cruz elder statesmen – Del Williams, The Del Mar Theater, The Palomar Hotel, Annieglass. The sun has slipped below the rooflines of the Cooper House across the street, giving the street a bluish cast, and the wind swirls, scuttling the dry leaves of late summer and wafting in the briny smell of the sea.

From my vantage perched high on a coffee shop stool, I pull on my sweater and watch and reflect. While much has changed in the last twenty-four years, much remains the same in this funny, strangely odd little place on Planet Earth. The city fathers have looked to upscale the look of this funky street, yet the fringe folks looking for attention or a handout – homeless street people, mentally ill who have slipped through the cracks, angry young people, savvy panhandlers – remain entrenched, some living in alleyways, doorways, and the lush underbrush of this tourist mecca by night and by day claiming a butt-sized patch of sidewalk. With hats and instrument cases open wide, ragged street musicians, some phenomenally talented troupes of drummers from some other cultures and guitar players belting protest songs, stake out street corners and make this city inhale and exhale. I remember the tiny ancient fiddler who played off-key, who died last year, and I wonder about the strange man in the pink tutu and tights, with matching umbrella, who, in scuffed ballet shoes, shuffled up and down the sidewalk in slow motion, his gaze unwavering, daring you to look away first.

Fast forward to today. September 2014. Border’s is no longer. Forever 21, in eight-foot letters, is now emblazoned on the storefront. Del Williams Jewelry is but a memory. They were always able to locate the elusive replacement for broken treasures. Other business, too, are no longer a presence on the Garden Mall promenade. The economy has taken its toll here and everywhere. Starbuck’s and Peet’s, along with some local coffee beaneries, have customers bulging from their sticky doors, while the protesters of conditions and wages sport signs outside. The pan-handlers still hassle the diners who shovel in ethnic foods served in sidewalk cafes. The street musicians remain, despite the white-washed façade put on the buildings rimming the street, and they produce some of the best music you’ll hear. Life vibrates through the tree-named streets that surround the Garden Mall – Cedar, Walnut, Laurel – despite the few empty lots of weeds as tall as a man dotted here and there. Life vibrates and hums. The young people gather and spill into surf shops that tout the best wetsuits, the most chic attire. Cinema 9 has eleven screens, and on opening nights lines run around the corner and past the ATM machines for Bay Federal Credit Union. Yes, life’s heart still beats here.

A few feet from my perch sits a young woman, maybe 19 or so, a street person, asking passersby for spare change. Her voice is harsh, and she barks a “fuck you” to a man who spat some words at her. Hunched against the late afternoon chill and the taunt tossed from his retreating lips, she leans against the building and sucks in a sigh, herself complicit in his response. She knows it.

When she arrived here, she was undoubtedly full of dreams, as all those absent business owners must have been, too. Once optimism must have burned in her eager heart, as she made plans for a future here. Perhaps it still does, but it has burrowed itself deep inside, for time on the streets changes people, even the young ones. She’s alone, and, as night begins to fall in a strange town, I wonder if she feels the bony edges of fear.

I stuff my notebook in my bag, curl my hands around the steaming paper, and wander into the crowd.

Gosh Diane, this piece so effectively evokes that funky seaside town (I know, I’ve been there). This is nicely nuanced, you’ve drawn the personality of the neighborhood, how it looks and how it feels at street level. I’m familiar with the denizens already. I mean this ad a compliment, that it reminds me of one of my faves, Cannery Row by Steinbeck. Oh and the guy in the tutu, he’s from Fairfax.

Thank you, Avril, for reading my too many words and your kind words. Sorry. I didn’t read the instructions thoroughly. I am so happy that you know this little burg and recognize some of the landmarks. Fairfax? Really? We would always look for him when we fofund ourselves at the Garden Mall. Too funny. Again, thank you for reading.

Thank you, Avril, for taking the time to read my way-too-many-word piece and for your kind words. Next time I will read the instructions more carefully. I’m happy you recognized some of the landmarks of this little burg. It’s an interesting place, a place that engages all the senses. Fairfax? Really? My husband and I used to look for him every time we found ourselves on the Garden Mall. Again, thank you.

This place is not so much about the rules Diane, but about the encouragement to write. Writing more is always a good thing if you are on a roll! We’re glad you shared.

Very well done! Your description of the town, the people, the changes, everything create a living, moving video in my mind. I feel as if i’ve just been there myself. Adelaide

Thank you, Adelaide. I’m happy you were able to visit here for a little while. It’s a special place.

You’re a very good writer, Diane. The description here is perfect. I bet you had a lot of fun writing this!

I did have fun writing it, Joe, but it brought back a lot of unfun memories. Thank you for your encouraging words and for this wonderful site.

Wow amazing Diane. I could feel and see everything you described. Based off of this I feel that you’re going to be a great writer. Keep up the great work!

Thank you so much for your kind words, Miriam, and for taking the time to read the piece.

You made me feel as if I’d like to go there and experience it for myself. Vivid descriptions and emotions draw you in.

PI glazed my fingers over the peeling yellow with time flower wallpaper. My footsteps echoed though the enpty halls as the dust lifted from the ground. Silence filled the air one I would find at an funeral,quiet from neglect as if it was hiding a burning hatred for what I had did.

Rain slid down the clouded window pane and the pit pat in the roof sent a eiree chill down your spine. Memories followed my though the house as I breathed in the rich earthy smell of mothballs. Those memories wandered next to me hoping for me to look at them just to catch a fleeting look, toopen up the vault which I had buried them in.

This once was my childhood home where I spent long days and cold nights curled up asleep on my bed with dreams leading me into a false sense of security.

I took one last look around and shut the chipping word door. I sprinkled the last of the gasonle and struck a match, soon the house set fire, the flames licking the night sky as the stars twinkled in the inky blackness as the fire crackled from the heat.

I sat back a blank expression on my face.

“That’s finally done.” I said. I started walking with the embers glowing brightly behind me casting shadows.

Now I know that is part of a good story. Nice twist to start off visiting the childhood home, then burn it down.

This needs some cleaning up for spelling and grammar (for a practice this is fine though), but I loved the way you evoked sensual details as the character paces through the house. There’s a lot going on here, and like Avril said, this seems like a small piece of a promising story. Well done!

Nice job Chloee. I’m intrigued as to where this will go next. Keep up the good work!

It holds my interest as to why she sets fire to her childhood home? What bad memories are hidden there? Like Joe pointed out. it needs careful editing for mistakes. Adelaide

Alright. So a few practices ago I posted about Angela.(the post “You Need to Ask this Question Every Time You Sit Down To Write” specifically) This is a continuation of that post. Here is my 250 words.

Groggy, disoriented, confused, I slowly awoke to my surroundings. The first thing that I became aware of was the pounding pain pushing through my skull. Questions like: Where am I? What happened? Why can’t I move? Rose in my mind.

I opened my eyes to closer examine my surroundings. The ceiling was bare cement and seemed to animate cold to the very marrow of my bones. I tried to move my head to look at the walls but found it fixed in place. Panic slowly began to rise within me like a poison. Slowly I began to remember what happened until it came back in a rush. My apartment, escape, Andrew, the emerald. Where is the emerald! Came my panicked thought.

Frantically I looked around the room with my eyes but came upon nothing. Calm down Angela think this through. No need to lose control. I thought about that night. Where had the emerald been then? In my desk… until I put it on. My eyes drifted to my chest in hopes of seeing it there. It was gone.

My alarm began to rise again as did my scolding thoughts. Angela you idiot! You should’ve left the emerald in its holding spot but no you had to be noble and put it on. Just then the door opened.

“Ah you’re awake.” Came Andrew’s voice. He walked to a chair somewhere behind me and, by the sound of it, took out a pen and paper. “Now to business. Where is the emerald?”

I didn’t know what I was going to write about when I began, but I was in our local diner so I began about a waitress. I don’t know if I did a 1,000 words because I write on a yellow pad and haven’t transcribed it all yet. This is as much as I’ve typed so far, about 350 words.

Edna knew her customers. She had been waitressing at the Loganville diner for 20 years, and she had served many of the customers for the same 20 years. They had grown old together. Some had died during those years; some had been born.

When Bob died Edna had taken stock of her situation: two children married, one grandchild and another expected, living miles away, an old house paid for, a small pension from Bob’s union, a moderate savings account, the interest of which she and Bob never touched.

“Let it grow,” Bob had said. When I’m gone you will need the interest to supplement my pension.”

Edna could have used the interest now, but Bob’s voice came back to her in those few weeks right after he died. “Let it grow.” So, she did and got a job at the diner.

“I never waitressed before,” she had told Fonda, the owner, “but I’m strong and a hard worker.

“Well…”

Edna almost heard the wheels spinning in his head as Fonda Metatakis thought it over. “Can you operate a cash register? They’re all computerized now.”

“I can use a computer, and I’m a quick learner.”

“Well… O.K. Part time to start, one to five in the afternoons at first, then maybe later full time.”

Edna suspected he gave her the job because Bob had died. Everyone in town knew it. Bob was always talking to people whether he knew them or not. and, if he didn’t, he soon did. Fonda probably thought she needed the money. She did, but it wasn’t until after she had asked for the job did she really know why. She would use this money for living expenses, as little as possible, and add the rest to her savings as a legacy for her grandchildren.

It was something she used to fantasize about when she was a child–a legacy left by some unknown relative or stranger because she had done a good deed. For a time she had gone out of her way to help strangers even if they really didn’t need it.

“Thank you Dear, but I can carry this package. It was kind of you to offer.”

It hadn’t been easy, but now and then her help had been accepted. she made sure to tell them her name and to get theirs. For years she had checked the obituaries regularly. Adelaide

I’m starting to think of all the other little stories she has been a part of over the years and what happens next. I enjoyed reading it Adelaide

Thank you, Ann. Adelaide

I like Edna. I wish I knew what was going to happen with her legacy she’d built up. A very interesting teaser, Adelaide.

As I read this I could picture the diner the regulars went to in my home town… Everyone knew everyone and came to tell stories and have coffee and breakfast. It would be interesting to see what some of the stories Edna had heard over the many years she had worked there.

When I get in the zone, I write 1,000 words in two hours. Most of the time, i’m procrastinating, so it’s usually 250 a day.

I use the tool http://wordcounttools.com and it works like a charm. Would you please help readers to revise the article and put it in?

If somebody is looking for reliable and new service for counting, I would suggest countwordsfree.com as the one to be look at. Stop words exclusion and original text pre-processing as well as possibility to load and save the text from/into file makes this portal universal and quite useful for writers and seo specialists.

image finding Pasteur here, away from my wall…………………………………

Pills and pigs – here’s my excerpt. 27 minutes to free-write 1067 words.

“Okay, there is this new pill out,” he said, “barely fresh from clinical trials. It’s a calming pick-me-upper. It works I’m told very well for people like you, although I don’t know anyone personally yet. You will be the first. And there are a few side effects. Want to be a guinea pig?

Well, sure, why not. What did I have to lose for a month’s free supply? The possibility of becoming an actual pig? Yep, that’s what the bottle says. But, hey, who are they fooling, how does a human become an animal? Besides, the results, they were glowing to say the least.

One day later. So I took the first pill – pink and round – upon rising as prescribed. By noon I seemed to have more energy than usual. I took a 3 mile walk on my lunch break. Feeling good! I had a bit more of an appetite that night, but I figured I must have walked off a gazillion calories at noon, so I could afford an extra serving of buttered cornbread with my five-meat chili.

One week later. Wow, I’m cruising in high gear There’s no end to my energy. I rise, take a pink pill – have a little burp. Did I tell you they make me burp? They do, but no problem, I cover my mouth. Today however, the burp tasted good. Like the fried chicken I had last night. I tried to burp again, but couldn’t. But I definitely had fried chicken on my mind when I went to work.

I’m ready. Let’s do this!!!

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Free Online Word Counter for Essays

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Our essay word counter shows the number of words, characters, and symbols without spaces. It’s a one-stop instrument if you need a detailed report.

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Word Counter Online & Character Counter

Our tool goes beyond a simple text word counter. It works like a word character counter and offers multiple options. In case you have a special requirement from your professor, for example, a character limit, this tool will definitely come in handy. Likewise, you may need to find out the amount of characters without spaces. Our high-end instrument will be an all-inclusive solution. Just input the necessary part and calculate the number of symbols in your text.

Word Count Checker

It’s very important to stay on the top of your page word count. Students may think that several slips every here and there won’t cause much harm. But your school may have strict requirements to the acceptable limit for every academic work. While you are expected to write 150 words in an essay introduction, this amount won’t suffice in an introductory part of your research paper. So if you need to know how many words are in an essay or its particular section, use our tool for a quick result.

Character Count Without Spaces

Things get trickier if you need to find out the number of characters without spaces. No worries! With our character calculator at your fingertips this won’t be a problem. Our free character counter can exclude the spaces so you can enjoy accurate results. This is a perfect feature for writers, translators and students who have a very peculiar requirement. Just copy-paste any passage in an online character counter and it will handle everything in seconds.

Character Count Tool

Sometimes, the limit is measured in characters. That’s when you may need a tool that can handle character count online. We’ve got you covered! Our team saw that situation coming and did our best to provide you with this option. You can use our advanced tool to count characters in your document. And if the actual number doesn’t fit in the expected limit, you can easily modify your text in a respective field.

StudyCrumb’s Essay Word Counter: Handy Tool

We have developed this essay word counter to help students count the words and characters in their papers and academic texts. Are you writing an essay and want to make sure that your word count is precise? Or, maybe, you have a research paper or dissertation with a strict character limit requirement? Whatever your case is, our word count checker will be an irreplaceable instrument in your arsenal of writing tools. And the best part about this tool is its simplicity. Finding out how many words is this will no longer be a struggle. What’s more, you can make changes right in the editor field. You don’t have to switch between our tool and your document to meet the right limit. All results of word character count will be displayed instantly.

Count My Words in My Essay for Me!

Before you submit your newly-written paper, we advise you to count the number of words in it! StudyCrumb’s online tool can help you keep track of the number of words in your paper. It will allow you to concentrate on important topics. Now you won’t need to give yourself a headache wondering “how to check word count?” Just use StudyCrumb’s profitable tool that is always useful to keep handy. After all, knowing your word count can help to improve your work.  Hot tip: A nice way to establish a good word count is by determining whether the headings should be counted. And when headings do not count, they can be included in words in direct quotes. The quality of any essay might suffer if it is too long. Instead, aim for brief and catchy headings. And let a tool do all the counting the words for you!

Online Words Counting Generator for Different Types of Writing

Access our tool if you need counting number of words that you've written. It encourages every student to follow their word limit! This can be important for public speaking or speech preparation. Every guru at our speech writing services suggest finding balance especially when it comes to oral presentation. It is helpful if writing for advertising and academic goals is a big deal. Our tool also determines the word count limit. It is useful for writing social media headlines and Google meta descriptions.  Looking at your presentation and think “how many words is this text?” Try to count them to assess the word density. For some papers, it's common to submit up to a thousand words. But many writers end up over the limit or falling short. Knowing that you’re using count words in text for free is a great way to avoid such problems. Any argumentative essay writer will appreciate such a tool. It can become an essential metric for content writers, whether they are college students or professional authors. Calculate word length in many different ways. But keep in mind — our tool will help you determine it best. It's easy to use. So, save your time and avoid any stress. You can reuse it at any time.

Count the Words in My Essays & Papers

When composing essays and other kinds of written work, your first concern can be “how many words are in this essay?” It is important that students meet all requirements. Consequently, they should know how to count essay words accurately. Word count dendends on the depth of your project. That is why you may need professional essay help .  The first thing you should do is check what the instructor has suggested as a word count. An essay might require fewer words depending on the subject. If it turned out shorter than the assigned word count, you may want to focus on providing a high-level overview of the topic, especially if you need to write my dissertation . Longer papers can delve into more details. However, in both cases, it is important to keep an outline to guide your writing process. Next, check how many words in essay you wrote line by line. StudyCrumb’s tool lets you count the words beneath charts, graphs, and photos. Now you can use it instead of thinking “how many words is my paper?”

Why Is It so Important to Count the Words in an Essay Correctly?

Why is it so important for you to “count how many words are in my essay”? Why do you browse different sites? Looking for one to “count my essay words”? There are few answers to these questions. A critical aspect of knowing essay word limit is how you use the words. The time your audience has to read through your essay is limited. Therefore, it's important to organize your thoughts in a clear and concise way. Make a list of the key points and then spend some time on the important topics. Don't forget that StudyCrumb is essentially an academic service where you can buy essay on any subject and have all requirements met. So, using an online tool when you must know how to count how many words in an essay when writing is simply necessary. And StudyCrumb is here to help you out in whatever way you need!

Paragraph Word Count by StudyCrumb's Free Online Words Counting Tool

StudyCrumb's online tool is perfect when you want to know how many words in this paragraph! You don’t have to do anything otherworldly to use the paragraph word counter. All one should do is follow a simple instruction. This word counting program works well for longer text categories such as articles and novels. It works by dividing a text into several parts. This way you won’t have to do this yourself and wonder how many words are here. You can check the length of your text by using an online helpful tool! You can immediately check your characters and page count, as well as run a spelling check or free grammar check . A paragraph or sentence can also be counted! Remember that one can enable or disable the feature of counting spaces. Punctuation marks will be counted automatically.

Counting Words in a Sentence

Have you ever wondered how many words are in this sentence that you just wrote? StudyCrumb’s tool aims to help you just with that. Students can easily check the quality of their writing and the number of words calculator whenever they need it. Our tool can be accessed from any device, such as a computer or smartphone. It can calculate number of words in your sentences and paragraphs. So don’t waste your time! Save this page as your device’s bookmarks and check your texts when your professors demand it! It won’t cost you anything. The text you wrote would look even more beautiful. Having a handy word count scanner is consistently another latest useful feature!

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Every calculator for words list has a bunch of quality features. And StudyCrumb’s is not different. How do you get word count of a document with its help? It's quite straightforward. Copy and paste the desired text into a box. That’s it, that’s the total guide. Use our number of words counter online for free to determine how many pages, paragraphs, and sentences you've written. Moreover, you’ll be able to see the approximate time it would take the audience to read your text. Our words counting software provides only accurate results that one can get online. Moreover, it is 100% free! You don’t have to set up a new account, register, or post any credit card number to use our tool. Just paste your text and check its length as many times as you need. If your academic work has space for improvement or it lacks some sections, contact our thesis writing service . 

Writing Word Count With Spaces

Do you need to set up the word counter including spaces? It is one of the features our online words calculator has. Their number will be shown under the status bar below the text you paste in a box. This is a useful feature when you don’t feel like writing more content and can pass the spaces as an additional number of characters. Our word count tool online for free breaks the number of words based on the number of spaces that were used. It adds that number to the overall quantity of words in your paper. Simple math!

Word Count Without Spaces

StudyCrumb’s word calculation without spaces feature is useful. Test it if you wish to calculate word count of a document without any extra spaces. Everything is displayed under your input text box in the result section. Why would one need to check a writing word count without spaces though? It can help determine whether you should add anything to the paper or delete any content from it. After all, in this case, you won’t be able to use the “space number” excuse to nope out of writing more parts of your essay!

The Most Famous Word Counting Machine of All Time

StudyCrumb offers you one of the best word count tools and words to pages converters that can greatly assist you in writing an essay. Our website that counts words can help you with even the toughest assignments. It ensures that your essay is the correct word count. Our website to count words for free will also be useful for anyone who works in writing, academic or otherwise. It could be used to create a wide range of writing projects including in-app messages, meta descriptions, targeted content marketing, and social media threads. If you’re writing your paper, it will remind you that every word serves a purpose. Each one is placed there for a reason. Moreover, it will show you how long it would take for your audience to read your paper. So get checking right now! Be sure to use our plagiarism detector before submitting your composition.

Benefit From Our Online Essay Word Counter

StudyCrumb’s word counter for essay offers a whole pool of benefits. As our document word counter is free, it’s not the only benefit you can appreciate:

• It’s free and extremely simple to use.
• Our word calculator processes a large amount of data in a very short time.
• The tool will save much of your precious time.
• You can alter your text right in our tool.

Needless to say, while writing in Microsoft Word, Excel, or Google Documents, you can easily see word and character count. But if you are dealing with a pdf file, you should put in some extra effort. Luckily, with our paper word counter, you can solve this issue effortlessly.

Get help from academic experts!

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FAQ About Essay Word Counter

Have any unanswered questions about our word frequency counter? Check out the answers below and find a flash answer.

1. Do I need to register to use the word count checker?

No, StudyCrumb’s word count checker can be used without registration. We did our best to make the process as smooth as possible. You can check count values without creating an account.

2. Does your word counter check spelling?

Sure! Our instrument works like a spell checker and word count tool. This way, you can count symbols in your document and detect spelling errors, if there are any. Our tool will underline the areas that need extra attention.

3. Does this character counter include spaces or not?

Our character counter will show the count values both with and without spaces. Once you enter your text, you will get in-depth results where you will see characters including and excluding spaces.

4. Does your word counter tool save my text?

No, StudyCrumb’s word counter tool doesn’t save your text to the database. Your privacy is our top priority. We designed a tool that doesn’t store content you enter.

5. Do spaces count as words in an essay?

Yes, they do. Our word counter for free online will show you the number of words with or without spaces in a result section below the input box. These numbers will be vastly different. It only means that spaces count as words in an essay.

6. How do you find out how many words did I write?

Our tool is powered by an AI. So, it obviously knows how to count words. It divides the entire text by spaces and then counts the resulting pieces which are the words. Then it will show you the number of words it counted in a section below, as well as this number plus the number of spaces found in your text.

7. How do I check my word count on an essay quickly?

Just use our tool if you need to count the words in a document! It has a fast mode with an intuitive interface that delivers only accurate results. It is completely free, which means that you won’t have to suffer through a trial period or set up an account in order to use it.

8. Can you count the words in my document if it’s 50 pages?

When using a words count online, you should take into consideration your text’s font and formatting. For example, a page made of Times New Roman 14 is not the same as Arial 12. That said, our tool can handle a text of >100.000 characters and >15.000 words.

Other Tools You May Like

StudyCrumb offers you more than just a word counter. We’ve designed a whole bundle of free writing tools that can improve your academic experience. Check them out below!

Word Counter

The Word Counter tool allows you to quickly and accurately count the number of words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs in your text. This tool is perfect for writers, students, and professionals who need to meet specific word count requirements for essays, reports, articles, or any other written content. The process is straightforward, providing detailed statistics about your text to help you stay on track.

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Efficient word counter: track your text's length & enhance writing quality.

Need to nail the perfect word count for your essay, blog post, or tweet? A word counter is the swift solution to your writing challenges. This indispensable tool not only provides immediate word and character counts but also helps refine your content for clarity and impact, essential whether you’re meeting strict character limits on Twitter or aiming for SEO-friendly article lengths.

Key Takeaways

Word counters are more than just a tally; they guide pacing, content optimization, and SEO, ideal for a variety of writing contexts like academic essays, social media, and blog posts.

Word count affects readability and user engagement; long-form blog posts are favored, and for social media, fitting key messages within platform-specific limits is crucial.

Beyond word count, editing for efficiency, avoiding redundancy, and enhancing writing style are key to impactful writing; auxiliary tools like plagiarism checkers and proofreading software further refine content quality.

Unlocking the Power of Word Count

Word count is the heartbeat of your content, dictating its length and scope. It’s not just about hitting a target; it’s about pacing your narrative, balancing detail with brevity, and making every word count. Whether you’re a researcher stretching your thesis to meet a minimum word count or a student trying to squeeze your thoughts into an essay limit, word count can be a tricky balancing act.

But what if we told you there’s a secret weapon to help you tackle this challenge? Enter the word counter tool, a digital ally that provides vital metrics like word and character count, readability, and keyword suggestions. From setting daily writing goals to aligning your content with community or competitive standards, these tools can be your roadmap to successful writing.

So, the next time you’re aiming for that sweet spot of about 500 words per page, let a free online word counter guide you, or try using a free word counter for a quick and easy solution.

The Essentials of Word Counting

So, what exactly does an online word counter tool do? It’s simple yet super powerful. At its core, it tallies the total number of:

characters with or without spaces

in your text.

And the best part? These tools are designed for ease of use. You can either type directly into the tool or copy-paste your text from word processors or online platforms like Microsoft Word or Google Documents. It’s like having a personal assistant who’s always ready to count words and characters for you!

Beyond Just Counting Words

But wait, there’s more to word counters than just counting words and characters. These tools go beyond the basics, offering a wealth of insights to enhance your writing. For instance, they can provide measures such as words per sentence, syllables per word, and letters per word. In comparison to other word counters, some may even offer additional features to further improve your writing skills.

Some advanced word counter tools even offer features like readability scores and tone of voice assessments to gauge text quality. Imagine knowing the exact number of sentences in your text or having a comprehensive breakdown of your word, paragraph, sentence, and character counts at your fingertips. Yes, that’s the power of a robust word counter tool!

Crafting Perfect Social Media Posts with Word Limits

In the world of social media, word count plays a crucial role too. Every platform, from Twitter to Google Ads, has specific word and character limits. This means your content needs to be tailored to fit these constraints. But how do you craft a captivating story in just 280 characters or sell a product within a 30-word limit?

That’s where online word counter tools come in. They offer suggestions for optimal content length on different platforms, helping your posts stand out and engage your audience. So, whether you’re a social media specialist refining content for maximum impact or a newbie trying to get your tweets just right, a word counter tool can be your secret weapon.

Character Counts for Precision Writing

We’ve talked about counting words, but what about characters? Characters represent numbers, symbols, and letters that form words, phrases, and sentences. The character count includes all the characters in your text, such as spaces and punctuation. It gives you the total number in the text. In certain contexts, like Twitter, character count is king!

Twitter initially set a 140-character limit, reflecting the SMS limit of 160 characters minus space for commands and usernames. Later, it expanded the limit to 280 characters to allow for more expressive content. But remember:

In tweets, URLs are counted as 23 characters due to t.co links

Attached media don’t count towards the limit

Emojis are generally counted as two characters on Twitter

Keep these quirks in mind when crafting your tweets.

The Role of Word Count in SEO Strategy

Word count is a critical player in the field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as well. While Google doesn’t consider word count as a direct ranking factor, search engines tend to favor extensive and informative posts. Articles over 1,000 words generally achieve higher rankings, with top-ranking pages often having 2,000 to 2,500 words.

But remember, the focus should always be on producing high-quality content that satisfies the reader’s needs and provides value, rather than just meeting a specific word count. Keyword density is another crucial component of SEO optimization, and online word counter tools can assist in maintaining optimal keyword frequency and providing insights compared to top organic competitors. So, when strategizing for SEO, remember it’s a delicate dance between word count, content quality, and keyword density.

Mastering Microsoft Word's Built-in Tools

Let’s not forget about the good old Microsoft Word, a staple in every writer’s toolkit. It comes with its own handy word count feature, easily accessible on the status bar or via the Menu Bar under Tools > Word Count.

But Microsoft Word offers more than just a word counter. It’s packed with built-in tools that can make your writing process smoother and more efficient. Some of these tools include:

Style templates, which enforce consistent formatting throughout your document

Themes, which can quickly give your document a professional and cohesive visual appearance

The ‘Find and Replace’ function, which streamlines text editing by allowing you to search and substitute words or phrases throughout the entire document with ease.

These features can greatly enhance your writing experience and help you create high-quality documents.

Now, that’s what we call a power-packed tool!

Achieving the Ideal Blog Post Length

So, what’s the ideal length for a blog post? The answer depends on your goal. Recommendations vary from 1,000 to 2,500 words to maximize reader engagement. On average, English-speaking adults read at a pace of 300 words per minute, suggesting blog post lengths of about 2,100 words for optimal engagement.

Long-form content exceeding 1,500 words trends among bloggers due to its many advantages, like increasing reader time on site by 40% and significantly boosting social media interactions. Detailed blog posts encourage readers to explore additional content on your site and provide more opportunities for including hyperlinks, attracting a larger audience.

So, while the ideal blog post length can vary, it’s always a good idea to make your words count!

Adapting to Different Formats & Requirements

The art of mastering word count extends to various writing formats, from novels and screenplays to academic essays. Each format comes with its own genre expectations and requirements, influencing how you adapt your word count.

For extensive documents like novels or screenplays, you can utilize tools like Google Docs’ Word Count feature. A larger word count allows for greater structural complexity and detailed world-building in storytelling, especially in the science fiction and fantasy genres.

And for academic essays, the Essay Structure tool is instrumental in logically organizing your ideas to enhance readability and coherence.

Streamlining Your Writing with Online Word Counters

In an era where time is of the essence, online word counters like the Word Counter by PagesTools.com offer a quick and efficient way to assess text details. These tools provide a snapshot of your content, including:

Sentence count

Paragraph count

Character count

Reading time

Regular use of online word counters can keep your attention focused on daily writing tasks and harness previously successful content as a benchmark for productivity. For academic purposes, efficient word counting is crucial, and the free Word Counter tool provides an accurate and quick solution for adhering to strict writing requirements.

In short, online word counters can be a game-changer for your writing process, contributing to the creation of high-quality text.

Enhancing Readability with Word Count Insights

Word count tools do more than just count words; they enhance readability. These tools evaluate attributes like word length, syllables, and sentences to measure your content’s overall readability. For instance, the Flesch Reading Ease test is a readability measure where higher scores indicate easier readability, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test rates readability according to U.S. school grades.

Word counters also provide insights into the readability and tone of voice, offering guidance for refining your content’s impact on readers. So, whether you’re writing a blog post, an academic essay, or a social media caption, enhancing text comprehensibility by breaking up content with headings, bullet points, and lists can help make your words more impactful.

Navigating Google Docs Word Count Features

If you’re a Google Docs user, you’re in luck! Google Docs comes with a built-in word count feature. To access it, simply navigate to the ‘Tools’ menu and click on ‘Word count’. And if you want to continuously view your document’s word count while you’re typing, check the box beside ‘Display word count while typing’ in the word count window. It’s as easy as that!

The Intersection of Word Count and Writing Style

Word count and writing style go hand in hand. Your choice to write in a concise or elaborate style will directly impact your word count, shaping your approach to expressing ideas and describing scenes. Different writing genres set different expectations for word count, compelling authors to adapt their writing style to meet these norms.

Using analysis tools to evaluate unique word count can reveal the need for a greater diversity in word choice to enhance style and counteract monotonous repetition. Moreover, moderating sentence length, averaging between 20 to 25 words, contributes to a readable and engaging writing style.

And remember, expressing points directly without superfluous content can help maintain a potent narrative while reducing overall word count.

Efficient Editing: Trimming Excess Words

Efficient editing is an art, and it often involves trimming excess words. The strategy is to focus on crucial points and cut out non-essential ones, decreasing word count while maintaining the essence of the content. This can involve omitting unnecessary usage of ‘the’, reducing excessive use of ‘that’, and eliminating superfluous adverbs and adjectives.

To streamline your text without losing meaning, try the following:

Replace lengthy phrases with concise alternatives

Use shorter synonyms

Avoid redundant transitional words

Simplify sentence structures

Minimize punctuation use

Lastly, identifying and eliminating duplicate information can effectively decrease word count without sacrificing content quality.

Maximizing Writing Impact Within Word Limits

Maximizing writing impact within word limits might seem like a tough task, but with regular practice, it becomes second nature. The key is to make every word count.

One or two-sentence paragraphs can be highly effective and add impact to your writing, making each word count. So, the next time you’re up against a word limit, remember to make each word deliver a punch!

Utilizing Word Count Tools for Academic Success

For students, word count tools are a lifesaver. They assist in keeping writing within specified word limits, crucial for guidelines set for college and graduate school admissions essays. Maximum word count limitations are commonly imposed on academic assignments, necessitating the use of word count tools to ensure compliance.

Word count tools, such as a word count checker, can even help improve academic writing by suggesting the inclusion of examples to meet required word counts. Plus, with features like the Flesch Kincaid readability test, these tools can measure text readability, offering valuable insights for refining your academic essays.

Word Count Benchmarks for Various Text Types

Different text types come with their own word count benchmarks, and you might wonder how many words are typical for each type. For example:

Contemporary novels typically range from 60,000 to 90,000 words

Dystopian novels can extend from 60,000 to 120,000 words

Memoirs usually fall within the range of 45,000 to 80,000 words

Self-help books vary between 30,000 and 70,000 words.

Recognizing these standard word count ranges for different types of texts is critical for authors to accurately structure their work, from articles to novels. Understanding and applying these word count benchmarks can significantly aid writers in meeting genre expectations and improving writing quality, underlining the importance of word counter tools.

Complementary Tools to the Word Counter

While word count tools are a must-have for any writer, they’re not the only ones in the toolkit. Several complementary tools can enhance your writing. For instance, tools like Proofreading Online can enhance academic writing by identifying and correcting grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors.

Additional tools that can enhance the overall writing quality include:

Character Counter and Mind Map offered by the Word Count Tool website

Paraphraser, text summarizer, and AI-powered Flow feature provided by PagesTools.com

Plagiarism checkers, crucial for maintaining originality and avoiding copyright infringement

So, why not explore these complementary tools and give your writing a boost?

We’ve embarked on an enlightening journey through the world of word count, exploring its essential role in various writing contexts, from blog posts and social media captions to novels and academic essays. We’ve discovered the power of word counter tools, packed with features that not only count words and characters but also enhance readability, maintain SEO strategies, and meet genre expectations. Coupled with complementary tools like grammar checkers and text summarizers, the possibilities for refining your writing are endless. Remember, it’s not just about counting words; it’s about making every word count!

Frequently Asked Questions

How can word count tools enhance my writing.

Word count tools can enhance your writing by providing readability scores, tone of voice assessments, and keyword density insights, helping you maintain word limits, improve readability, and optimize your content for SEO. Try using them to take your writing to the next level!

What word count should I aim for in a blog post?

You should aim for a blog post length of 1,000 to 2,500 words to cater to your audience and meet your content goals. Remember, quality matters more than quantity when it comes to blog posts.

How do I access the word count feature in Google Docs?

You can access the word count feature in Google Docs by going to the 'Tools' menu and selecting 'Word count'. To see the word count while typing, just check the box next to 'Display word count while typing'. Hope this helps!

How can I trim excess words from my writing?

Focus on crucial points, cut out non-essential words, and replace lengthy phrases with concise alternatives to trim excess words from your writing. Simplify sentence structures and eliminate duplicate information for a more streamlined result.

What are some complementary tools to the word counter?

Some complementary tools to the word counter are grammar checkers, plagiarism checkers, and text summarizers. They can help improve the quality and originality of your writing.

How Many Words Should Your Essay Have for Grading High?

How many words are in an essay?

This question bothers all students, whether in middle school or college. Two reasons:

They don’t have word count guidelines to know how long their essay should be to grade high. Or, they struggle with the word limit within a paper and wonder if they can go under the suggested length.

The essay length varies, depending on many factors: subject, purpose, and academic level. Essays are usually shorter than dissertations or research papers. The thesis is the longest one.

In this article, I’ll answer two popular questions: How long is an essay? How many paragraphs are in an essay?

Also, let’s learn how long each essay part is and if it’s okay to go beyond or under the suggested length.

How Long is an Essay, Depending on the Type?

The above rules are average. They may vary at different educational institutions. It stands to reason that elementary-level students write short essays. And their papers get longer in their middle 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grades, etc.

Often, there’s no exact word number or page count for academic papers. Guidelines usually prescribe a supposed range: 500-850 words, 5-7 pages, and so on. When in doubt, you can ask your instructor.

How Many Paragraphs is an Essay? 6 Main Lengths

You won’t find any rule prescribing a set number of paragraphs for an essay. Five-paragraph essays are a standard, but it doesn’t mean ALL papers should follow it.

Each essay consists of three parts:

• Introduction . Often, it’s one paragraph introducing your topic and thesis to readers. When writing complex papers like dissertations, your intro section can be 2-3 paragraphs.
• Body. It’s a core section discussing the topic in detail. The number of paragraphs here depends on your paper’s type and complexity. This part is 1-4 paragraphs unless you write extended research papers.
• Conclusion. Like intros, this section is often one paragraph summarizing the essay.

Below, I’ll cover the six main lengths to show how to balance a word count in essays.

One-paragraph essays

Three-paragraph papers

Five-paragraph essays

Extended papers

Dissertation

Frequently Asked Questions:

Is essay length important.

Yes, it is. Prescribing a length, instructors understand if you can organize thoughts and arguments. An essay of 1,000 words requires more research and effort than a 350-word paper, agree? The specified length also helps you understand how complex your work should be to grade high. Longer essays teach you to write cohesive texts, choose arguments, and think critically.

Don’t write essays for the sake of count. Quality matters, so please focus on arguments, evidence, and analysis. Avoid placing too many transitions, generic words, and lengthy expressions. Make your every word and sentence count.

How many words are in an essay sample?

350 words at least.

It depends on the essay type you write. Thus, a high school essay sample will be 350 words at least. If you need a college application essay, consider personal papers of 250-650 words. Check essay samples of 800-1,000 words if you need a standard college paper. More complex works like graduate school essays or dissertations will be 3,000+ words.

How long is each part of an essay?

Stick to the 80/20 rule when calculating the length of each essay part. An essay body is the core section of academic papers: Make it 80% of the text. The remaining 20% goes to an introduction and a conclusion.

Say you write a 1,000-word essay. It means you will have 800 words in the body; 100 words go to the introduction and 100 words — for a concluding paragraph. You can go 10% below or above the prescribed limit. (Unless your instructor sets specific limitations.)

How many sentences are in an essay?

21-34 sentences for a standard 5-paragraph essay.

It depends on your essay type and the required word count. I’ll take a standard 5-paragraph college paper as an example:

You have one introductory paragraph, which is 3-5 sentences average. Other 3-5 sentences go to your conclusion. The body consists of three sections, 5-8 sentences each (1). So, here we have it: 21-34 sentences in an essay.

How many words are in an essay introduction?

Take 10-15% of the total length required. Thus, if you need to write a 1,000-word essay, your introduction will be 100-150 words.

For advanced research papers, where intros are longer than one paragraph, stick to 100-150 words per paragraph average. Such texts are usually above 3,000 words, so you’ll follow the 80/20 rule anyway.

Can I go under the suggested length?

It’s not advisable. Please do your best to meet the minimum word count given in the assignment. If the guidelines say “350-600 words,” write at least 350 words in an essay. Sometimes, a 10% deviation is acceptable, but don’t take this rule for granted. Most instructors won’t appreciate your 315-word paper if they ask you to write 350 words at least.

How to make your essay longer?

• Add more examples and evidence to the body paragraphs. 
• Explain and analyze every argument in detail. 
• Mention counterarguments if applicable.

Can I make my essay longer?

Yes, you can exceed the word limit by 10% if allowed by your course instructor. For example, if you get an assignment of 500-700 words, it’s okay to submit a 770-word essay for a review.

Important! Always ask your instructor if the 10% rule is available in their course. And exceed the word count only if you have critical information to add.

Academic writing is all about rules and instructions. Essay length isn’t an exception:

Every college paper has a prescribed, approximate word count to follow. When asking, “How long is an essay?” remember the answer will depend on several factors:

• Academic level. (Middle and high school students write short essays. Undergraduates and graduates craft longer and more complex papers.)
• Type and purpose. (Research-based essays are longer than reflective stories you write for college admission officers.)
• Instructions you get from a teacher. (Check them: The supposed essay length is often there.)

How many words are in an essay? You can answer this question now.

References:

• https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/paragraphs_and_paragraphing/paragraphing.html  
• Essay samples
• Essay writing
• Writing tips

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Why You Should Use EduBirdie’s Essay Word Counter?

The design team at EduBirdie has created a word counter tool that you can use to improve the quality of a paper. Our team created this tool because we know how important it is for you to stay within the page limits established by a professor. Read this quick description to find out how our character count calculator helps.

A Brief Overview of How Word Counter For Essays Works

Our online word count calculator counts the written words in an essay so that you can avoid going over a professor’s character and word count limit and avoid using redundant text and language. Here is a small guide on how to use it: 

• Copy and paste a text into the field provided on the web page.
• Allow the online word counter program to analyze your text and retrieve results. It takes less than a second.
• To the right of the field, there is a section that tells how many characters and words there are in a paper.
• Click ‘clear all’ at the bottom of the field to delete the copy-pasted text when you are done.

Why Our Word Count Tool is the Best

First of all, it’s free, as well as other essay writing tools by EduBirdie.com: free paraphrasing tool , plagiarism checker, case converter tool and many others. When submitting an essay to be checked, you do not pay a dime. Use it as many times as you want without worrying about how much it costs, it is free. Moreover, our character count and word count for essay check tool always works; you will never be left in the lurch. Never worry again about glitches or bugs preventing you from getting your work done. In case  any help is needed, 24/7 Customer Support will immediately give an answer. That's mean that If there are any questions about how to use our online device, contact our customer service specialists. They are always available to assist you!

How Character Count Can Help

Don`t worry about the limits of text, we keep you within a page limit through all the process. Most, if not all, professors give their students a page limit. Going over a professor’s page or word limit will result in a lower grade than you would normally get. Thankfully, our word counter tool tells how many words, pages, and characters are in an essay so that you can avoid upsetting your professor.

We will help you avoid redundant phrases to make a paper  perfect match to requirements. No one likes a long-winded essay that says the same thing over and over again. That is another reason why we have created this word counter software, because staying within a character limit helps keep an assignment short and to the point. By eliminating superfluous language, and keeping your paper short and to the point, you will make it easier for the reader to understand and appreciate your ideas. Sometimes less is more and more is less.

Also, Edubirdie character counter has Auto-Save function. Now you won`t get distracted too to save your footage. This keeps you much more concentrated and saves time and text, so you`ll never lose any bit of your work.

The Benefits of Using our Online Word Counter Tool

• Fast Results: When submitting an assignment to be checked, you get the number of words or characters in as little as a few seconds.
• Easy way to count how many characters are there in your assignment.
• Access to Extra Services: If you need more help, find affordable editing, proofreading, and conclusion maker  services here on EduBirdie. Contact our customer service agents to find out more!

This is a perfect tool for speeches. It helps identify the length of your written speech in minutes, not exceeding the time allocated for your oral presentation.

Teacher gave you an assignment and you don’t know how many pages make 1,000 words? Use this tool to convert words to pages!

Identify the percentage of plagiarism in your paper using this tool. It also highlights areas that should be paraphrased or cited properly.

No matter what type of essay you need, we’ll get it written, so let’s get started.

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Word Counter

Count how many words a text has in seconds..

How to Calculate Word Counts Easily with HIX Writer

To use the online word counter of HIX Writer, simply follow the steps below.

• Step 1: Enter the text you want to count its words.
• Step 2: Specify the count method and things to include/exclude in your counting.
• Step 3: Start the counting and get the result in seconds.

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Fast and Reliable Word Counter

Looking for a reliable way to calculate how many words there are in a text? HIX Writer's online word counter is the help you need. Its speed, accuracy, and customization options make it an essential tool to get precise word counts for your content, and streamline your writing workflow.

How HIX Writer Helps You Count Words Accurately

As an online word counter you can "count" on, HIX Writer offers the following benefits:

Accurate Word Counting

With HIX Writer's word counter, you don't need to guess or estimate the word count of your content. It provides you with an accurate number in a matter of seconds. Whether you're writing a short essay or a blog post, you can trust HIX Writer to deliver precise results.

Count Method Customizable

You don't need to follow the standardized approach to count words with HIX Writer. We allow you to tailor the count method to your needs. Whether you want to skip numbers or specific types of words, HIX Writer can always satisfy you.

Specify Sections to Exclude

Want to count certain parts of your text only? No problem! HIX Writer allows you to specify certain sections to exclude (e.g. headers, footers, citations) when counting words. Just enter your instructions, and HIX Writer will follow it with no deviation.

Word Counter Fitting Multiple Purposes

As a reliable tool, HIX Writer's word counter can be helpful in various scenarios.

Article Writing/Editing

Writers and editors can rely on HIX Writer's word counter to view the length of their content and make sure they can meet the word requirements.

Social Media Creation

Social media posts have ideal post lengths for optimal readability, and platforms like Twitter (or X) have a character limit of 280. Using HIX Writer's word counter can ensure your post content has a suitable length for your target audience.

Document Translation

Word count is a key factor in translation, especially if you're hiring a translator and base the cost on the number of words. HIX Writer's word counter can help you manage your translation project scope and budget more efficiently.

Why Choose HIX Writer for Word Counting

See What You Can Do With HIX Writer Other Than Word Counter

Explain it to a 5th grader, continue writing, linkedin summary generator, story summarizer, real estate bio generator, professional bio generator, free spell checker, sentence rephraser, 1. can your word counter count characters.

Yes. HIX Writer's word counter can give you the total count of your text characters. Simply give it the instructions, and it will output the precise character count.

2. Does your word counter include numbers and symbols in the word count?

You can specify whether you want to include or exclude them before you start the counting. And HIX Writer will automatically do the counting in your preferred way.

3. Is there a way to track the word count in real-time as I type?

Currently, HIX Writer doesn't support real-time word count. You will need to click the Generate button to get the word count in seconds.

4. Can your word counter count words in different languages?

HIX Writer can only count words in English for now.

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Enhance your writing process with HIX Writer. Whether you're crafting fact-based articles, humanizing AI text, or rewriting, summarizing, and translating your content, HIX Writer provides the tools you need.

How-To Geek

How to check word count in google docs.

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Today's nyt connections hints and answer for august 9 (#424), spectrum just raised its prices again, quick links, see the word count for a document, find the word count for certain text.

Whether an essay for school, article for a blog, or description for a product, your document's word count might be essential. You can check the word count in Google Docs easily and in a few different ways, including a keyboard shortcut .

• Open the document and, if applicable, highlight the text you want to count
• Click Tools > Word Count and find the number labeled "Words."
• Click "OK" when you're done to close the dialog box.

If it's the entire document that you want the word count for, you don't have to select anything on the page. Just go to the Tools menu and select "Word Count."

Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+C on Windows, Chromebook, and Linux or Command+Shift+C on Mac.

You'll then see the total number of words along with other counts like pages and paragraphs. Keep in mind that this count does not include things like headers, footers, or footnotes.

Click "OK" to close the word count window. If you want the word count always visible, though, check the "Display Word Count While Typing" before clicking "OK."

Related: How to Always Display the Word Count in Google Docs

There might be a time when you need to check the word count for only a portion of a document. Maybe it's the introduction paragraph for an article or text for a block quote .

Select the text you want to check by dragging your cursor through it. This highlights it so you can make sure you have only the text you need. Then, use one of the actions above, either go to Tools > Word Count or use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+C on Windows, Chromebook, and Linux or Command+Shift+C on Mac.

You can then see the number of words for the selected text in relation to the entire document.

Click "OK" to close the window when you finish.

Getting the word count in Google Docs for the whole document or just particular text is easy enough. If this is something you find yourself doing often, take a look at how to always display the word count in Google Docs .

• Google Docs

How Many Words in a Paragraph?

What does a paragraph usually consist of?

A paragraph usually deals with a single idea. In general, you’ll have an introductory sentence expressing that idea, and several supporting sentences to round it off. Paragraphs are usually about 100 – 200 words long, but there are more exceptions to this rule-of-thumb than you’d expect.

Commercial Writing

Commercial writing breaks all the rules. Whether or not you find it irritating, your task is to hold your readers’ attention and get them to read what you’ve written. The average person doesn’t like to see solid blocks of text. It looks like it’s going to be difficult to get through, and nobody likes to work harder than they have to.

“White Space” is a great way to make your information look easier to master, and one of the best ways to create “white space” is through using paragraphs. For commercial writing, it’s best to keep sentences short and punchy, and the same goes for paragraphs.

People don’t usually like to see paragraphs that are more than three or four lines long. How many words is that? Again, although it’s not helpful, the answer is “It depends…” Font styles and font size will affect paragraph length – at least from a psychological perspective.

For example, this is a blog post, and I want to keep the reader engaged. The longest paragraph under this heading is only 61 words long. This is the shortest one so far, and it only uses 37 words.

I want to get your attention!

The above paragraph is only six words long, and you can count the words in this one if you like.

To make things easy for your reader, you’ll switch paragraphs every time you switch speakers, for example:

“I don’t know how long a paragraph should be,” said Mary, “but I hope to find out by reading this article.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” John replied, “but don’t let that limit your creativity!”

“Really? Can I bend the rules?”

“The rules are really more like guidelines.”

“Cool!”

As you can see, I was able to stop identifying the speakers as soon as the conversation began to flow because John and Mary each had paragraphs to themselves. Neither of them said anything that was even close to 100 words, but it’s still easy to see who said what. Mary’s final paragraph was one word long.

Academic Writing

In academic writing, paragraphs will usually consist of the “standard” 100 – 200 words (Burns, 2002). You will begin the paragraph with an idea and then explain it in the light of currently accepted knowledge (Phillips, 2014) with references. Bear in mind that your tutor will want to see some original thought, but will expect it to be motivated according to your reading (Williams et al, 1994). Smith (2004) supports this concept and confirms that academic writing requires longer paragraphs than those generally found in commercial writing or even story-telling. 200 words is really a bit long for any paragraph and since this one is just over 100 words, you’ll soon see why this should be the case (Me, 2015).

Whew! That was a marathon to read, wasn’t it?

How many words per paragraph? It’s really up to you!

As a takeaway, I’d like to suggest that there are absolutely no hard-and-fast rules as to how many words a paragraph should be.

Making them too short, can look a little odd.

This is an excellent example.

But it can work in some cases.

On the other hand, having really long paragraphs might work for you, but not for your reader. A lot of text without “white space” is hard on the eyes, and the brain. I’ve seen blog posts and web pages with absolutely no paragraphs to speak of. Did I want to read them? Not really. It was too difficult to separate the ideas from one another and there just didn’t seem to be a good enough reason to read them if I could find the same information split up into bite-sized chunks that were easier to digest. So, whatever you do, don’t forget the importance of paragraphs – and keep them a bit shorter than this one, unless you’re trying to baffle the reader.

By the way, the above paragraph is “only” 122 words (656 characters) long. Do you see what I mean when I say that longer isn’t always better? I’m ready to bet that you do.

(Photo courtesy of Enokson )

So, if I have a 10 paragraph assignment, I can just write ten words with a period after each and I will have it completed?

Yes, if you want to fail the assignment. While technically you could do this, it’s not in the spirit of what the teacher wanted when making the assignment (but you already knew that).

This will mostly depend on the writer. Paragraphs will also differ in size due to information being written about and the type of writing being done. I don’t think anyone can say how many words will be in any given paragraph before it’s written. Even with the same topic and directions, two writers will have different results.

I would not suggest trying to do this. While you may think it’s funny or clever, it’s highly doubtful that your teacher or professor will see it the same way.

Is that the paragraph sign in the photo in this article? I’ve never seen it look like that before. The one I know sort of looks like a “P”

Yes, that is the paragraph sign used in Europe.

Does anyone know what the “paragraph sign” is called? Is there a proper English word for it or does everyone just call it a paragraph sign?

The paragraph symbol is called a pilcrow. The symbol in the illustration at the head of this article is the section symbol (or silcrow, informally).

Does it really matter how many words are in a paragraph?

Of course it matters. You can’t just write 1 word paragraphs. You should try to write paragraphs that have 100 to 200 words for most of them. This will make it easier for people to read them.

Great guideline to use. This will always be a question that will be asked by writers and I think it is difficult to answer due to the fact that you need to know what information you want in it.

No! Just write as many words as you want for each paragraph. Don’t conform to any rules and express your own thoughts and words. Rebel!

Don’t listen to @artstudent — the comment is nothing more than a troll. The number of words in a paragraph does matter, and although it is fine to rebel, you need to rebel once you have learned how to write your graphs properly. Trying to rebuild before you know how to do that only make you look like a fool.

This would seem to be such an easy question to answer, but the answer is 1 word to hundreds of words. I wish there were a more definite answer like 50 or 100 so I could just use that. Why does all aspects of writing have to be so difficult?

Language would be so much more boring if everything was defined like that. What makes English so beautiful is that it isn’t rigid with rules. It makes it fun!

Who decides what the average number of words in a paragraph is? I know you said that there are usually 100 to 200 words in a paragraph, but who has decided that this is the general amount? Did someone just wake up one day and say that a paragraph should have 100 to 200 words and it? Where has there been some specific research done that indicates that most paragraphs fall within this range?

It’s easy to determine a general number of words in a paragraph. All that needs to be done is take a large data set and then crunch the numbers. If you look at hundreds of thousands of paragraphs you’ll soon see a trend of how many words are in an average paragraph. Sure, there will be some with a lot less and some with a lot more, but in general an average number will appear. That’s 100 to 200 words per paragraph.

SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<3 (: This is exactly what I was looking for to help me out with my essay.

It’s always great to hear our tools are helpful. Glad it helped with your essay!

I like to write long paragraphs. I think that too many people try to break long paragraphs into a number of shorter ones far too often. There is just something special about reading a long paragraph that conveys the essence of the story. People shouldn’t try to make their paragraphs too short. Long paragraphs are just so wonderful.

Long paragraphs are difficult to read. That’s why you rarely see them in magazines and newspapers (or online) . A huge wall of text is never inviting. If you like long paragraphs, there is nothing wrong with that, but you need to be aware that fewer people will actually read what you write.

I like to write short paragraphs. I think that too many people try to combine short paragraphs into a number of longer ones far too often. There is just something special about reading a short paragraph that conveys the essence of the story. People shouldn’t try to make their paragraphs too long. Short paragraphs are just so wonderful.

Hi wondering how many words are in a paragraph with a 8 sentences

That would depend on how many words are in each sentence which can vary greatly. Most sentences have about 6 words, so a guestimate would be 48 words. If you stick the paragraph into https://wordcounter.net/ it will tell you exactly how many words are in the paragraph.

Usually, 150-180 depending on the length of your sentences. Admin said 48, but 6 word-sentences are not commonly used if you are doing an academic paper (analysis, informative, argumentative essay) rather than freelance writing for creativity or leisure. the smallest sentence in an essay I’m writing is 10 words. And there are not many of those. The rest average between 12-30 words. If you are in high school (I am a HS senior), I suggest using a more academic vocabulary that will make your sentences fuller. But, only make them longer if it is necessary and meaningful, not to reach a word count. That’s when sentences become run-ons and you lose points. If you are in Jr High, get used to being thorough yet concise. Not too verbose! Just a good medium. You’ll find a balance as you grow as a writer and form your own style. I know this is late lol, but I hope that helps 🙂

Some people count proper names (e.g. New York, Thomas Alva Edison), proverbs (A stitch in time saves nine), idioms (make ends meet), titles (Little House on the Prairie), and similes (as hardworking as an ant) as one single word. Is it correct?

Our tool does not do this — they would all be counted as individual words.

Sometimes two.

Three at times.

Four is also possible.

Five is good for some.

Does anyone truly care about this? I mean, who cares how many words are in a paragraph? Name me one person who would care about this? And if you can, you have named someone who needs to reevaluate what they care about in life.

I care. I have an assignment to write a paragraph and I wanted to get a general idea of how long that should be. You think I need to reevaluate my life because i want to do well in school?

In general life, one might now care; however, in college the professor care and you will be graded for it.

I know this was posted four years ago now, but I felt like saying something to this comment. I’m going to quote the famous Obi-wan from Star Wars 2: “You need to go home and rethink YOUR life”. I think that your comment is a little too extreme- there are many good people in this world who care about doing your best in everything- even the seeming insignificant things. For example, how many words are in a paragraph. If you’re looking to argue against something in such a strongly negative way, why don’t you please kindly do it against something that is actually worth speaking out against? Is it worth saying something rude and insulting just for fun? Obviously, to you it might be, but I’m sure many people would agree with me that it isn’t.

I think an important point that hasn’t been mentioned in the comments is that a paragraph should be about a single idea. That means that the number of words in a paragraph will depend on how long you spend on that single idea. If you have a lot to say about that single idea, the paragraph will be long. If you don’t have a lot to say about that idea, the paragraph will be short. I don’t think you should be concentrating on how many words are in the paragraph as much as are you still on the same topic within the paragraph.

I see so many students who don’t understand this and break up a single idea into several paragraphs. Then there are other students to take several ideas and lump them all into the same paragraph. If you can understand the concept of a single idea for a paragraph, it will solve a lot of your problem.

You can’t write well without understanding the structure of a paragraph. I see so many students try to squeeze a number of different ideas into a single paragraph and this immediately tells me they don’t understand what it’s for and how it’s used.

I don’t understand why so many people worry about things like this. If you’re trying to write well, the number of words for each paragraph should naturally take place. Trying to force a specific number of words into each paragraph will ruin your writing.

I always just used the rule that a paragraph should have 3-5 sentences

I am a sixth grader. Do the same rules apply for all grades? I usually write about 250 words in each paragraph, ending up writing about 5 paragraphs.

Helpful article.

It’s a general rule of thumb, not a one that can’t be broken. So much depends on the context of what’s being written. It’s a good number to shoot for, but there are a lot of reasons to deviate from it depending on what you’re writing.

wow, my aim is more than 50 words in a paragraph and I am in grade 6!

You should shoot for three to five sentences in a paragraph and six to 10 words per sentence, so a paragraph should have 18 to 50 words.

Those are some pretty short paragraphs. I would find it difficult to express all the information in such a short paragraph for most of my writing. There are times when they can be this short, but I would say most should be a lot longer.

This is something that everyone who is commenting on seems to be overanalyzing. Don’t try to constrict yourself into a certain number of words per paragraph. If you write well, paragraphs will naturally come about and be the number of words they need to be. If you try to cram too many words into them to make them longer or cut out a bunch of words to make them shorter, in all likelihood the paragraphs won’t seem natural. Write the best thing you can in the paragraph should naturally flow.

This is fine unless the assignment has a word and paragraph limit. I have an assignment that requires 8 paragraphs and 1000 words. It seems crazy for a teacher to be this specific for a paper, but she does stuff like this all the time.

What ?! I had a 7 paragraph essay and I ended up writing 2159 words. Imagine writing 8 paragraphs !

Adversity is said to build character. The lower the bar is set the lower the standard score will be. Seems advantageous for a teacher to raise the bar therby increasing challenge and outcome of students. The teacher had in fact simplified your sssignment with clarity not pickiness.

Hahah, you made me die because of laughing. An assignment I have to write requires 3000 words, but paragraphs are not limited.

Very true. Also using Microsoft Word we can keep track of how many words we used once we finish adding more or less.

I just finished writing an essay. The shortest paragraph had 98 words and the longest had 367 words. It doesn’t seem that this is accurate at all.

Rules, not guidelines! Remember what they said at the beginning? It depends!

Think of a paragraph as a women’s skirt. Make sure its long enough to cover everything but make it short enough to be interesting! 😉

LOL, that’s a good one.

Who the hell downvoted dat?!?!?!?

Anyone who isn’t a misogynist

This is so perfect! I don’t know how anyone would go through their day without this cool joke!

This made me giggle lol!!😂😂🤣🤣😂😂

An older Catholic Priest once told me that this was the advice given to him by another Priest with respect to writing sermons. 🙂

“A good sermon is short enough to keep the attention and long enough to cover the material.”

69 likes as well….

lol, I’m dead. u ain’t never!!!😅😂🤣

The original definition of a paragraph is ONE OR MORE SENTENCES. I had a boss onece who had a bug up her backside about not allowing one sentence paragraphs in documents. She used to say it was grammatically incorrect, and then used to complain our documents were too wordy and long. She was 100% wrong. Grammar has to do with spelling and punctuation, and the sentence was perfectly spelled and punctuated. Usage and style have to do with form and structure. Anyone who says it is never done is wrong. God, the disciples and King James are going to be angry when someone rewrites the Bible. Shortest paragraph and verse in the King James Bible is in the New Testament: “Jesus Wept.” Two words. One Sentence. One paragraph. One sentence paragraphs are done, they are used. They have been used in very important religious books, historical books and literature. There is nothing wrong with them stylistically. If a one sentence paragraph conveys the idea, mood, emotion or purpose intended by the author, there is nothing wrong with using it. The pace and metering of what you read can be as important as the words.

Thanks for the information. I will keep an eye open to the bible verses to find this paragraphs. God bless you.

How many paragraphs are thousand and fifty words

Like some people were saying, it should come naturally and flow. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a certain amount of words or sentences. As long as the paragraph is based on the same idea or topic, it will not matter the number of words or sentences.

Writing essays is a new concept for me and now that I’ve started college It will be very challenging. Thanks to this information I will be able to keep the essay simple and easy for the audience to “grasp it”.

Thank you very much!

Writing is amazing generally

this information was so helpful don’t listen to fortnite

I think everyone should just be a skirt especially verbally lovely

thank you so much this helped me with my homework.

This might potentially be the most self aware web page I’ve ever been on.

So, I’m writing one paragraph that have to have 350 words in it. How many sentences is there supposed to be to get to 350 words in one paragraph.

I’m a middle school student and write a 8 paragraph essay in around 3000 words. Is that long?

that is very short

How many words in 177 syllables

I am a bit concerned that the single and pervasive focus on readability, which is ease of reading by simplicity of language and brevity of text, has the cumulative effect of reducing an individual’s reading comprehension and diminishing their overall capacity for handling texts of even moderate complexity. The mind is not a static instrument; it is continually changing in response to the challenges, of lack of challenges presented to it by one’s habitual environment. When virtually all written text which a person is likely to encounter on a daily basis has been tailored to be simple and easy to read and comprehend, the mind is on a downward trajectory of diminishing capacity. I would guess that the majority of texts which a person reads day-to-day are either above or below their own level, and fewer texts match the reader’s level exactly. The mantra of readability ensures that a non-academic reader is practically guaranteed to be reading consistently below their level. No doubt, our fluid and efficient minds will accommodate the lessened challenge and effort with reduced capacity.

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Frequently asked questions

How do i meet the word count.

If your college essay goes over the word count limit , cut any sentences with tangents or irrelevant details. Delete unnecessary words that clutter your essay.

If you’re struggling to reach the word count for your college essay, add vivid personal stories or share your feelings and insight to give your essay more depth and authenticity.

Frequently asked questions: College admissions essays

When writing your Common App essay , choose a prompt that sparks your interest and that you can connect to a unique personal story.

No matter which prompt you choose, admissions officers are more interested in your ability to demonstrate personal development , insight, or motivation for a certain area of study.

The Common App essay is your primary writing sample within the Common Application, a college application portal accepted by more than 900 schools. All your prospective schools that accept the Common App will read this essay to understand your character, background, and value as a potential student.

Since this essay is read by many colleges, avoid mentioning any college names or programs; instead, save tailored answers for the supplementary school-specific essays within the Common App.

Most importantly, your essay should be about you , not another person or thing. An insightful college admissions essay requires deep self-reflection, authenticity, and a balance between confidence and vulnerability.

Your essay shouldn’t be a résumé of your experiences but instead should tell a story that demonstrates your most important values and qualities.

When revising your college essay , first check for big-picture issues regarding your message and content. Then, check for flow, tone, style , and clarity. Finally, focus on eliminating grammar and punctuation errors .

If you’ve got to write your college essay fast , don’t panic. First, set yourself deadlines: you should spend about 10% of your remaining time on brainstorming, 10% on outlining, 40% writing, 30% revising, and 10% taking breaks in between stages.

Second, brainstorm stories and values based on your essay prompt.

Third, outline your essay based on the montage or narrative essay structure .

Fourth, write specific, personal, and unique stories that would be hard for other students to replicate.

Fifth, revise your essay and make sure it’s clearly written.

Last, if possible, get feedback from an essay coach . Scribbr essay editors can help you revise your essay in 12 hours or less.

Avoid swearing in a college essay , since admissions officers’ opinions of profanity will vary. In some cases, it might be okay to use a vulgar word, such as in dialogue or quotes that make an important point in your essay. However, it’s safest to try to make the same point without swearing.

If you have bad grades on your transcript, you may want to use your college admissions essay to explain the challenging circumstances that led to them. Make sure to avoid dwelling on the negative aspects and highlight how you overcame the situation or learned an important lesson.

However, some college applications offer an additional information section where you can explain your bad grades, allowing you to choose another meaningful topic for your college essay.

Here’s a brief list of college essay topics that may be considered cliché:

• Extracurriculars, especially sports
• Role models
• Dealing with a personal tragedy or death in the family
• Struggling with new life situations (immigrant stories, moving homes, parents’ divorce)
• Becoming a better person after community service, traveling, or summer camp
• Overcoming a difficult class
• Using a common object as an extended metaphor

It’s easier to write a standout essay with a unique topic. However, it’s possible to make a common topic compelling with interesting story arcs, uncommon connections, and an advanced writing style.

Yes. The college application essay is less formal than other academic writing —though of course it’s not mandatory to use contractions in your essay.

In a college essay , you can be creative with your language . When writing about the past, you can use the present tense to make the reader feel as if they were there in the moment with you. But make sure to maintain consistency and when in doubt, default to the correct verb tense according to the time you’re writing about.

The college admissions essay gives admissions officers a different perspective on you beyond your academic achievements, test scores, and extracurriculars. It’s your chance to stand out from other applicants with similar academic profiles by telling a unique, personal, and specific story.

Use a standard font such as Times New Roman or Arial to avoid distracting the reader from your college essay’s content.

A college application essay is less formal than most academic writing . Instead of citing sources formally with in-text citations and a reference list, you can cite them informally in your text.

For example, “In her research paper on genetics, Quinn Roberts explores …”

There is no set number of paragraphs in a college admissions essay . College admissions essays can diverge from the traditional five-paragraph essay structure that you learned in English class. Just make sure to stay under the specified word count .

Most topics are acceptable for college essays if you can use them to demonstrate personal growth or a lesson learned. However, there are a few difficult topics for college essays that should be avoided. Avoid topics that are:

• Overly personal (e.g. graphic details of illness or injury, romantic or sexual relationships)
• Not personal enough (e.g. broad solutions to world problems, inspiring people or things)
• Too negative (e.g. an in-depth look at your flaws, put-downs of others, criticizing the need for a college essay)
• Too boring (e.g. a resume of your academic achievements and extracurriculars)
• Inappropriate for a college essay (e.g. illegal activities, offensive humor, false accounts of yourself, bragging about privilege)

To write an effective diversity essay , include vulnerable, authentic stories about your unique identity, background, or perspective. Provide insight into how your lived experience has influenced your outlook, activities, and goals. If relevant, you should also mention how your background has led you to apply for this university and why you’re a good fit.

Many universities believe a student body composed of different perspectives, beliefs, identities, and backgrounds will enhance the campus learning and community experience.

Admissions officers are interested in hearing about how your unique background, identity, beliefs, culture, or characteristics will enrich the campus community, which is why they assign a diversity essay .

In addition to your main college essay , some schools and scholarships may ask for a supplementary essay focused on an aspect of your identity or background. This is sometimes called a diversity essay .

You can use humor in a college essay , but carefully consider its purpose and use it wisely. An effective use of humor involves unexpected, keen observations of the everyday, or speaks to a deeper theme. Humor shouldn’t be the main focus of the essay, but rather a tool to improve your storytelling.

Get a second opinion from a teacher, counselor, or essay coach on whether your essay’s humor is appropriate.

Though admissions officers are interested in hearing your story, they’re also interested in how you tell it. An exceptionally written essay will differentiate you from other applicants, meaning that admissions officers will spend more time reading it.

You can use literary devices to catch your reader’s attention and enrich your storytelling; however, focus on using just a few devices well, rather than trying to use as many as possible.

To decide on a good college essay topic , spend time thoughtfully answering brainstorming questions. If you still have trouble identifying topics, try the following two strategies:

• Identify your qualities → Brainstorm stories that demonstrate these qualities
• Identify memorable stories → Connect your qualities to these stories

You can also ask family, friends, or mentors to help you brainstorm topics, give feedback on your potential essay topics, or recall key stories that showcase your qualities.

Yes—admissions officers don’t expect everyone to have a totally unique college essay topic . But you must differentiate your essay from others by having a surprising story arc, an interesting insight, and/or an advanced writing style .

There are no foolproof college essay topics —whatever your topic, the key is to write about it effectively. However, a good topic

• Is meaningful, specific, and personal to you
• Focuses on you and your experiences
• Reveals something beyond your test scores, grades, and extracurriculars
• Is creative and original

Unlike a five-paragraph essay, your admissions essay should not end by summarizing the points you’ve already made. It’s better to be creative and aim for a strong final impression.

You should also avoid stating the obvious (for example, saying that you hope to be accepted).

There are a few strategies you can use for a memorable ending to your college essay :

• Return to the beginning with a “full circle” structure
• Reveal the main point or insight in your story
• Look to the future
• End on an action

The best technique will depend on your topic choice, essay outline, and writing style. You can write several endings using different techniques to see which works best.

College deadlines vary depending on the schools you’re applying to and your application plan:

• For early action applications and the first round of early decision applications, the deadline is on November 1 or 15. Decisions are released by mid-December.
• For the second round of early decision applications, the deadline is January 1 or 15. Decisions are released in January or February.
• Regular decision deadlines usually fall between late November and mid-March, and decisions are released in March or April.
• Rolling admission deadlines run from July to April, and decisions are released around four to eight weeks after submission.

Depending on your prospective schools’ requirements, you may need to submit scores for the SAT or ACT as part of your college application .

Some schools now no longer require students to submit test scores; however, you should still take the SAT or ACT and aim to get a high score to strengthen your application package.

Aim to take the SAT or ACT in the spring of your junior year to give yourself enough time to retake it in the fall of your senior year if necessary.

Apply early for federal student aid and application fee waivers. You can also look for scholarships from schools, corporations, and charitable foundations.

To maximize your options, you should aim to apply to about eight schools:

• Two reach schools that might be difficult to get into
• Four match schools that you have a good chance of getting into
• Two safety schools that you feel confident you’ll get into

The college admissions essay accounts for roughly 25% of the weight of your application .

At highly selective schools, there are four qualified candidates for every spot. While your academic achievements are important, your college admissions essay can help you stand out from other applicants with similar profiles.

In general, for your college application you will need to submit all of the following:

• Your personal information
• List of extracurriculars and awards
• College application essays
• Transcripts
• Standardized test scores
• Recommendation letters.

Different colleges may have specific requirements, so make sure you check exactly what’s expected in the application guidance.

You should start thinking about your college applications the summer before your junior year to give you sufficient time for college visits, taking standardized tests, applying for financial aid , writing essays, and collecting application material.

Yes, but make sure your essay directly addresses the prompt, respects the word count , and demonstrates the organization’s values.

If you plan ahead, you can save time by writing one scholarship essay for multiple prompts with similar questions. In a scholarship tracker spreadsheet, you can group or color-code overlapping essay prompts; then, write a single essay for multiple scholarships. Sometimes, you can even reuse or adapt your main college essay .

You can start applying for scholarships as early as your junior year. Continue applying throughout your senior year.

Invest time in applying for various scholarships , especially local ones with small dollar amounts, which are likely easier to win and more reflective of your background and interests. It will be easier for you to write an authentic and compelling essay if the scholarship topic is meaningful to you.

You can find scholarships through your school counselor, community network, or an internet search.

A scholarship essay requires you to demonstrate your values and qualities while answering the prompt’s specific question.

After researching the scholarship organization, identify a personal experience that embodies its values and exemplifies how you will be a successful student.

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.

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.

In most cases, quoting other people isn’t a good way to start your college essay . Admissions officers want to hear your thoughts about yourself, and quotes often don’t achieve that. Unless a quote truly adds something important to your essay that it otherwise wouldn’t have, you probably shouldn’t include it.

Cliché openers in a college essay introduction are usually general and applicable to many students and situations. Most successful introductions are specific: they only work for the unique essay that follows.

The key to a strong college essay introduction is not to give too much away. Try to start with a surprising statement or image that raises questions and compels the reader to find out more.

The introduction of your college essay is the first thing admissions officers will read and therefore your most important opportunity to stand out. An excellent introduction will keep admissions officers reading, allowing you to tell them what you want them to know.

You can speed up this process by shortening and smoothing your writing with a paraphrasing tool . After that, you can use the summarizer to shorten it even more.

If you’re struggling to reach the word count for your college essay, add vivid personal stories or share your feelings and insight to give your essay more depth and authenticity.

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.

In your application essay , admissions officers are looking for particular features : they want to see context on your background, positive traits that you could bring to campus, and examples of you demonstrating those qualities.

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.

You don’t need a title for your college admissions essay , but you can include one if you think it adds something important.

Your college essay’s format should be as simple as possible:

• Use a standard, readable font
• Use 1.5 or double spacing
• If attaching a file, save it as a PDF
• Stick to the word count
• Avoid unusual formatting and unnecessary decorative touches

There are no set rules for how to structure a college application essay , but these are two common structures that work:

• A montage structure, a series of vignettes with a common theme.
• A narrative structure, a single story that shows your personal growth or how you overcame a challenge.

Avoid the five-paragraph essay structure that you learned in high school.

Campus visits are always helpful, but if you can’t make it in person, the college website will have plenty of information for you to explore. You should look through the course catalog and even reach out to current faculty with any questions about the school.

Colleges set a “Why this college?” essay because they want to see that you’ve done your research. You must prove that you know what makes the school unique and can connect that to your own personal goals and academic interests.

Depending on your writing, you may go through several rounds of revision . Make sure to put aside your essay for a little while after each editing stage to return with a fresh perspective.

Teachers and guidance counselors can help you check your language, tone, and content . Ask for their help at least one to two months before the submission deadline, as many other students will also want their help.

Friends and family are a good resource to check for authenticity. It’s best to seek help from family members with a strong writing or English educational background, or from older siblings and cousins who have been through the college admissions process.

If possible, get help from an essay coach or editor ; they’ll have specialized knowledge of college admissions essays and be able to give objective expert feedback.

When revising your college essay , first check for big-picture issues regarding message, flow, tone, style , and clarity. Then, focus on eliminating grammar and punctuation errors.

Include specific, personal details and use your authentic voice to shed a new perspective on a common human experience.

Through specific stories, you can weave your achievements and qualities into your essay so that it doesn’t seem like you’re bragging from a resume.

When writing about yourself , including difficult experiences or failures can be a great way to show vulnerability and authenticity, but be careful not to overshare, and focus on showing how you matured from the experience.

First, spend time reflecting on your core values and character . You can start with these questions:

• What are three words your friends or family would use to describe you, and why would they choose them?
• Whom do you admire most and why?
• What are you most proud of? Ashamed of?

However, you should do a comprehensive brainstorming session to fully understand your values. Also consider how your values and goals match your prospective university’s program and culture. Then, brainstorm stories that illustrate the fit between the two.

In a college application essay , you can occasionally bend grammatical rules if doing so adds value to the storytelling process and the essay maintains clarity.

However, use standard language rules if your stylistic choices would otherwise distract the reader from your overall narrative or could be easily interpreted as unintentional errors.

Write concisely and use the active voice to maintain a quick pace throughout your essay and make sure it’s the right length . Avoid adding definitions unless they provide necessary explanation.

Use first-person “I” statements to speak from your perspective . Use appropriate word choices that show off your vocabulary but don’t sound like you used a thesaurus. Avoid using idioms or cliché expressions by rewriting them in a creative, original way.

If you’re an international student applying to a US college and you’re comfortable using American idioms or cultural references , you can. But instead of potentially using them incorrectly, don’t be afraid to write in detail about yourself within your own culture.

Provide context for any words, customs, or places that an American admissions officer might be unfamiliar with.

College application essays are less formal than other kinds of academic writing . Use a conversational yet respectful tone , as if speaking with a teacher or mentor. Be vulnerable about your feelings, thoughts, and experiences to connect with the reader.

Aim to write in your authentic voice , with a style that sounds natural and genuine. You can be creative with your word choice, but don’t use elaborate vocabulary to impress admissions officers.

Admissions officers use college admissions essays to evaluate your character, writing skills , and ability to self-reflect . The essay is your chance to show what you will add to the academic community.

The college essay may be the deciding factor in your application , especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurriculars.

Some colleges also require supplemental essays about specific topics, such as why you chose that specific college . Scholarship essays are often required to obtain financial aid .

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Word Counter

Essay word counter: the best solution to getting the right length of your essay.

When working on your assignments, you can only be sure of getting the best grades by strictly following all the instructions. “I have to do my coursework to the top of my abilities” is a thought that might instill worry in you. But one of the requirements in most assignments, word count, is fairly easy to keep track of. As you're writing an essay, it is important to stick to the required word count for this particular type of paper. But how do you know it? How many words in an essay? Here are all the answers:

How Many Words are in My Essay?

It depends on the type of essay you are working on. For example, a one-page essay should be approximately 550 words or longer, depending on your department’s requirements. However, if you have been writing your essay and have probably hit midway, it might be important to check the number of words to assess progress. This is critical to ensuring your writing stays within the recommended length. To know the number of words for your essay, you should consider using the essay word counter.

How Many Words Is the Average College Essay?

An average college essay is 400-700 words , which is about five paragraphs. When you see the length requirements for a difficult paper you might immediately think “I just want to pay someone to do my essay .” But don't worry, sometimes even a 1,000 words isn't that much when you enjoy your topic and do the research. Make sure to pay special attention to your lecturer's instructions because some might require specific pages or paragraphs. However, the 400 – 700 words range sound wide, right? This range is meant to cater for writers who prefer either short or longer paragraphs.

Even though the answer to the question, “how many words in a college essay?” is distinct, you need to ensure that all the key points on your topic are covered. For example, when writing a persuasive essay, make sure to bring out the main points and counterarguments.

Once you are through writing the college essay, you should make sure to confirm the number of words using a reliable tool, such as the essay word counter, before submitting it.

How Many Words Is the Common App Essay?  

Like an average essay, an application essay is another flexible type of write-up of 250-650 words , which students write when seeking admission to colleges of their choice. Ensure to be extra careful when determining how many words is a college essay for admission because it is part of the grading system.

When writing an application essay, do not simply assume that shorter is always better. Instead, you should think of how many words is a good essay, which allows you to express your personality, writing skills, and passions. We recommend that you target 500 - 600 words. To know this, you need to use the word counter tool, which is fast, reliable, and accurate.

How Many Words Is a Two Page Essay?

Now that we have answered the question “How many words is a 5 paragraph essay?,” it is time to move on to the next one, a two page essay, which starts from 500 words . However, it is very important to consider whether your paper is single or double spaced.

A single page which is single-spaced should be about 500 words or 250 words if it is double spaced. When working on two pages, you need to hit double the number of words you would do for a single page, meaning 1,000 words single spaced or 500 words double spaced. To be sure that your paper is within the right range, make sure to use the online word counter for essay.

How to Use Our Word Counter for Essay

Whether you are working on a short or a longer essay, the first thing is determining how many words should a college essay be. For example, you should have the answer to the questions, “How many words should a 5 paragraph essay be?” and “How many words is the average essay?” by looking at the prompts given by your teacher. Then, make sure to use the essay counter tool. Here is a demonstration:

• Write your essay and format it well
• Visit the online word counter on their website
• Copy the entire text of your essay, and paste it on the word count interface

The good thing about using the word counter tool is that it allows you to do more than check the number of words. In addition, you can check grammar and improve your writing. Grammar is as important as word count, and should also be at the best level possible. And if after all of this you're ever thinking “I should get a professional to do my paper for me ,” and you actually do, then you won't have to worry about following all the instructions, because the writer will do all the work for you!

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How to ride a horse. Photo by Guy le Querrec/Magnum

Your body is an archive

If human knowledge can disappear so easily, why have so many cultural practices survived without written records.

by Helena Miton   + BIO

You can’t speak like they spoke. You can’t farm like they farmed. You can’t dance, or heal wounds, or greet people like they did. In fact, most of the cultural practices your distant ancestors learned have not reached you. They were lost somewhere along the way – failed transmissions that never crossed the generational chains of knowledge that connect us to our past. Those chains, it turns out, can be incredibly brittle. Without physical records, cultural knowledge can easily break down and disappear.

Think of the music of Mesopotamia, from around 2000 BCE. The only reason we can still attempt to play it today is because ancient Sumerians inscribed the notation for their songs into stone tablets. Think of the hunting techniques of our Palaeolithic ancestors. The only reason we have an idea about what these techniques involved is because we unearthed their carved weapons and tools. Museums are filled with these enduring messages about past cultural practices, coded into artefacts and ruins, or written onto parchment, papyrus and other kinds of media.

These messages can leave us lamenting the uncountable broken chains that separate us from the past: what might we know if more had been recorded? Surely, if our ancestors had just given us written instructions on how to speak, farm, cook, dance, and make music, we could have also learned and transmitted that knowledge. And imagine if they had the recording devices we have today. With a smartphone, they might have recorded the mundane details of their lives, describing their skills in a way that could be easily mastered and shared. The problem, however, is that culture doesn’t always work that way. Not everything can be put into words. Who hasn’t been frustrated when confronted with recipes instructing you to ‘cook until done’, ‘simmer until thickened’ or any other equally ambiguous instruction? And who hasn’t been frustrated when trying to imitate someone demonstrating a skill that requires some previous experience, some tacit knowledge? Not everything can be understood simply by watching someone else do it. Some cultural practices can be learned only by doing. They must be felt.

This is what makes cultural chains so brittle. It is why instrument makers in Europe can no longer produce violins like Antonio Stradivarius despite having closely studied the instruments he made, why builders can no longer replicate the stone-fitting techniques of the Inca despite having the necessary tools, and why perfume makers can no longer produce ancient perfumes, despite having the recipes. It is also why I, a French cognitive scientist in my early 30s, am unable to do many of the things that my ancestors once did, including illuminating manuscripts with immaculate handwriting, preparing herbal remedies, hunting with a bow, or making flint tools.

Though our collective forgetting is enormous, it is mostly unremarkable to those who study the transmission of culture. What puzzles me, and others who study transmission, is why so much unwritten knowledge has survived. Despite the brittleness of cultural practices, skills proliferate with and without records, chaining generation to generation, and binding us to our ancestors in deep time. So how do these practices persist if the paths of transmission are so brittle? How has anything at all been transmitted without physical records?

Answering these questions will help us understand how much of our current culture could be transmitted to the future. Though we are living in a time in which cultural knowledge is being recorded and stored at a higher rate than ever before, there is no guarantee this information will be effectively transmitted. Optimising cultural transmission, I believe, involves more than new technologies, massive digital repositories and artificial intelligences. It involves learning how knowledge is archived in human bodies.

T hough culture can be brittle, it is often imagined in ways that make it appear solid and enduring. It is portrayed as an expansive sea, an iceberg, a solid ratchet. When imagined as a kind of sea, culture appears everywhere, surrounding us. In the 1960s, the media theorist Marshall McLuhan portrayed culture as a vast and all-encompassing medium. In such a ‘sea’, we can absorb information and practices by osmosis, even unknowingly. In the 1970s, the anthropologist Edward T Hall suggested that culture was more like an iceberg: we can see only a small portion of it, the deeper parts lie hidden. And in the 1990s, the psychologist Michael Tomasello explained the ‘cultural ratchet effect’ in which human learning accumulates over time, like a metal ratchet that moves forward only as we build on knowledge from the past. Imagined in these disparate ways, culture appears as something solid and enduring that moves forward and expands. What is a spacecraft, Stanley Kubrick speculated in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), but the distant outcome of the first tools used by our hominin ancestors?

A less stable view of culture begins to emerge when we consider some of the problems that bedevil archaeologists and anthropologists. Though they can look at rediscovered Mesopotamian bread moulds or ancient Egyptian dancing wands or Chinese oracle bones, they can’t bake Mesopotamian bread or dance like ancient Egyptians or consult the Chinese oracle. The knowledge possessed by the people who used these items is gone, most likely forever. And this loss isn’t simply because the relevant knowledge wasn’t written down. These and other findings represent forms of culture that likely can’t be recorded.

Though practised for millions of years, stone-knapping remains a remarkably difficult skill to learn

Around the world, teams of researchers have been engaging with these forms of culture by attempting to learn the methods that people once used to make craft objects. Their work shows just how difficult the task of recreating cultural practices can be. The Making and Knowing Project at Columbia University in New York City has attempted to recreate the techniques described in an anonymous 16th-century French manuscript, catalogued as ‘Ms. Fr. 640’. Between 2014 and 2020, the team tackled techniques described in the manuscript, including mouldmaking and metalworking, colour making, optics and mechanics, ephemeral art, printmaking, inscriptions, and impressions. At the Stone Age Institute, an independent research centre in Indiana, a team is trying to understand stone-knapping techniques used to produce hunting technologies such as arrowheads and spear tips. Though practised for millions of years, stone-knapping remains a remarkably difficult skill to learn, requiring extensive training.

The Making and Knowing Project at Columbia University in New York City has attempted to recreate techniques described in an anonymous 16th-century French manuscript, catalogued as ‘Ms. Fr. 640’. Courtesy the BnF, Paris

Recognising how difficult it is to transmit cultural practices, UNESCO has been working to preserve ‘intangible cultural heritage’, which includes many traditions that might become extinct as the last remaining practitioners die. Languages also fall within this category: around 3,000 remain endangered. Some, like Aka-Cari spoken in the Andaman Islands, India, have gone extinct only recently. The last living native speaker, named Licho, died on 4 April 2020. But what about cultural practices that are less connected to reading, writing and speaking? What about forms of knowledge that are more tacit and embodied?

C ultural transmission is a term used by researchers to describe the process through which certain forms of knowledge are passed between people. When this knowledge is exchanged, even through passive observation, a ‘transmission event’ has occurred and another link is made in the chain. To understand this process in action, think of something you know how to do but would struggle to explain to someone else. Perhaps it is a specific movement in a sport you play, or a craft technique, or a social skill like knowing the right way to greet another person.

Now, try to think about how long this cultural practice has been around. Think about how many transmission events might link its first occurrence to the moment when you first learned how to do it. How many generations have passed since the practice started? How many people had to learn it, and learn it well enough to pass it on to the next person, for the chain to keep extending? In some cases, the chain of knowledge might be incredibly long – so long that thinking about the sequence of transmission events might induce vertigo. This extended sequence can also make the chain appear incredibly delicate. It could have broken at any one of its many transmission events. This is what makes knowledge chains paradoxical for researchers: if they are so brittle, how have so many forms of cultural knowledge survived?

Some solutions to this problem have been elegantly synthesised in How Traditions Live and Die (2015) by Olivier Morin, an expert in cultural evolution. Morin argues that surviving cultural practices were never that brittle to begin with because they have one or both of the following features: redundancy and repetition. Both ensure that if a transmission event doesn’t occur (or fails), another transmission is still possible. Redundancy ensures that a person can learn something from multiple people in different contexts. Your aunt, for example, might pass on some of the knitting and tailoring skills your grandmother failed to teach you. Repetition, on the other hand, ensures that even if one transmission fails, other events will help you learn the things you missed. For example, you might not have fully acquired your grandmother’s knitting skills on the first try, but you master them as she demonstrates and teaches them to you over and over.

Is it how hard the master blows, or the way they move the molten glass, or something you can’t even see?

An alternative way of explaining the paradox between brittle transmission chains and the ubiquity of surviving cultural knowledge involves focusing on how knowledge is stored, not just transmitted. Cultural knowledge is held not only in records written on stone tablets, papyrus or other media. It also exists in bodies and nervous systems. At first glance, this may appear to make things more challenging for cultural transmission, since this kind of knowledge typically requires learning how a practice feels , which can’t be conveyed through words alone. This is tacit knowledge, or, as the polymath Michael Polanyi describes it, what we know but cannot say.

Neither imitation nor language are much help when it comes to learning this kind of knowledge. For it to be transmitted, you can’t simply watch someone, or read some instructions. Language is perfectly suited to convey all kinds of cultural things that are mainly language to start with, such as stories, but many things need to be experienced firsthand. And what about imitation? Though it can be helpful to learn by watching someone else doing something, the same rule applies: ultimately, you need to do it yourself.

Suppose that you’re watching a master glassblower in order to learn how to make a hand-blown cup. What should you pay attention to for you to be able to make a cup using the same technique? Is it how hard the master blows, or how they position their feet, or their hands, or the way they move the molten glass, or something you can’t even see, or all of the above? The gap between seeing someone do something skilfully and performing it yourself is often enormous. To reduce this gap, you would first need to have enough knowledge to know what part of the action to observe exactly. You would already need to know what to pay attention to. Then you would face another, even harder problem: how should you use what you can see (such as the molten glass’s appearance) to infer things you cannot see (such as its temperature, or how hard the glassblower is blowing).

Furthermore, the correct action in each situation depends on the context, and this is an important part of transmission, too. In football, for example, a skilful player’s moves will depend on the position and velocity of the ball, of their teammates and of their opponents . You could write 10,000 words about how a goal was scored and still not convey enough information for someone to replicate the kick. So how do we successfully transmit ‘what we know but cannot say’ through our bodies, especially when they are physically limited in so many ways?

T hink about an embodied or tacit form of cultural knowledge you are familiar with, such as knowing how to make the right facial expression to communicate an emotion, knowing how to ride a horse or make a tennis serve, or knowing how to hold your cup correctly during a Japanese tea ceremony. Now try to break down this practice into bits. In the case of riding horses – a cultural practice that has been around since 3500 BCE – relevant bits might include things such as the location of your hands, the angle between your elbow and your wrist, or the position of your back and the distribution of your weight on the horse’s back.

Now, consider how these different bits relate to one another. As Simon DeDeo and I showed in our article ‘The Cultural Transmission of Tacit Knowledge’ (2022), a crucial feature of these relationships is constraint: each separate movement or position is limited by our physical bodies and abilities. Embodied knowledge is strongly constrained . Not all combinations of states for the different bits are possible because there are always physical and anatomical boundaries to what you can and can’t do in any given moment. While riding a horse, for example, if your posture is very straight or you are leaning back slightly, your hands can be only in a limited range of positions; for example, your arms will likely not be long enough to rest high on the horse’s neck. And if your body position changes, and your hands go up, the angle formed by your elbow will shift. Embodied cultural practices always involve physical constraints.

In other words, you can start to think of embodied cultural knowledge as a network of interacting bits that influence one another. Not all bits are necessarily influencing one another in all cases. The position of your hands on the reins may not be related to how hard you are gripping. This is important because it suggests that embodied forms of cultural knowledge might not be as difficult to transmit as we assume. They don’t need to be fully explained because our bodies are constrained.

Imagine each bit in the network like a switch that can be turned on and off. When one turns ‘on’ (say, your hands are high on the horse’s neck), others will also turn ‘on’ (your back will be angled forward) because they are connected. In other words, you need only to fix a few bits to determine the state of every other bit in the network. So, if a learner focuses only on mastering those particular traits that matter to a practice, everything else may suddenly click into place more easily. This echoes something else we observe in real life: experts sharing their embodied knowledge need only home in on those few key bits that are essential. For a learner, the interactions between the bits, as determined by the network, will then influence the remaining bits, ideally creating a cultural practice that is close to that of their teachers. This means we don’t need to know everything to learn new embodied knowledge. We need only some of the bits to have a whole, ‘correct’ practice.

Sometimes, changing a tool can shift the network of ‘bits’, facilitating entirely different movement

For teachers, the skill of sharing knowledge involves knowing which bits to focus on. In his description of the pedagogical practices used by capoeira teachers, the neuroanthropologist Greg Downey describes their use of ‘reducing degrees of freedom’. These teachers can create exercises that, Downey explains , ‘place a student’s body into particular starting positions, force them to go only one direction, or otherwise eliminate options for motion’. Such restrictions involve fixing certain bits, at least temporarily, so that other bits will ‘click’ into place, which allows students to feel what it is like to perform a given movement correctly.

To help reveal the network of bits to new learners, and to generate a transmission event, teachers commonly use metaphors as short-cuts: ‘follow through’ in tennis; ‘move your whole weight’ in salsa dancing; ‘throw your elbow, not your fist’ in boxing. None of these metaphors make literal sense. ‘Following through’ has no impact on the trajectory of the ball in tennis, since the ball has already left the racquet; ‘moving your whole weight’ happens naturally in salsa with each movement you make; and your fist, not your elbow, is what hits when boxing. However, these instructions are still helpful because they allow learners to fix some parts of their movements. By telling you to ‘throw your elbow’ when throwing a hook, a boxing coach is helping you align your wrist and your elbow, ensuring your body rotates properly and that you are generating a powerful punch. Good teaching often requires metaphors or creative exercises that go beyond the practice itself.

Sometimes, teachers may engineer constraints or use metaphors, but artefacts and materials might also exploit the networked relationships between ‘bits’ to transmit cultural practices. These artefacts are usually designed to fulfil a specific function or enable a specific use. Scissors, for instance, are easy to use if you’re right-handed and much more difficult if you try to use them with your left hand. More specialised tools and objects act in the same way. When horse-riding, a dressage saddle, for example, allows for specific positions of the pelvis and legs that are different from those allowed by a jumping saddle – sometimes, changing a tool can shift the network of ‘bits’, facilitating entirely different movement. Materials, like different kinds of wood, earth or stone, also make different actions possible and can help ‘fix’ some part of the network. Think of the early stone knives and arrowheads that our distant ancestors made from flint and obsidian. These minerals were chosen because they could be reliably worked into sharp edges and points.

Seeing cultural knowledge as a network of bits that can switch each other on and off means that successful cultural transmission can be achieved even when transmitting only relatively little information. In such cases, transmission exploits how movements are constrained. The unexpected outcome of this is that there can be many ways of doing something, and some learners may even develop unique versions of practices. In the history of sports, this has happened many times, where examples of unusual or unorthodox techniques abound. Take Sadaharu Oh’s distinctive ‘flamingo’ leg kick in baseball, or Donald ‘the Don’ Bradman’s batting technique (and exaggerated follow-through) in cricket. They show that new variants can still be effective, even if they don’t become the dominant style.

Sadaharu Oh’s ‘flamingo’ leg kick in baseball

Donald ‘the Don’ Bradman’s batting technique in cricket

However, in some cases, unusual techniques become innovations that alter future transmissions. One example, again in the domain of sports, is Dick Fosbury’s backwards flop in high jump. After this new technique helped him win gold at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, the Fosbury Flop became popular among high-jumpers, who until then prefered techniques that allowed them to land on their feet.

Dick Fosbury’s backwards flop in high jump

Understanding how cultural transmission exploits relationships in a network of ‘bits’ doesn’t only help with the preservation of current knowledge. It can also give us an insight into new cultural practices that might be discovered in the future.

I n our age of information, more cultural practices than ever are being recorded. As server farms bulge with data and archives swell with books and artefacts, it may seem obvious that our knowledge will be preserved and passed down. But putting our faith in this mountain of data may be a mistake. It is a misunderstanding of the embodied nature of many cultural practices, a misunderstanding of how our ancestors were able to successfully pass practices from generation to generation, despite the inherent brittleness of long cultural chains.

Much of our cultural knowledge simply can’t be put into words or recorded. It can, however, be stored in the constrained movements of our bodies. Optimising the transmission of a cultural practice doesn’t always require a larger amount of information. It can be achieved by leveraging how some bits influence others in a network, by learning how some objects and materials exploit those networks, and by understanding how teachers use pedagogical techniques.

It is hard to say what forms of culture will exist in another 1,000 or 10,000 years. But if tacit knowledge is still around, then it will likely have been transmitted from body to body, by exploiting our physical constraints. This is how ‘what we know but cannot say’ might someday link our age with the cultures of the deep future.

Published in association with the Santa Fe Institute, an Aeon Strategic Partner.

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Author Services Guide To Sentence Structure

Correct sentence structure is essential for communicating effectively in English. Knowing how to order words, phrases, and clauses accurately lends clarity and cohesion to your work. This is especially true in academic papers, where quality of expression is paramount.

Here, we delve into how to structure your sentences correctly to present your research accurately and write engagingly.

What is a sentence?

A sentence, at its most basic level, is a series of words that express a complete thought. They can be constructed in many different ways to add variety and engage a reader more effectively. But, fundamentally, every sentence shares crucial components—subjects and verbs, and most also contain objects.

Sentence components

What are subjects, verbs, objects, and complements? These are the smallest components of sentences that are ordered to express the author’s thoughts and findings effectively.

What are subjects?

The term subject is used to described what the sentence is about—the idea, person, place, or thing that is performing an action or being described. Take the following:

Paris is my favourite city.

Earth orbits the Sun.

In the first sentence, the subject ( Paris ) is being described by the author to express an opinion. In the second, it ( Earth ) is directly performing an action that is related to the end component of the sentence.

The subjects of both are placed at the beginning of the sentence, and thus are clearly the main topics.

What are verbs?

The verb is the action that the subject is performing. Or, it is used to link a subject to a description. For example:

The team were tired.

Plants absorb sunlight.

In the first example, the subject ( The team ) is being linked to a state ( tired ) by the verb. These are called linking verbs, which are used to link the subject to additional information that describes a state of being, appearance, etc.

In the second, the subject ( Plants ) are performing an action. These are called action verbs , and can be divided into transitive and intransitive : the former is used to describe verbs that are followed by an object; the latter is used to describe verbs that are not followed by an object, which are the simplest constructions in the English language.

What are objects?

The object of a sentence is the component that is influenced by the subject performing its action. For example:

The man gave them a stern look .

The researcher analysed the data .

Here, both objects add clarity to the sentence, by describing what the subject is concerned with. There are two types of objects: direct and indirect. A direct object is what the subject influences; an indirect object usually comes before the direct object and informs us of who the verb is being performed for. Thus, an indirect object can’t exist without a direct object.

In the first example, the object ( a stern look ) is preceded by an indirect object ( them ), giving us detail of who his action was direct at. In the second, there is only a direct object ( the data ), as the subject is directly influencing this component.

What are complements?

Complements are similar to objects but are used to describe the subject instead of what the subject is influencing. For example:

The new model was a significant improvement .

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas .

In these two examples, the subject is not influencing the end components of the sentence. Instead, these components—the complements—are used to describe the properties of the subjects.

Clauses are made up of the components described above, the use and order of which determine the type of clause used. They can be divided into two categories— independent and dependent clauses.

What are independent clauses?

An independent clause , sometimes referred to as a main clause , is the focal point of the sentence. Such clauses can stand up as sentences in their own right, as they express a complete thought, or be used with other phrases and clauses that provide more detail.

Usually, they follow the order Subject–Verb–Object . For example:

The experiment [ subject ] used [ verb ] the new software [ object ].

But, as suggested before, they can also follow the structures:

• Subject–Verb
• Subject–Verb–Complement
• Subject–Verb–Indirect Object–Direct Object

They can also be used with other clauses to create more complicated constructions.

What are dependent clauses?

A dependent clause , sometimes called a subordinate clause , is used to add more detail to the independent clause . As such, they cannot be used in isolation and must be used in conjunction with a main clause to be grammatically correct. For example:

Because the conditions were too severe , the expedition was delayed.

Here, the clause after the comma is the independent clause—it contains a subject ( the expedition ), verb ( was ), and complement ( delayed ). Thus, the preceding information is not necessary for it to make sense. The independent clause (underlined), however, adds more context to the sentence.

They can be used to provide explanations and detail, such as time or place, as well as add complexity and nuance to the sentence. By using a mixture of clauses, different types of sentences can be created, keeping a reader interested and adding depth to the author’s work.

Sentence types

Much like how the order of words determines the clause type, the number and order of clauses determines the type of sentence used. They can be divided into Simple, Compound, Complex, and Compound–Complex.

What is a simple sentence?

As the name suggests, a simple sentence is the most basic sentence class, made up of just an independent clause. They express a complete thought, with no other detail provided by adjoining clauses.

What is a compound sentence?

A compound sentence is composed of two independent clauses that are joined by a conjunction— e.g., and, for, but, or, etc. For example:

The students collected the samples and then they analysed them in class .

Both underlined parts of the above sentence could be used as single sentences in their own right, as they both contain a subject, verb, and object.

What is a complex sentence?

Complex sentences are made up of one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. For example:

As they had finished their work , they went home for the day.

Underlined is the dependent clause, which couldn’t function on its own as a full sentence—it needs the context provided by the independent clause to make sense. Additionally, it should be noted that multiple dependent clauses can be used with a main clause.

What is a compound–complex sentence?

A compound–complex sentence is a mixture of the last two sentence types—they have at least one dependent clause, as well as two independents. For example:

The researcher conducted the experiment to test their theory and the results were analysed, although the initial findings were inconclusive .

Underlined is the dependent clause, which adds more detail to the two independent clauses that precede it. Again, any number of either clause types can be used in these constructions, but authors should be wary of making their sentences too long-winded and hard to follow.

Varying sentence structure

To conclude, mixing up sentence structure by using different combinations of sentence components, clauses, and types is the key to writing engaging and coherent articles. By applying the principles of sentence construction, researchers can convey meaning effectively and potentially improve the impact of their papers.

If you want to further your knowledge of grammar and punctuation, read our Guide To Word Classes  and Guide To Prepositions .

If you want to prepare your research for publication, MDPI Author Services offers high-quality academic editing by PhD specialists in your field. This service offers a detailed report compiled by the Academic Editor, reviewing each section in detail as well as structure, terminology, and more.

Our team of highly skilled English editors have edited over 60,000 papers, with a 97% author satisfaction rate. Our services are available to both MDPI authors and those publishing with other journals. Visit the link above to get a free quote today.

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What Kamala Harris has said so far on key issues in her campaign

As she ramps up her nascent presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris is revealing how she will address the key issues facing the nation.

In speeches and rallies, she has voiced support for continuing many of President Joe Biden’s measures, such as lowering drug costs , forgiving student loan debt and eliminating so-called junk fees. But Harris has made it clear that she has her own views on some key matters, particularly Israel’s treatment of Gazans in its war with Hamas.

In a departure from her presidential run in 2020, the Harris campaign has confirmed that she’s moved away from many of her more progressive stances, such as her interest in a single-payer health insurance system and a ban on fracking.

Harris is also expected to put her own stamp and style on matters ranging from abortion to the economy to immigration, as she aims to walk a fine line of taking credit for the administration’s accomplishments while not being jointly blamed by voters for its shortcomings.

Her early presidential campaign speeches have offered insights into her priorities, though she’s mainly voiced general talking points and has yet to release more nuanced plans. Like Biden, she intends to contrast her vision for America with that of former President Donald Trump. ( See Trump’s campaign promises here .)

“In this moment, I believe we face a choice between two different visions for our nation: one focused on the future, the other focused on the past,” she told members of the historically Black sorority Zeta Phi Beta at an event in Indianapolis in late July. “And with your support, I am fighting for our nation’s future.”

Here’s what we know about Harris’ views:

Harris took on the lead role of championing abortion rights for the administration after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022. This past January, she started a “ reproductive freedoms tour ” to multiple states, including a stop in Minnesota thought to be the first by a sitting US president or vice president at an abortion clinic .

On abortion access, Harris embraced more progressive policies than Biden in the 2020 campaign, as a candidate criticizing his previous support for the Hyde Amendment , a measure that blocks federal funds from being used for most abortions.

Policy experts suggested that although Harris’ current policies on abortion and reproductive rights may not differ significantly from Biden’s, as a result of her national tour and her own focus on maternal health , she may be a stronger messenger.

High prices are a top concern for many Americans who are struggling to afford the cost of living after a spell of steep inflation. Many voters give Biden poor marks for his handling of the economy, and Harris may also face their wrath.

In her early campaign speeches, Harris has echoed many of the same themes as Biden, saying she wants to give Americans more opportunities to get ahead. She’s particularly concerned about making care – health care, child care, elder care and family leave – more affordable and available.

Harris promised at a late July rally to continue the Biden administration’s drive to eliminate so-called “junk fees” and to fully disclose all charges, such as for events, lodging and car rentals. In early August, the administration proposed a rule that would ban airlines from charging parents extra fees to have their kids sit next to them.

On day one, I will take on price gouging and bring down costs. We will ban more of those hidden fees and surprise late charges that banks and other companies use to pad their profits.”

Since becoming vice president, Harris has taken more moderate positions, but a look at her 2020 campaign promises reveals a more progressive bent than Biden.

As a senator and 2020 presidential candidate, Harris proposed providing middle-class and working families with a refundable tax credit of up to $6,000 a year (per couple) to help keep up with living expenses. Titled the LIFT the Middle Class Act, or Livable Incomes for Families Today, the measure would have cost at the time an estimated $3 trillion over 10 years.

Unlike a typical tax credit, the bill would allow taxpayers to receive the benefit – up to $500 – on a monthly basis so families don’t have to turn to payday loans with very high interest rates.

As a presidential candidate, Harris also advocated for raising the corporate income tax rate to 35%, where it was before the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that Trump and congressional Republicans pushed through Congress reduced the rate to 21%. That’s higher than the 28% Biden has proposed.

Affordable housing was also on Harris’ radar. As a senator, she introduced the Rent Relief Act, which would establish a refundable tax credit for renters who annually spend more than 30% of their gross income on rent and utilities. The amount of the credit would range from 25% to 100% of the excess rent, depending on the renter’s income.

Harris called housing a human right and said in a 2019 news release on the bill that every American deserves to have basic security and dignity in their own home.

Consumer debt

Hefty debt loads, which weigh on people’s finances and hurt their ability to buy homes, get car loans or start small businesses, are also an area of interest to Harris.

As vice president, she has promoted the Biden administration’s initiatives on student debt, which have so far forgiven more than $168 billion for nearly 4.8 million borrowers . In mid-July, Harris said in a post on X that “nearly 950,000 public servants have benefitted” from student debt forgiveness, compared with only 7,000 when Biden was inaugurated.

A potential Harris administration could keep that momentum going – though some of Biden’s efforts have gotten tangled up in litigation, such as a program aimed at cutting monthly student loan payments for roughly 3 million borrowers enrolled in a repayment plan the administration implemented last year.

The vice president has also been a leader in the White House efforts to ban medical debt from credit reports, noting that those with medical debt are no less likely to repay a loan than those who don’t have unpaid medical bills.

In a late July statement praising North Carolina’s move to relieve the medical debt of about 2 million residents, Harris said that she is “committed to continuing to relieve the burden of medical debt and creating a future where every person has the opportunity to build wealth and thrive.”

Health care

Harris, who has had shifting stances on health care in the past, confirmed in late July through her campaign that she no longer supports a single-payer health care system .

During her 2020 campaign, Harris advocated for shifting the US to a government-backed health insurance system but stopped short of wanting to completely eliminate private insurance.

The measure called for transitioning to a Medicare-for-All-type system over 10 years but continuing to allow private insurance companies to offer Medicare plans.

The proposal would not have raised taxes on the middle class to pay for the coverage expansion. Instead, it would raise the needed funds by taxing Wall Street trades and transactions and changing the taxation of offshore corporate income.

When it comes to reducing drug costs, Harris previously proposed allowing the federal government to set “a fair price” for any drug sold at a cheaper price in any economically comparable country, including Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Japan or Australia. If manufacturers were found to be price gouging, the government could import their drugs from abroad or, in egregious cases, use its existing but never-used “march-in” authority to license a drug company’s patent to a rival that would produce the medication at a lower cost.

Harris has been a champion on climate and environmental justice for decades. As California’s attorney general, Harris sued big oil companies like BP and ConocoPhillips, and investigated Exxon Mobil for its role in climate change disinformation. While in the Senate, she sponsored the Green New Deal resolution.

During her 2020 campaign, she enthusiastically supported a ban on fracking — but a Harris campaign official said in late July that she no longer supports such a ban.

Fracking is the process of using liquid to free natural gas from rock formations – and the primary mode for extracting gas for energy in battleground Pennsylvania. During a September 2019 climate crisis town hall hosted by CNN, she said she would start “with what we can do on Day 1 around public lands.” She walked that back later when she became Biden’s running mate.

Biden has been the most pro-climate president in history, and climate advocates find Harris to be an exciting candidate in her own right. Democrats and climate activists are planning to campaign on the stark contrasts between Harris and Trump , who vowed to push America decisively back to fossil fuels, promising to unwind Biden’s climate and clean energy legacy and pull America out of its global climate commitments.

If elected, one of the biggest climate goals Harris would have to craft early in her administration is how much the US would reduce its climate pollution by 2035 – a requirement of the Paris climate agreement .

Immigration

Harris has quickly started trying to counter Trump’s attacks on her immigration record.

Her campaign released a video in late July citing Harris’ support for increasing the number of Border Patrol agents and Trump’s successful push to scuttle a bipartisan immigration deal that included some of the toughest border security measures in recent memory.

The vice president has changed her position on border control since her 2020 campaign, when she suggested that Democrats needed to “critically examine” the role of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, after being asked whether she sided with those in the party arguing to abolish the department.

In June of this year, the White House announced a crackdown on asylum claims meant to continue reducing crossings at the US-Mexico border – a policy that Harris’ campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, indicated in late July to CBS News would continue under a Harris administration.

Trump’s attacks stem from Biden having tasked Harris with overseeing diplomatic efforts in Central America in March 2021. While Harris focused on long-term fixes, the Department of Homeland Security remained responsible for overseeing border security.

She has only occasionally talked about her efforts as the situation along the US-Mexico border became a political vulnerability for Biden. But she put her own stamp on the administration’s efforts, engaging the private sector.

Harris pulled together the Partnership for Central America, which has acted as a liaison between companies and the US government. Her team and the partnership are closely coordinating on initiatives that have led to job creation in the region. Harris has also engaged directly with foreign leaders in the region.

Experts credit Harris’ ability to secure private-sector investments as her most visible action in the region to date but have cautioned about the long-term durability of those investments.

Israel-Hamas

The Israel-Hamas war is the most fraught foreign policy issue facing the country and has spurred a multitude of protests around the US since it began in October.

After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late July, Harris gave a forceful and notable speech about the situation in Gaza.

We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.”

Harris echoed Biden’s repeated comments about the “ironclad support” and “unwavering commitment” to Israel. The country has a right to defend itself, she said, while noting, “how it does so, matters.”

However, the empathy she expressed regarding the Palestinian plight and suffering was far more forceful than what Biden has said on the matter in recent months. Harris mentioned twice the “serious concern” she expressed to Netanyahu about the civilian deaths in Gaza, the humanitarian situation and destruction she called “catastrophic” and “devastating.”

She went on to describe “the images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time.”

Harris emphasized the need to get the Israeli hostages back from Hamas captivity, naming the eight Israeli-American hostages – three of whom have been killed.

But when describing the ceasefire deal in the works, she didn’t highlight the hostage for prisoner exchange or aid to be let into Gaza. Instead, she singled out the fact that the deal stipulates the withdrawal by the Israeli military from populated areas in the first phase before withdrawing “entirely” from Gaza before “a permanent end to the hostilities.”

Harris didn’t preside over Netanyahu’s speech to Congress in late July, instead choosing to stick with a prescheduled trip to a sorority event in Indiana.

Harris is committed to supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, having met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at least six times and announcing last month $1.5 billion for energy assistance, humanitarian needs and other aid for the war-torn country.

At the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, Harris said: “I will make clear President Joe Biden and I stand with Ukraine. In partnership with supportive, bipartisan majorities in both houses of the United States Congress, we will work to secure critical weapons and resources that Ukraine so badly needs. And let me be clear: The failure to do so would be a gift to Vladimir Putin.”

More broadly, NATO is central to our approach to global security. For President Biden and me, our sacred commitment to NATO remains ironclad. And I do believe, as I have said before, NATO is the greatest military alliance the world has ever known.”

Police funding

The Harris campaign has also walked back the “defund the police” sentiment that Harris voiced in 2020. What she meant is she supports being “tough and smart on crime,” Mitch Landrieu, national co-chair for the Harris campaign and former mayor of New Orleans, told CNN’s Pamela Brown in late July.

In the midst of nationwide 2020 protests sparked by George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer, Harris voiced support for the “defund the police” movement, which argues for redirecting funds from law enforcement to social services. Throughout that summer, Harris supported the movement and called for demilitarizing police departments.

Democrats largely backed away from calls to defund the police after Republicans attempted to tie the movement to increases in crime during the 2022 midterm elections.

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U.S. Stock Market Sees Biggest Daily Drop in Nearly 2 Years

U.S. stocks tumbled after markets, rattled by reports of a slowing American economy, recorded heavy declines in Asia and Europe.

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S&P 500

The New York Times

Here’s what to know about the market meltdown.

Stocks on Wall Street suffered their sharpest decline in nearly two years on Monday, tracking a global rout that came as investors zeroed in on signs of a slowing American economy.

Monday’s drop extended a sell-off that had begun last week, after the U.S. jobs report on Friday that showed significantly slower hiring, with unemployment rising to its highest level in nearly three years. This deepened fears that the world’s largest economy could be slowing sharply and that the Federal Reserve may have waited too long to cut interest rates.

The decline was exacerbated by other factors , including concerns that technology stocks had run up too far too fast, and that a suddenly strengthening yen would hurt the prospects of Japanese companies and some global traders.

U.S. markets. The S&P 500 fell about 3 percent , its worst decline since September 2022. The technology heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 3.4 percent.

Tech stocks. A number of big technology stocks — which have sway over the broad market because of their size — were sharply lower again on Monday. Nvidia dropped more than 6 percent, Apple Amazon and Alphabet all fell more than 4 percent.

Fed rates. Based on the weakness in the U.S. jobs report, Goldman Sachs said in a note that it now expected the Fed to cut rates at its next three meetings — in September, November and December — a more aggressive timetable for cuts than the investment bank had previously expected. At their meeting last week, Fed officials held interest rates at a two-decade high, where they have remained for a year.

Economic data. Investors were presented with some upbeat data on Monday. The Institute for Supply Management’s report on services came in at 51.4 percent, indicating that purchasing managers see business expanding, after June’s more downbeat number.

Global markets. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 12.4 percent, its biggest one-day decline, larger than the plunge during the Black Monday crash in October 1987. At one point, the plunge in Japanese and Korean stocks tripped a “circuit breaker” mechanism that halts trading to allow markets to digest large fluctuations. The Pan-European Stoxx index fell 1.5 percent, rallying from a large fall earlier in the day, as every major market on the continent recorded declines.

What should you do? In times of market turmoil, there is often an urge to sell. But there is no reason to think that you can predict what will happen in the markets in the next few hours or in the near future. It’s better not to try .

Danielle Kaye

The S&P 500 fell 3 percent, its worst day since September 2022. This drop brings the index down 8.5 percent from an all-time peak in July – but it’s still up 8.7 percent in 2024 overall.

Lydia DePillis

In another bit of reassuring data, the Fed’s Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on bank lending practices reported stable demand for commercial and industrial loans, even in the face of tighter standards. Demand for real estate loans continued to weaken, however.

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The S&P 500 is currently down 2.44 percent. If it were to close at that level, it would be the biggest daily drop since December 2022 – even steeper than two weeks ago, when the index took a major hit from disappointing Alphabet and Tesla earnings reports. But there’s still plenty of time before the market closes in about two hours.

Jeanna Smialek

It’s worth noting that while some commentators make the point that stock sell-offs can trickle out to slow the real economy, Fed officials generally take the view that the sell-offs need to last for a while to do so.

“It’s worth just remembering that that the Fed’s job is to act in a steady manner based on the totality of the data, not to overindex on what the market wants today,” Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee told me earlier.

Talmon Joseph Smith

The Sahm Rule points to a recession. Here’s what the rule maker thinks.

A key driver of recent market anxiety has been a turning point in employment data that has historically been a recession warning: the Sahm Rule.

Conceived in 2019 by the former Fed economist Claudia Sahm , the “rule” shows that the U.S. economy has been in the early innings of a recession whenever the unemployment rate’s three-month moving average (which smooths out data volatility) exceeds the lowest three-month moving average of the past year by half a percentage point or more. U.S. unemployment is 0.53 percent higher than that trough, based on the July employment report issued on Friday.

The unemployment rate remains low but has slowly risen for four consecutive months. And this labor market slowdown, to an extent, was welcomed by the Federal Reserve, which has kept interest rates high to cool the economy and rid it of the elevated inflation that remains. (Inflation is now half a percentage point above its 2 percent target, according to the Fed’s preferred gauge.) But markets now fully expect that Fed policymakers will ease credit conditions, by cutting interest rates at their next meeting in September.

The question and concern, partly expressed in the market sell-off, is whether that will be too late to avoid a recession — a contraction of economic output.

“Given everything we know, or that we think we know, the United States is not in a recession,” Ms. Sahm said in an interview on Monday. “But the risk of going into a recession in, say, in the next three to six months? Those have really gone up.”

Ms. Sahm said her recession indicator “was designed thinking of fiscal policy” and meant to give Congress an early heads-up about when to use its spending power to intervene and counteract economic deceleration.

But “in some sense,” she added, “the Sahm Rule may now be giving the signal the Fed needs” during this business cycle.

The Sahm Rule communicates a clear empirical pattern: Normally, once the unemployment rate rises substantially, it lurches upward. But for the sake of workers’ employment prospects, Ms. Sahm doesn’t want it to portend a downturn this time. And she pointed to “very good reasons” that her rule “could falter in this cycle” — namely “big disruptions in the labor force with the pandemic.”

“We have millions of people drop out of the labor force suddenly, and then we went into labor shortages, and we’re scrambling for workers, and that pushes the unemployment rate down,” she said, describing the pandemic lockdowns and recovery. “And now, in recent years, we’ve had a big influx in immigration, and you’ve got a weakening demand of workers versus an increasing supply of workers.”

Some economists say the rise in the unemployment rate and consequent triggering of the Sahm Rule may have been skewed by the impact of Hurricane Beryl on Texas, despite a note from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the storm “had no discernible effect” on the jobs data.

And while there were some signs of weakness before Friday — like an increase in delinquent payments among lower-income households — the most recent snapshots of the economy have been good, even great by historical standards.

In the most recent quarter, productivity increased at a thumping 2.7 percent from a year earlier , corporate profits continued to grow and overall economic growth clocked in at a better-than-expected 2.8 percent annual rate.

And yet that’s the very nature of turning points: Whenever they occur, the last bits of backward-looking data before the turn tend to look bright.

“I think some of the market reaction is asking, ‘Where are we headed?’ not ‘Where are we?’” Ms. Sahm said.

Greg Daco, chief economist at the accounting firm EY, thinks the market panic is “disproportionate.” “This seems like an overreaction, especially given the limited economic data and Fed communication expected this week,” he wrote in a note to clients, mentioning several healthy indicators.

In fact, Mr. Daco said, the downturn itself could be a danger, rather than economic fundamentals. “The primary concern remains the breadth and depth of the market selloff and its potential to tighten financial conditions, subsequently impacting the private sector and leading to economic retrenchment,” he wrote.

Even if the market reaction seems unmoored from the totality of the economic data, a collective stampede can tip off a recession if it snowballs into the real economy. This was a concern even in 2019 , when labor market conditions looked very good, and continued into 2022 , as the Fed rapidly raised rates.

Thousands of users have reported online brokerage outages as stocks tumbled.

Online stock trading platforms, including Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab, said users had trouble logging into their accounts on Monday morning, preventing some investors from making trades amid a panic sell-off that reverberated around the world.

More than 15,000 Schwab clients, as well as 3,700 users of Fidelity and 2,800 of Vanguard, had complained about access issues by midmorning, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks outages. Account holders at the popular trading platforms E-Trade and Robinhood also reported issues.

Some Schwab clients had trouble logging onto its platforms because of an unspecified technical issue, the trading platform confirmed in a post on X .

Complaints dipped significantly by late morning as the brokerages started to restore access. By noon, there were fewer than 500 complaints from Schwab users, Downdetector reported, based on its own data and user reports on social media. In response to complaints from customers on X , Fidelity posted around 11 a.m. that the issue had been resolved.

But frustration lingered among clients who were unable to immediately move their assets when markets opened. In early trading on Monday, the S&P 500 fell more than 4 percent , while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped nearly 6 percent.

David Fonseca, a Fidelity account holder in Knoxville, Tenn., said he had hoped to sell some of his stock options as soon as the market opened Monday morning, but he couldn’t load anything on his accounts for several minutes. Once he eventually gained limited access, he tried to sell but was blocked.

“It was kind of nerve-racking to see things moving when I wanted to sell,” Mr. Fonseca said. “I felt really, really nervous.”

Shwab, Vanguard and Fidelity didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the cause of the disruptions.

Austan Goolsbee, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, just told me: “We’ve got to be monitoring the real side of the economy: There’s nothing in the Fed’s mandate that’s about making sure the stock market is comfortable.”

I asked Goolsbee if he thought an inter-meeting Fed rate cut was possible, and he said that the question was about something that was not in his “wheelhouse.” But when I asked him to clarify a comment he made on CNBC this morning that the Fed could “fix it” if conditions deteriorated, he said that he was talking about the Fed’s dual mandate goals — employment and inflation — and not about the stock market.

“Our job is to act, the market’s job is to react to things, and they react on a timetable that’s different from the F.O.M.C. timetable,” Goolsbee told me, referring to the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's rate-setting body.

Eshe Nelson

The FTSE 100, Britain’s benchmark index, fell just over 2 percent, its worst day since July 2023. The FTSE 250, which is considered to be a better gauge of the country’s economy because it’s made up of more domestic companies, closed down by 2.8 percent.

It’s also worth noting that while some commentators make the point that stock sell-offs can trickle out to slow the real economy, Fed officials generally take the view that the sell-offs need to last for a while to do so.

The S&P has fallen dramatically in the last few days but is still up roughly 9 percent for the year. At its peak on July 16th, it was up 19 percent.

Jim Tankersley

The next month in the economy could be crucial for the presidential election.

It didn’t take long for former President Donald J. Trump to make a political weapon out of Monday’s market sell-off. “Stock markets are crashing, jobs numbers are terrible, we are heading to World War III, and we have two of the most incompetent ‘leaders’ in history,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “This is not good.”

The post underscored Mr. Trump’s longstanding fixation on stock indexes as a barometer of economic health. It also reinforced the degree to which economic messaging — and the health of the economy itself — will play a key role in the sprint finish ahead of the presidential vote in November.

American voters consistently tell pollsters that the economy and consumer prices are the most important issues facing the country. The former president and his presumptive Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, are seeking to sell voters on diametrically opposite stories about the economy’s health.

Mr. Trump wants voters to believe the economy is on the brink of catastrophe, and that Ms. Harris and President Biden are to blame. He has joined a chorus of negativity that has in some ways worked: Polls have consistently shown that a majority of Americans believe the economy is in recession, even though economic statistics suggest it is not. Economic growth was surprisingly strong in the first half of the year. Job growth has remained relatively strong, even with the slowdown in job creation in July.

“This moment could set off a real economic calamity around the globe,” Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Mr. Trump’s running mate, posted on X on Monday. “It requires steady leadership — the kind President Trump delivered for four years.”

(Mr. Trump’s presidency included a rapid descent into a pandemic recession in 2020, including a steep drop in the stock market that was followed by a rebound that summer.)

Ms. Harris has stressed economic optimism in speeches. “We believe in a future that keeps America’s economy the strongest in the world,” she said in Houston this month. “Where every person has the opportunity to build a business, to own a home, to build intergenerational wealth.”

Unexpected events, like a prolonged market downturn or a new set of encouraging economic stats, could sway some voters’ economic perceptions before the election.

So could the Federal Reserve. If officials at the central bank cut interest rates in September, they could help to push down borrowing costs for Americans buying homes, cars and other big-ticket items on credit — a move that White House economists have long believed could help reinforce the idea that inflation is under control and the outlook for consumers is improving. That could help Ms. Harris.

But many Democrats worry that the Fed, by holding rates steady last month, may have hurt Ms. Harris — by opening the door for the market sell-off, which appears to be driven in part by investors’ fears that Fed officials waited too long to start cutting rates.

Joe Rennison

There has been some moderation in the sell-off in the U.S. with the S&P 500 now down 2.5 percent, having opened almost 4 percent lower. Government bond yields have also retraced some of their move but have still fallen sharply over the past week.

Last week, before the U.S. jobs report and concerns about U.S. growth rattled markets, the Bank of England cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years. Policymakers lowered rates by a quarter point but warned that future cuts would only come slowly as most members of the rate-setting committee remain concerned that Britain hasn’t completely stamped out inflationary pressures.

Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” the VIX volatility index, surged on Monday, reaching its highest level since the onset of the pandemic. The index measures how much investors think stocks will swing over the next month: The sharp rise is a sign that there is a lot of worry, even as some investors have sought to calm the current sense of panic.

Today’s market turmoil is fueling a big question: Did the Fed wait too long to lower interest rates and squander a soft landing in the process?

“There are no mulligans in monetary policy, unfortunately, but we’ll probably look back and say — yes, they waited too long,” Michael Feroli from J.P. Morgan told me earlier.

That said, it’s early days. Friday’s jobs report showed some worrying signs, but some of that could have been weather weirdness. Consumer spending data have been OK. Overall growth data is slow to adjust at inflection points, but it has held up. For now, the picture is of a slowing economy, not a tanking one.

David Yaffe-Bellany

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies plunge, mirroring global markets.

The prices of Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies plunged over the last two days, mirroring the volatility in global stock markets and ending a run of growth and excitement in the crypto industry.

Bitcoin’s price has dropped about 12 percent since Sunday, falling to roughly $53,000. The price of Ether, the second most valuable cryptocurrency, was down nearly 20 percent over the same period.

The precipitous falls show that digital currencies, once envisioned as an alternate asset class that would be shielded from gyrations in the world economy, remain vulnerable to the same broader economic forces that affect technology stocks and risky investments. And the panic is a reminder that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, prone to dramatic increases and decreases in value.

Just a few days ago, the crypto industry was flying high. In January, the approval of a new financial product tied to the price of Bitcoin prompted a market surge that propelled Bitcoin to its highest-ever price. The excitement even led to a wave of new memecoins , the digital currencies tied to internet jokes.

That enthusiasm came to an end on Sunday, as global markets plunged. The panic was caused by several factors, including a slowdown in U.S. job creation and concerns that tech stocks had increased too quickly.

As the price of Bitcoin cratered, investors shared despondent memes on X, while industry leaders tried to reassure crypto fans that the market would rebound.

“Yikes,” Cameron Winklevoss, one of the founders of the crypto exchange Gemini, wrote on X on Sunday. And then a few minutes later: “Everything is fine.”

Tripp Mickle

Apple shares fell more than 5 percent on Monday after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reported that it had sold nearly half its stake in the tech giant. Berkshire first invested in Apple in 2016 and accumulated a nearly 6 percent stake that was worth more than $150 billion. Over the past eight years, Apple’s stock has risen or fallen based on whether or not Berkshire bought or sold shares of the company.

Alan Rappeport

While Trump is talking up the “Kamala Crash” today, he was taking a much different approach in February 2020 when the the stock market crashed on his watch due to pandemic fears. At that time, his advisers urged investors to “buy the dip,” and he suggested on social media, “Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

Melissa Eddy

Many economists had the impression that a correction was in the cards, said Klaus-Jürgen Gern, a researcher with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. “Various factors are coming together in a way that is triggering very strong reactions,” he said. “I do believe that a correction is now taking place.”

”The danger is that some of the fears that may have triggered this slide coincide with this considerable increase in tension in the Middle East, which then also raises concerns about a new external shock that could then hit the global economy as a whole,” he added.

It’s especially wild given the relative recency of that negative data. Employment growth was surprisingly robust up until July. The relatively weak report last month — 114,000 jobs and a jump in the unemployment rate to 4.3 percent — contained some indications that tumultuous weather might have been at play.

Meanwhile, rate cut chatter has already been pulling mortgage interest rates down. Freddie Mac reported last week that mortgage rates — which began their rise to over 7 percent in late 2021 — fell to the lowest level since this past February.

Advice: When the stock market drops, stay calm and do nothing.

Think of what’s happening in the stock market as a kind of fire drill. As we all know from childhood, one of the primary rules is not to panic. And in this case, panicking would mean selling stocks when the market is falling.

You run drills to stay sharp, but we haven’t had much experience with the S&P 500 stock index falling by more than 3 percent in a single day. According to Howard Silverblatt of S&P Dow Jones Indices, the last time it happened was Sept. 13, 2022.

Given that it’s been a nearly two-year stretch, we can excuse ourselves for getting a bit sloppy. So many people got nervous and ran to check or trade investments Monday morning, and many of them had trouble logging into brokerage firm websites and apps including those of Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard.

But really, why sell at a moment like this? It’s not a rhetorical question, so let’s try to answer it.

Selling is smart if you know that the stock market is about to fall by a lot and stay down for a long time. Most people don’t know, however, and those who got it right in 2022 or 2020 or 2008 or 2000 or 1987 may not know the difference between the skill they think they have and the luck that probably helped them back then.

Many of the people who traded furiously on Monday are professional investors of various sorts — or the robots they programmed to automatically sell when this or that indicator flashes yellow or red. But here’s a dirty little secret about, say, hedge funds: All of their trading in reaction to world events doesn’t lead most of them to do better than sticking money in an index fund that tracks the stock market. Mutual fund managers don’t do much better .

If you need money soon that you have invested — say, for a down payment or college tuition — this is probably a scary moment, and selling might make sense. But if you are frightened, remember the feeling. Going forward, perhaps any money you might need quickly should not be in the stock market at all.

Much of the money you have in stocks is probably for retirement. Chances are, you won’t need it for many years or even decades.

While it would be a neat trick to move all of your money to cash when the market is falling and then buy stocks again when the stock market has bottomed out, the bottom is often the time when investors are most scared. Most people can’t call a stock market bottom in the first place, let alone get up enough courage to bet all of their cash on that call.

Still, rational thinking often eludes us in moments like this, and fear is nothing to be ashamed of. Here are a few things that may make you feel a little better.

First, consider the early days of the pandemic, when stocks fell by more than a quarter in the space of a month or so. Who would have thought that within a year, market gains off the bottom of the market would wipe out those losses and then some? But that’s what happened.

Now, consider other future facts that remain elusive: We don’t know who will be the next president of the United States, or what kind of hurricane season it will be. Try, if at all possible, to revel in the wonders of an unpredictable world and consider the possibility that good news can happen and the markets can react accordingly, even if we can’t predict most of it.

Second, look at the performance of your investment portfolio over the last year or three or 10. Chances are, you’ve made a lot of money if you’ve invested regularly and then left things alone. Nice going! Try to think about those enormous gains and not any smaller paper losses from today’s drop.

Now, consider what would have happened if you’d sold all your stocks in 2020 when the pandemic was at its scariest. The S&P 500 has more than doubled since then.

Finally, and as ever, you are not the stock market. If you have, say, one-third of your savings in cash, bonds or real estate, your overall paper losses in your investment portfolio are less than whatever Monday’s stock market losses end up being. Cash, after all, did not melt down.

Moreover, you are the sum of many large parts, including home equity and future salary, not to mention the immeasurably high returns that come from friends and family and playing outside and taking in art.

Go fly a kite or wander among beautiful buildings and check in with the market again tomorrow.

Nvidia tumbles after reports of a chip delay.

Nvidia shares tumbled more than 10 percent in early trading on Monday after reports that the company would delay shipments of its newest artificial intelligence chip, but the stock later rebounded as investors’ concerns about the costs of the delay faded.

The Information, a tech news outlet, reported on Friday that Nvidia would be shipping its latest graphics processing unit, or GPU, which make it possible to create A.I. systems, three months later than planned. Nvidia said in a statement that production for the chip, which is called Blackwell, was on track for later this year and added that customer orders and interest were high.

Stacy Rasgon, an analyst with Bernstein who follows Nvidia, said there was no need to panic because cloud computing companies such as Microsoft and Amazon were continuing to increase their spending on A.I. data centers. That expansion means that Nvidia chips will be in demand, he said.

“Nvidia’s competitive window is so large right now that we don’t think a three-month delay will cause significant share shifts,” Mr. Rasgon said.

Nvidia has been one of the hottest stocks in technology, fueled by the frenzy over A.I. The company’s market value has increased to $2.43 trillion from $1 trillion a year ago, making it more valuable than Alphabet and Amazon. But its rise has been marked by volatility, as investors waffle between enthusiasm and skepticism about the potential for A.I. to generate new business.

Productivity gains were robust, corporate profits continued to grow and overall economic growth clocked in at a better-than-expected 2.8% annual rate last quarter. And yet that’s the very nature of turning points, whenever they occur, the last bits of backward-looking data tend to look bright.

T here have been some warning signs – an increase in delinquencies among lower-income households and a steadily rising unemployment throughout the year. And yet, as Lydia points out, the most recent snapshots of the economy have been good, great even.

Traders wonder if the Fed could make an emergency rate cut as markets tumble.

As turmoil swept through global financial markets on Monday, fueled by concerns that the economy is headed for a hard landing, investors began to speculate that the Federal Reserve could jump in to cushion the fallout with an emergency interest rate cut.

But a market sell-off is unlikely to prod the Fed to lower rates before its Sept. 18 meeting, especially at a time when economic data have yet to show conclusively that the economy is entering a recession.

The latest jobs report does leave officials with worrying evidence that the job market is slowing. But it was just one month of data, and it came at a time when consumer spending is holding up. Given that — and given how high the bar is for the Fed to cut rates outside of regularly scheduled meetings — Fed officials and careful Fed watchers suggested that the jump in unemployment and the sell-off in stocks were unlikely to be enough to spur an emergency inter-meeting move.

“We’ve got to be monitoring the real side of the economy: There’s nothing in the Fed’s mandate that’s about making sure the stock market is comfortable,” Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said in an interview on Monday afternoon.

The Fed calls unscheduled meetings to adjust interest its policy stance only in extreme situations. The most recent instance happened on March 15, 2020, when central bankers slashed borrowing costs to near zero as the onset of the coronavirus pandemic sent panic coursing across global markets and caused a widespread breakdown in how markets functioned.

Monday’s sell-off was far less drastic than that moment. Investors dumped stocks because they have become nervous that the economy might fall into a recession after a few weak economic data releases in the United States, including a jobs report last Friday that showed unemployment rising. But even as they sank, markets continued to trade in an orderly fashion.

Still, the sell-off was a symptom of a problem that Fed officials are watching cautiously. Joblessness rarely rises sharply outside of an economic downturn, making last week’s employment report concerning.

The data have fueled serious concerns that Fed officials have fallen behind on adjusting their policy stance. Central bankers have held interest rates at 5.3 percent for a full year, a relatively high setting that is making it expensive to borrow to buy a home or expand a business. The risk is that Fed policymakers might have choked off demand too much for too long, causing a slowdown in the labor market that will begin to snowball into wider economic pain.

“We’ve now confirmed that the labor market is slowing, and it’s extremely important that we not let it slow so much that it tips itself into a downturn,” Mary C. Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said on Monday evening. She added that it was not yet clear just how serious the labor market slowdown would prove.

While a rate cut at the Fed’s September meeting was widely expected even before the employment report last week, traders now see a large reduction of half a percentage point or more — bigger than the quarter-point moves that the Fed tends to announce during normal times.

“People always ask how much — is it 25, is it 50, is it three meetings in a row, is it every other meeting?” Ms. Daly said. The Fed’s policy-setting committee is “prepared to do what the economy needs when we are clear what that is,” she said, “and there’s many more pieces of information that come out between now and when we next meet, and we’ll use all of that information.”

Her comment was important for two reasons: It made it clear that a larger-than-normal rate increase is possible next month. But it also threw cold water on the idea that the Fed might cut interest rates before its scheduled meeting, as some investors guessed on Monday that it might.

Several longtime Fed watchers pointed out that the central bank tends to make emergency moves between meetings only when there is a risk that markets are going to stop functioning properly, not just because stock prices are falling.

“I think what you generally find is that they tend to happen in periods of credit market disruption and financial system freezing up — right now, markets are having not a good day, but I think it’s orderly,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at J.P. Morgan.

Mr. Goolsbee, from the Chicago Fed, said the idea of an inter-meeting rate cut was “outside of” his “wheelhouse,” but also emphasized that the stock market was overreacting to “one data point.”

Mr. Goolsbee also noted that jobs numbers come with a margin of error — the numbers can jump around for quirky reasons, and they get revised — and suggested that it was too early to draw firm conclusions from July’s report.

But both he and a wide array of economists have been watching other data as they begin to show signs that the economy is beginning to weaken.

Jobless claims have moved higher. Manufacturing activity is showing evidence of a cool-down. And while growth and consumer spending have held up so far, those tend to be slow to adjust at the start of economic pullbacks.

Given the mounting evidence that the economy might be on the cusp of softening, there is a risk that it will look in hindsight like the Fed waited too long to begin reducing rates.

Although officials discussed cutting borrowing costs at their meeting last week, they held off, choosing to wait for some final confirming evidence that inflation is fully under control, hopeful that the economy was strong enough for them to take their time.

That timing proved to be unfortunate. In the two days immediately after policymakers made that decision, reports showed a pop in jobless claims and a jump in the unemployment rate. Officials would not have had the employment report in hand as they were making the decision.

“There are no mulligans in monetary policy, unfortunately, but we’ll probably look back and say, yes, they waited too long,” Mr. Feroli said. “In real time, it didn’t seem obvious.”

Here’s some brighter, just-released data: The Institute for Supply Management’s report on services came in at 51.4 percent, indicating that purchasing managers see business expanding, after June’s more downbeat number.

The concerns about the health of the U.S. economy come as it has been a driver of global growth in the last year, regularly outperforming forecasts of economists at the International Monetary Fund. However, the I.M.F. did warn in a brief update to its outlook last month that the U.S. economy was showing some signs of cooling, and it lowered its growth outlook due to weakening in the labor market and softer consumer spending.

While there are strong reasons for the sell-off erupting around the world today, from Japan surprising investors by raising its own interest rates last week to the weak jobs report on Friday, there are also more technical factors at play.

August is a notoriously quiet month for trading, and because there are fewer trades happening, it is easier for markets to be pulled around by big changes in sentiment among those that are still active.

There are also a number of market players that are more systematic in the way they buy and sell stocks, meaning sharp changes in prices can ripple through markets, and even be exacerbated, as algorithms quickly respond.