how long should a short essay answer be

There is no universal answer to what a short essay length is, but teachers generally assign short essays in the 250- to 750-word range, and occasionally up to 1,000 words. Just because the essays are short doesn’t mean the subjects must be simple.

A short essay is 500 words long, which is about two pages with double spacing and one page with single spacing. That number is based on the assumption that you use Times New Roman font (12pt) with standard margins. Various formatting styles have different requirements for those elements.

Typical length limits are in the 150-word (Harvard) to 250-word (USC) range. The length requirements for the short answer have changed over the past decade. Up until 2011, the Common Application guidelines said the essay should be "150 words or fewer."

How long should a college essay be? Whether you're a terse writer or a loquacious one, we can advise you on college essay length. In this guide, we'll cover what the standard college essay length is, how much word limits matter, and what to do if you aren't sure how long a specific essay should be.

The average length for a short essay is five to seven paragraphs long, comprising an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. In an academic setting, a paragraph is typically five to seven sentences long, but there are no hard rules about length.

A short essay will need a focused, specific topic and a clear, straightforward line of argument. A longer essay should still be focused, but it might call for a broader approach to the topic or a more complex, ambitious argument.

A short essay also has a shorter deadline, mostly in hours or within a day, except for the admission essays. In addition, short essays answer questions or topics that are assigned. Finally, the introduction and conclusion should be no more than one paragraph in a short essay.

An essay shorter than 500 words won’t be long enough to truly share who you are and what matters to you. Exceeding the word count isn’t an option—the application portal cuts off anything over the maximum number of allowed words.

Short essays usually involve answering a question related to course content and could be anywhere from 200 words to 750 words long, depending on the professor’s guidelines. The most challenging part of writing a short essay is the length, as you need to select the most important information to cover.

In a short essay (250-500 words), you will need to provide an introduction with a thesis, a body, and a conclusion, as you would with a longer essay. Depending on the essay requirements, you may also need to do academic or online research to find sources to back up your claims.