How to Shorten Essay By Keeping Quality High

How To Shorten Essay Without Losing Spark? Are you done with your essay, and now it’s over the assigned word count? Well, that’s a widespread problem that most students go through once in their academic careers. Cutting short an essay to meet the word count is very important because it’s a matter of good grades and academic performance. If you are struggling with the same problem, don’t worry. This blog details some potential tips on how to shorten an essay ideally. 

10 Tips To Shorten Your Essay

Shortening an essay can be a final step in proofreading because it helps eliminate irrelevant things and make space for mandatory points. In the section below, we are going to discuss some tips that will help shorten your essay.

Shortening an essay can be very challenging. If you feel like your essay will lose quality when compressed, reach out to our essay writer helpers to get your essay trimmed without losing the perfection. 

Eliminate Unnecessary Adverbs

Adverbs are the words that modify a verb. They are usually used at the end of a verb, such as ‘loudly’ or ‘intensely.’ The addition of ‘ly’ with the verb makes it an adverb, and the overuse of adverbs makes the entire content look lazy and cluttered. 

Look for words like ‘very’ and verbs with ‘ly’ at the end. To shorten your essay, try to eliminate as many adverbs as you can. Remove the adverbs that are making no actual impact on the story, and their removal doesn’t affect the tone and message of the content. You can also replace the adverbs with strong adjectives.

How to Shorten Essay “Example for You”

• He screamed loudly.You can remove the adverb loudly because the rest of the sentence won’t be affected if it’s released. It will become ‘He screamed.’
• He ran quickly. You can replace the adverb ‘quickly’ with a stronger adjective like ‘He sprinted.’
  

Replace Adjectives with Nouns

Adjectives in content help represent the attribute of a noun. But overusing the adjectives will also not be a good idea because they will only drag your essay and enhance unclarity. That’s why, in order to shorten your essay, try to replace the unnecessary adjectives with stronger nouns. 

For Example

• A complex problemwill be transformed into a quandary 

• A giant water body will become an ocean.

Eliminate Unnecessary Transition Words

When you ponder how to shorten an essay? Then, the transition words come to your help. They really help maintain a connection between two sentences, two concepts, or two paragraphs. They are essential, but if they are dragging your essay, you can also eliminate them. 

However, while understanding the transition words, you can ask for quick assignment writing help anytime to hand over the complete task to professionals. Now, coming back to the point of connecting words, well, they appear in content as a single or combination of two words followed by a comma, such as in fact, firstly, however, unfortunately, and in conclusion. 

Remove the transition words that don’t have much impact on the rest of the content. 

For Example

• In fact, the policy was futile, but it can be changed into the policy was futile.
• Hopefully, we can make it can be transformed into We can make it.

Replace Helping Verbs with Stronger Verbs

Helping verbs or auxiliary verbs are used with other verbs in a verb phrase in order to show a verb’s tense. They can also be replaced with stronger verbs to shorten the overall length of an essay. 

For Example

• He will be attending the wedding can be changed into He will attend the wedding. 
• I am a passionate hiker, which can be changed into ‘I hike passionately.’

Transform Nouns into Verbs

You can also replace some nouns in the sentences with verbs in order to shorten the essay naturally. Using solid verbs will represent the action better than some nouns, and it also saves space for more content. 

For Example

• This painting is an accurate portrayal of the beauty of life, which can be changed into This painting portrays the beauty of life. 
• I’ve come to the final thought: I will become better at I think. 

Change Passive Sentence Into An Active Sentence

To shorten your essay further, try to change the passive voice sentences into active sentences. This is one of the best writing essay help tips; it will increase the readability level, too. An active voice sounds better, and it covers a shorter word count that will give you space to add important points of discussion within the given word limit.

For Example

• The situation regressed by inflation can be changed into inflation regressing the situation.
• It was taught to me during high school and will be transformed into what I learned at high school. 

How to Shorten Essay? Use Contractions

You can always use contractions to avoid going over the word limit. Contractions also make the content more direct and concise. 

For Example

• I can not do this can be changed intoI can’t do this.
• I do not think this is right. It will be transformed into I don’t believe this is right.
• I could not lift those boxes, but they can be replaced with I couldn’t lift those boxes.

Eliminate Unnecessary Stuffing of ‘That’

In most situations, the word ‘that’ can be easily removed from the content without impacting the rest of the content. The trick here is to read the sentences without the word ‘that’ to see if they add much to the sentence. If they do, keep them, and if not, just remove them.

For Example

• • The dish that I ate was delicious can be changed into The dish I ate was delicious.

• The book that I found was interesting can be transformed into The book I found was interesting.

Use Possessive Nouns to Shorten Your Essay

Possessive nouns show the relationship between two things. Look for “of the” in your essay that must describe a noun, replace them with possessive nouns, and use an apostrophe. 

For Example

• The assignment of the student was graded can be changed into The student’s assignment was graded.
• The dress of the lady was exquisite and will be updated with The lady’s dress was magnificent. 

Prefer Using Plural When Possible

If you are using plural nouns instead of singular, many articles like ‘a’ and ‘the’ can be removed easily. It might not look of much use at first, but once these revisions are done, you will be left with a shortened essay within the given word limit.

For Example

• Whenever I go to a museum, I feel nostalgic, which can be changed into Whenever I go to museums, I feel nostalgic.
• Eating a burger can relieve the constant stresscan easily be transformed into Eating burgers can relieve continuous stress. 

End Note

How to shorten essay? When faced with the task of trimming an essay, it’s crucial to approach it strategically. Begin by reviewing your content and identifying any unnecessary points or repetitive information. Consider condensing or merging specific sentences or paragraphs to eliminate redundancy. Ensure that your main arguments and supporting evidence are still present but conveyed succinctly.

It may also be helpful to ask yourself questions such as, “Could this sentence be expressed more directly?” or “Is there a more concise way to convey this idea?” By being mindful of your word choice and aiming for simplicity, you can effectively trim down your essay while maintaining its coherence and clarity. Got a clear picture of how to shorten an essay?