An essay is a continuous piece of writing in which, propositions, slang, and jargons should not be in the article, and neither should there be long rambling sentences. As a college student, your tutor can give you the number of pages your essay should have. In instances where they’re no such directives, and you don’t know how long an essay should be like, short articles usually require two paragraphs when doing essay tests and five paragraphs when tackling long pieces.
When writing an essay of 1000 words or with 1500 words or even more, in the following article we will outline more about how long an essay should be.
For high school papers, your teacher may request a standard research paper that is between 3-5 pages with 275 words for a page or for a 5-page essay for a final document, but in middle school or junior high school, regular articles will be 1-2 pages in length and 2-4 for a final paper.
In the case of college students, the number of paragraphs depends on the level of class you are in and the essence of the assignment for example for a scholarship award. At the beginning of a semester, while reading review assignments for a college application, you may be requested for a 1-page essay with 275 words for a page and 5-7 paragraphs for the most critical tasks. As a university student, your professor may ask you for a 10-page essay final paper with 275 words for a page when in a 100-level class and for a 15page essay with 275 words for a page doing 300-400 level course.
Types of Essays
- Analytical Essay
An analytical article is a high school paper kind of writing that analyses a given text by providing observation of about specific topic of interest separating ideas and facts and giving the meaning of the points.
- Narrative Essay
Narrative essays tell about an exerting story about somebody, something, or a place. When writing, you should draw the reader’s attention in a captivating way. The paper should have a start with some events following that should lead to an awesome ending.
- The Argumentative Essay
Argumentative essay is where you prove to the teacher that your opinion, theory, or hypothesis about a thing or an issue is more right than that for other students. The only difference between this kind of thesis and a persuasive essay is that you argue for your opinion as opposed to others while the later persuade others to adopt your line of thought.
- Diagnostic Essay
A diagnostic essay is a writing assignment given to you at the beginning of an academic course. Your tutor gives you a question requesting you to write a piece that covers a specific topic. The primary purpose of writing helps the teacher to test your writing skills as well as your strengths and weaknesses of your writing styles. Diagnostic writing like act essays usually has time limitations where you must complete the task within the given period. The paper requires no research hence you should start writing immediately after receiving your prompt.
- Reflective Essay
A reflective essay is a type of writing where you examine your experience in life. You write about how the skills have changed, grown or developed you in life. The writing format of the paper may defer depending on the person to read. For example, there is a difference between an article for students for academic purposes and that for a magazine with the later directed to a massive audience and the academic one meant for specific readers.
How Long Should Each Section of an Essay Be?
As you continue learning on how long an essay should be, a well-structured research paper should have an introduction, body, and conclusion. When writing, each part should be in proportion to the other parts. For example, the body should be longer than the introduction and the end.
The introduction part of a research paper draws the reader’s attention on what towards the paper giving an outline and statement of your thesis. A good introduction highlights what the paper is all about. When concentrating on the body part, it should connect well with the last statement of the introduction part. It is in the body part where the topic provides an excellent articulation of the research paper should.
As you approach the end of the body part, the statements should be apparent to the reader that it is the final major point you are outlining. The conclusion part of a research paper summarizes all that has been written in the introduction and the body part. A credible conclusion should consist of the following
- An allusion to the pattern used in the introduction part
- A restatement of the thesis statement where you should use some of the words that are in the entire paper, however, the section should not be a copy and paste of the introduction or body part.
- A conclusion should have a summary of the main points from the body of the paper.
- Final words that show the reader that the discussion has come to an end.
If your paper is long the parts of the entire paper should also be longer. However, the introduction and conclusion part should be shorter than the body but must carry a similar length. When writing a 1-page paper, always make one paragraph for each section like shown below.
Introduction with thesis statement- 1 paragraph
- Body point A – 1 paragraph
- Body point B – 1 paragraph
- Body point C– 1 paragraph
- Conclusion– 1 paragraph
For 5-page paper
- Introduction– ¾ to 1 page
- Body point A – 1 paragraph
- Body point B– 1 paragraph
- Body point C– 1 paragraph
- Conclusion- ¾ to 1 page
For 10- page paper
- Introduction– 1 page to 1½
- Body point A – about 2½
- Body point B – about 2½
- Body point C– about 2½
- Conclusion- 1 page to 1½ pages
For 15-page paper
- Introduction– 1½ to 2 pages
- Body point A – about four
- Body point B – about four
- Body point C – about four
- Conclusion- 1½ to 2 pages
Final Remarks
One of the frequently asked questions asked by students in college is how long an essay should be? And the answer is clearly outlined above. As much as sticking to the given number of words is vital, you should not crowd your work with unnecessary wording in the pursuit to reach the given word count limit. In writing the quality of the article is more important than how long an essay is.
