How to Add Length
to a College Essay
without Content
Instructions
- 1First, change the font, but do so subtly! Word will accept numeric values of .5, so if your paper is supposed to be 12 point, make it 12.5, 11, then make it 11.5.
- 2Next, change the indentation. You can do this by going to "Format" then "Paragraph" and increasing the indentation very slightly.
- 3Before you click out of the "Paragraph" screen, change the line spacing. If you're used to double-spacing, use "multiple" and make it 2.1 or 2.2...it's very hard to notice such a small difference.
- 4Unless you've been given specifics on what font to use, change to a larger font. Courier New is the standard for increasing paper length, but most professors spot it right away. Play around with other texts that bump up your length.
- 5Next, split up some paragraphs. Chances are, if you haven't edited completely yet, you can split some longer paragraphs into two shorter ones. Each paragraph you split adds and extra line to your paper.
- 6Spot lines in your paper that almost reach the end of the page. By adding a word or two to these lines, they will bump to the next line. Add to them to increase your paper length.
- 7Create a bold title. Your title, name and the class can take up around 1/6 of the first page without looking too ostentatious.
- 8Add footnotes. If possible, add footnotes to your paper for instant length.
- 9Hand it in!
Read more: How to Add Length to a College Essay without Content | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2320225_add-length-college-essay-content.html#ixzz1C5nPJQJ0
What about tweaking the margins slightly to make them wider? Don't forget the top and bottom margins too.
ReplyDeleteBut watch out: if your professors use Turnitin, they can check the number of words for the assignment, and if they said it must be 1,000 words or whatever, then all these tricks don't work.
What they don't realize is that their paper is but one in a pile of many, and guess what--minor variations on a standard format (I ask for MLA format) really stand out when you have other correctly formatted papers to compare them to. Also, I've been assigning essays since the late 1990s, for over a decade, so duh, obviously I've got a practiced eye now. But they always think I'm magic when I notice.
ReplyDeleteMe: Your font is 12.5 point, and it should be 12 point. You have used 2.5 spacing rather than double-spacing, and your margins are three millimetres off. Points deducted for not following the format.
Them: GASP! How did you know?
Look on the bright side, folks -- this recipe can be similarly used to impress the admins when you submit your otherwise meaningless assessment reports, program reviews, committee minutes, etc. (Look, Dean Drudgery, it's 85 pages -- we must have taken the work seriously and understood its usefulness...85 pages!!)
ReplyDeleteStep 10: Make sure your professor is a moron that won't see through all these obvious attempts at paper-lengthening.
ReplyDeleteStep 11: Have a "flying drumhead" courtsmartial of the cheating students; let the ROTC shoot them in the Quad.
ReplyDeleteStep 12: Miller time.
This is why my assignment are "word count" not "page" based.
ReplyDeleteStep 11: Or you could, you know, try saying something really interesting, well-argued, written and substantiated. If you do that your profs will frequently let you get away with writing a shorter paper and still give you the A your work has earned ... okay, I know, I'm dreaming.
ReplyDeletethey totally forgot the awesome: make your punctuation a little bigger.
ReplyDeleteYes! Make your _periods_ 14 pt. No one notices, and apparently it adds almost a page to a ten page paper (I didn'tknow this till my senior year of undergrad, in one of my last classes, when my paper was already too LONG)
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, though one should take it for what it is--informed, but but not expert (expertise I defer to you, kind reader!), this compendium of valuable and qua-complete mots of advice, given in all sincerity, no doubt, to those poor and transigent particularates of frozen precipitation who grace our desmenses at once across the autumn, then again, in fresh fall come spring, is lacking in one especial area: though it goes to issues of formatting quite respectfully, it neglects, I think, the very, very best advice that can be given in an effort to assist a struggling scholar in meeting task-parameters: pad, pad, pad the everlovin' FUCK outta each and every freakin' construct.
ReplyDeleteThey forgot a few, increasing the spaces between words and turning sentences passive being the most prominent.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Mrs. C!
ReplyDelete@Merely: I've been known to give them credit for exercising that option in conference, and they're always nonplussed.
ReplyDeleteStudent: I know it's only 7.5 pages, and you said 8-10; I'll add some more.
Me: Actually, I hadn't noticed. It feels about right to me. Concentrate on the things we've discussed, and if doing so makes it a bit longer, great. If not, don't worry.
Student: [speechlessly pleased but confused]
I've just started applying for grants, and have been rediscovering all these tricks (how do I fit a 2.5-page project proposal on 2 pages? hmmm. . .) Also the wonderful world of revising sentences to meet the word and/or character counts stringently enforced by online text boxes. Those are really tough. Of course, my problem these days is fitting too many words/ideas in too little space (and yes, I know -- and tell my students -- that the ability to state main points in a small compass is at least as valuable as the ability to go on at length).
@Mrs. C: brilliant!