How Long is an Essay in Academic Writing?
Essays are the most popular academic assignment you will ever come across, but many students are not familiar with the differences between different types of essays. As a matter of fact, you might not even know how long an essay is supposed to be.
This can happen especially when you don’t have any prior academic writing experience. These academic essays can range from concise essays to relatively lengthy essays, e.g. a thesis project that is so detailed and lengthy, just like a book.
Consult your department or tutor if you are unsure about how long your essay is supposed to be. The expectation regarding the length varies widely, depending on the nature of the subject you are exploring, your academic institute, and your tutor's expectations who assigned you the task.
In most cases, you will be assigned an essay with clear requirements regarding the number of pages to be included or the number of words to be produced (15-20 pages, or 2500-3000 words).
It will make sense to consult your tutor if you are in doubt. Some tutors don’t allow an inch of space, whereas others are more lenient and flexible in their approach.
This article provides detailed guidelines for the length of different types of essays. Here it is important to recognize that your essay's quality is far more important than its length.
An essay that is long enough but lacks depth in content and analysis will not fetch the required results.
Rather than focusing on hitting a certain word count, you must look to write a high-quality essay that addresses the research problem and provides arguments for and against your thesis.
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Explore what it means to communicate in multiple languages in a variety of contexts, and discover your inner translator. The premises of an inductive argument, by comparison, simply present the conclusion as probable, rather than logically necessary:Academic Writing: How to Argue in an Essay
Something often overlooked in academic writing is that a good essay must present a good argument. Admittedly, not a shouting-at-each-other-until-red-in-the-face kind of argument. Rather, it should be a structured set of premises leading to a logical conclusion, backed up by evidence. But what does this mean precisely? Herein, we look at how to argue in an essay.
The Anatomy of an Argument
One key aspect of knowing how to argue in academic writing is understanding what we mean by “
For example, we could put forward the following premises:
Then, in light of accepting these premises, we would have to accept the conclusion that “Dogs do not appreciate the brilliance of Vincent van Gogh.”
Vincent van Gogh: Not for dogs?
Deductive vs. Inductive Arguments
Part of knowing how to argue involves knowing what kind of argument you’
The stronger of these are deductive arguments, since the conclusion of a deductive argument follows from the truth of its premises:
1st Premise: Dogs are mammals.
2nd Premise: All mammals are vertebrates.
Conclusion: Dogs are vertebrates.
Simply put, you cannot dispute the conclusion of the above argument if you accept the premises. This makes the argument “valid.”
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The premises of an inductive argument, by comparison, simply present the conclusion as probable, rather than logically necessary:
1st Premise: My dog is furry.
2nd Premise: My neighbor’s dog is furry.
3rd Premise: Every dog I’ve seen so far has been furry.
Conclusion: The next dog I see will be furry.
In the above argument, the premises provide a compelling reason to accept the conclusion. However, they don’t show it is certain, since there are hairless dog breeds, even if they’re rarer. As such, the inductive argument is about plausibility or probability, not logical certainty.
Knowing whether you’
How to Argue Your Point in an Essay
So, how do you put this into practice in your writing? To make a good argument in an essay, you may need to do several things. These include:
- Develop a thesis statement. This will outline your premises and the conclusion you will draw. The idea of this to to set up the basic outline of your argument, which you will develop in the main body of your essay. in your argument. Depending on the length of your essay, address each part of your argument in a separate paragraph or section. In addition, you should discuss them in a logical order, drawing connections between them where possible. . In an academic essay, this usually means drawing upon past research (e.g., existing studies) or experimental data (e.g., a questionnaire) to support each point. Without evidence, all you have is an unsupported claim.
- Consider counterarguments. This lets you address potential objections to your point preemptively, strengthening your own argument. . This should follow clearly from the preceding points (your premises). It’s important to not just summarize your essay, but to also show how the evidence you’ve presented supports your claim and how each point works with the others to contribute to your argument as a whole.
It’s vital to ensure that everything – from the literature review to the conclusion – supports your main argument. Knowing what you’re arguing and how your points support this will help you to express yourself clearly.
And if you’d like someone to help ensure your essays are always error free, you can submit a document for proofreading today.
It’s vital to ensure that everything – from the literature review to the conclusion – supports your main argument. Knowing what you’re arguing and how your points support this will help you to express yourself clearly.