how to shorten a essay

Free Text Shortener Tool

• 📖 Text Shortener
• 📜 When to Use It
• 🎉 Benefits of the Tool
• ✒️Writing a Summary
• ✍️Summary Examples
• 🎁 Bonus Tips

🔗 References

📖 text shortener guide.

Summarizing is an essential part of academic writing. It shows your ability to separate and present the main findings, plot elements, thoughts, etc. A good summary lets another person easily understand it without reading the original text.

Our free text shortener presents key takeaways of a text using AI technologies. To use it, you need to copy and paste the original text and choose the length of the expected summary. This is how you create a resume with zero stress in a couple of clicks.

In this article, we describe our tool and explain how to write top-scoring summaries.

📜 When to Use Text Shortener Tool

• When you need to write a concluding paragraph. It can be an essay, research paper, lab report, or other academic text. Paste your body paragraphs into the box to create a summary for your concluding part.
• When you need to shorten your essay. Use this tool if you exceed the word limit in your essay or a particular paragraph. It also works as a sentence shortener.
• When you need to read an extensive article. You will do it faster as summarizing tool makes the text shorter, preserving the main information. It is helpful when you need to read many articles and highlight the key points.
• When you need to shorten other researchers’ passages. Including lengthy quotes in your paper is not the best decision. Instead, you can use our tool to make them shorter without changing their sense.
• When you need to take notes. Create an overview of the studying materials with our online shortener. It is a fast and easy way to make notes without writing or typing them manually.
• When you need to refresh your knowledge. Instead of reading a full text or book, just use a summary generator. After a quick revision of the content, you can save and use these extracts later.

🎉 Shorten Sentence Generator Benefits

Below you will find reasons why students love our shortening tool.

✒️ How to Write an Outstanding Summary

If you want to write a summary yourself, this passage is for you. Follow these guidelines to shorten texts better and faster.

• Find only one core thought – this is the basis of the text. Then look for supporting points that revolve around this idea. At this stage, you can list the essential ideas in the text.
• Don’t use judgmental and emotional vocabulary while writing. Your goal is to be as objective as possible. You can also rewrite the informal style to formal. Remember that summarizing is not the same as paraphrasing .
• Keep your summary brief: it shouldn’t be longer than 15% of the initial text. But we still recommend using synonyms and synonymic expressions not to repeat the original passage. Don’t forget to reference the works you have included.
• Reread your summary . Make sure that its writing style corresponds with the rest of your work.
• Add transition words if you notice that there is no flow. Ask yourself: can a person understand the core meaning of your text just after reading the summary?

If yes, congratulations! You have just created a good summary. If not, find the details that you have missed. It can be a logical sequence, a particular argument, event, or evidence. Rewrite your summary till it fully represents the original text.

✍️ Text Shortening Examples

Now let’s take a look at two summary examples.

🎁 Bonus Tips for Students

• Make sure you know what kind of summary you need. For example, an executive summary has particular guidelines and writing formulas.
• Avoid complex terminology and long sentences. Your summary should be independent and straightforward. Imagine that a person unfamiliar with the topic needs to understand the text.
• To shorten a long text, make a one-sentence summary for each paragraph. It will help you control the size of the summary. It also will be easier to navigate the text if you decide to rewrite or adjust your summary.

What does summarize mean?

Summarizing means shortening a larger text without changing its meaning. You can usually see summaries at the end of essays and other academic papers. While shortening a text, you need to cover only the essential details mentioned in the text. In most summaries, you shouldn’t include your opinion on the matter and have to be objective.

How to summarize a story?

You need to retell a story briefly. Imagine that you have read a book and want to describe it to your friend. Highlight the main plot elements and characters that are crucial to the story. Omit the parts that are not essential for a person who wants to understand the plot.

How to summarize a quote?

Read the passage and find its key message. Briefly describe this thought in your own words. Make sure that the summarized piece fits your paper’s tone. If you leave more than three words unchanged, put them in quotation marks. Don’t forget to give credit to the author.

Note: short, clearly expressed quotes do not need shortening.

Updated: Aug 11th, 2022

• How to Write a Summary: 4 Tips for Writing a Good Summary | Masterclass
• Guidelines for Writing a Summary | Hunter College
• 10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count | The University of Adelaide
• 8 Ways to Reduce the Word Count for Your Research Paper | How to Write a Journal Article

How to Shorten an Essay: 4 Techniques to Reduce Word Count

If you need to shorten your essay by 100-500 words, or even more, you can use one or more of four techniques. You can clean up your sentences, remove repetition, summarize your examples, and/or cut out an entire section.

One of my subscribers recently asked me, “ How do I compress an essay of 700-1000 words, or even more, to just 300 words? ”

In this tutorial I will show you four easy ways to shorten your essay by as much or as little as you wish. I am giving them to you in the order you should try them out.

Here are four techniques to shorten your essay:

Technique #1: Sentence Cleanup

When I taught essay writing in college, I noticed that students wrote sentences that were just too wordy. 

They used 20 words where 10 would have probably done the trick. If you examine your sentences, you’ll often find that you can say the same thing in much fewer words.

“In my opinion, there are many people who want to lose weight.”

This sentence contains 12 words. 

Here’s how we can shorten it by performing a Sentence Cleanup.

First, you never have to say, “ In my opinion, ” because if it were not your opinion, you wouldn’t be stating it. Okay? So, let’s cross out “ in my opinion. ”

“ In my opinion, there are many people who want to lose weight.”

We just cut out three words. 

Next, the phrase “ there are ” is usually unnecessary, and if you take it out, your sentence will become more elegant. So, let’s do it. Let’s just cross it out.

“ There are many people who want to lose weight.”

We also have to cross out the extra word “ who ” because it is only needed if you use “ there are. ”

We just got rid of three more words. 

And so our sentence becomes:

“Many people want to lose weight.”

How many words is that? That is now a six word sentence. Guess what – we just cut this sentence in half. 

Do this enough times in your essay, and it will get a lot shorter.

“How do I cut out 200 words from my essay to make it shorter?”

This sentence contains 14 words. Let’s perform a Sentence Cleanup.

Notice that it is pretty obvious that to cut out 200 words from an essay will make it shorter. Therefore, stating that you want to do it “ to make it shorter ” is unnecessary. 

If we get rid of that phrase, we’ll cut out 4 words from this sentence and make it a lot more elegant. 

“How do I cut out 200 words from my essay to make it shorter ?”

Technique #2: Removing Repetition

Repetition can be found on all levels – in a sentence, in a paragraph, or a section. When you reduce or eliminate repetition in your essay, you are making it less redundant. “Redundant” just means repetitive and therefore useless.

In the last example we just did, we eliminated a redundancy from a sentence. And that’s part of a Sentence Cleanup. But you can also find and eliminate entire redundant sentences.  

Look for repetitive phrases, sentences, and even passages in your content and remove them. 

Students often repeat things over and over, using different words, thinking that they’re writing great content. Those are your opportunities to significantly shorten your essay while improving it at the same time.

Here’s an example from a fictitious student essay. Let’s say the student writes about his trip to Paris and states:

“ I found that Parisians are very nice if you talk to them in French. ”

And then, in the same or even a different paragraph or section, the following sentence would appear:

“Parisians can be very nice people, but they really prefer that you speak French with them.”

Well, the two sentences say the same thing, just using different words. 

So, what do you do? 

Pick the longer sentence and just delete it.

Sometimes you will find a whole paragraph in your essay that is repetitive and can be removed without the essay losing any meaning. If you find such a paragraph, just delete it.

Technique #3: Zooming Out

Make sure that you go through your essay using the first two techniques before you employ this and the next one. 

The only case where you would do Zooming Out first would be if you had to shorten your essay drastically – by 30% or more. 

If you’ve cleaned up all your sentences and removed all repetitive content, and you still need to lose hundreds of words, the Zooming Out technique will really help. 

Here’s how it works. 

You may have heard that in essay writing, you are supposed to proceed from general to specific. Whether you stick to this rule really well in your essay or not, I want you to notice something. 

In your essay, you make statements that are:

• very general
• less general
• somewhat specific
• very specific

The most general statement in your essay is the thesis because it summarizes the entire essay. And the most specific parts of your essay are examples .

So, in order to shorten your essay, you can summarize your examples. I call this Zooming Out because you are taking something that was very specific (zoomed in) and making it more general (zoomed out). 

Let’s say you’re writing about the harms of second-hand smoking. And in one of the sections you provide an example of your friend or someone in the news who became seriously ill because she lived with a smoker for a long time:

“My friend Isabelle was married to a chain smoker. Her husband refused not only to give up his habit but even to reduce it. As years went by, Isabelle began to notice some respiratory symptoms. At first, she developed a light but persistent cough. Then, she started to feel out of breath more and more often. When she finally went to a pulmonologist, a test revealed that she had COPD, a serious lung disease.”

This example is 74 words long. And this is your opportunity to shorten your essay dramatically. 

You can simply contract this example into one short sentence and write something like this:

“A friend of mine developed lung disease after having lived with a chain smoker for twelve years.”

Now, this sentence contains only 17 words. We just cut out 57 words just by Zooming Out on one example. 

We are Zooming Out because we are no longer exploring this example in detail. We simply provide a fact without giving a lot of specific information. 

So, look for these detailed examples in your essay and just summarize each of them into one short sentence.

Technique #4: Cutting out a Section

This technique works very well to cut out a big chunk of your essay in one fell swoop.

Let’s say that you wrote an essay in which you have four supporting points to prove your main point, your thesis. 

If this is a 2,000-word essay, then each section is approximately 500 words long. But do you really need four reasons/sections to support your point?

Is it possible that if you provide only three supporting points, your essay will still work very well?

For example, if you argue that apples are a great food, you could have four supporting points, claiming that apples are:

But what if you simply took out one of these points? Let’s say that you eliminate the section about the portability of apples.

Will your essay still work? Sure it will. It will work just fine with the three remaining supporting points. And you just cut out 500 words (in a 2,000-word essay). 

After you have cut out a section, make sure to go back to your thesis statement and edit it to reflect the change.

I’ll leave you with one final tip. When trying to choose which sentence, paragraph, or section to cut out from your essay, go for the content that you know is not the best.

For example, you may have a section in your essay where you quote too much. Or, perhaps you were not very careful in paraphrasing, and your passage sounds too much like the original source. These would be great bits of content to get rid of.

I hope this was helpful. Now go ahead and shorten your essay to your heart’s desire!

How to Write a 300 Word Essay – Simple Tutorial

How to expand an essay – 4 tips to increase the word count, 10 solid essay writing tips to help you improve quickly, essay writing for beginners: 6-step guide with examples, 6 simple ways to improve sentence structure in your essays.

Tutor Phil is an e-learning professional who helps adult learners finish their degrees by teaching them academic writing skills.

Recent Posts

How to Write an Essay about Why You Want to Become a Nurse

If you're eager to write an essay about why you want to become a nurse, then you've arrived at the right tutorial! An essay about why you want to enter the nursing profession can help to...

How to Write an Essay about Why You Deserve a Job

If you're preparing for a job application or interview, knowing how to express why you deserve a role is essential. This tutorial will guide you in crafting an effective essay to convey this...

10 Tricks to Reduce Your Word Count in Academic Writing

One of the most agonizing parts of academic writing is cutting down your hard-won draft to meet a page, word, or character limit. This process can be even more stressful when you’re under pressure to meet a deadline just hours away.

Writing simply is the key to clear and concise content. But good writing is a craft that cannot be mastered within a short window before a deadline.

When you have little time to spare, small changes to your text can add up to the space you need. Here are a few simple tricks you can use to quickly tighten your text and meet the limit .

1.    Delete "The"

You can often omit the word “the” from your text without losing any meaning.

Original: The clarity of your writing depends on both the content and the style. (13 words, 70 characters)

Revised: The clarity of your writing depends on both content and style. (11 words, 62 characters) 

2. Erase “That”

Similarly, the word “that” is often overused in writing and can be deleted with ease.

Original: We found that cells that express the mutated protein migrate across the barrier faster than wild-type cells. (17 words, 108 characters)

Revised: We found cells expressing the mutated protein migrated across the barrier faster than wild-type cells. (15 words, 102 characters) 

3. Remove Adverbs and Adjectives

Adverbs modify verbs, and adjectives modify nouns. But good words don’t need modifying.

Most adverbs and adjectives weaken strong verbs and nouns, which weaken the power of your writing. Omit unnecessary adverbs and adjectives to make your writing stronger and more concise.

Original: The entire treatment lasted for four days, and the drug greatly improved the health of patients. (16 words, 96 characters)

Revised: The treatment lasted for four days, and the drug improved the health of patients. (14 words, 81 characters)

4. Use Shorter Words

Resist the temptation to use long words where short ones will do . Instead of investigate , facilitate , or utilize , simply use study , help , or use .

Original: We investigated whether utilizing the drug would facilitate improvements in health. (11 words, 83 characters)

Revised: We studied whether using the drug would help improve health. (10 words, 60 characters)

5. Trim Wordy Phrases

Clear out the clutter in your writing. Look for needless words you can delete and lengthy phrases you can shorten .

Original: During the course of the study , the majority of cells died in response to treatment with the drug. (18 words, 98 characters)

Revised: During the study , most cells died after treatment with the drug. (11 words, 64 characters)

6. Choose Active Voice

Active voice uses less words than passive voice . And active voice makes your writing clearer and more compelling, helping you tell a powerful story .

Passive: The samples were collected by the researcher. (7 words, 45 characters)

Active: The researcher collected the samples. (5 words, 37 characters)   

7. Revise Needless Transitions

Transitions can help maintain the flow of your writing —and make your reader’s job easy . But some transitions ( e.g. , indeed , then , furthermore ) can be deleted with ease.

Original: Indeed , we discovered that the mutated protein affected heart function. (10 words, 71 characters) 

Revised: We discovered that the mutated protein affected heart function. (9 words, 63 characters)

8. Eliminate Conjunctions

Conjunctions ( e.g., and , or , but , however ) connect two independent statements that can often be rewritten as two separate sentences.

Original: Patients treated with drug X had no symptoms after 3 days, and patients treated with drug Y had no symptoms after 7 days. (23 words, 121 characters)

Revised: Patients treated with drug X had no symptoms after 3 days. Patients treated with drug Y had no symptoms after 7 days. (22 words, 117 characters)

9. Rewrite Expletive Pronouns

Sometimes writers like to get a head start on a sentence by using phrases with expletive pronouns , such as “there are” and “it is.” These phrases can be rewritten to shorten your text and make your writing more direct and concise.

Original: It has been reported that the cells migrate faster when treated with the drug. (14 words, 78 characters)

Revised: The cells migrate faster when treated with the drug. (9 words, 52 characters)

10. Target Paragraphs with Widows and Orphans

When dealing with page limits, a great trick to gaining an entire line is attacking paragraphs with “dangling words,” also known as widows or orphans .

A widow is a lone word or short group of words that appears at the bottom of a paragraph, column, or page. An orphan is a similar unwanted word or short group of words that appears at the top of a page.

Look for paragraphs with just a few words at the end and focus on how you can shorten them to gain an extra line of space.

Bottom Line: Cut the Clutter

One of the greatest challenges in writing is cutting words. But there is a simple rule you can follow: make sure the words you use add meaning. If you can remove words without losing the importance of the statement, delete them.

Are you struggling to condense your text? Download our free guide and cheat sheets to help you meet a word, page, or character limit?

Crystal is an editor, educator, coach, and speaker who helps scientists and clinicians communicate with clear, concise, and compelling writing. You can follow her on LinkedIn .

5 Excellent Books That Will Make You an Expert Science Writer

5 features of a successful research proposal.

Reduce Word Count Generator

Cut your word count without reducing the content. This tool is very easy to use:

• Paste the text.
• Mind that there is a 15,000-character limit.
• Choose text reduction options.
• Click the button.
• Copy the text to the clipboard.

⭐️ Word Count Reducer: the Benefits

• ✒️ What Is Cut-Down-Word-Count Generator?
• ✂️ How to Cut Down Words?
• 👍 Word Cutter Do's & Don'ts

🖇️ References

✒️ reduce word count generator: what is it.

Cut-Down-Word-Count Generator is a free online tool that summarizes texts and reduces sentence and word count. It cuts out unnecessary words , phrases, and sentences but doesn't change the sense of a text. This is a helpful instrument for students, journalists, and other people who work with loads of written information.

Besides reducing your writing, you can also use the tool to summarize books, short novels, and articles on any topic. Artificial intelligence finds keywords and decides which sentences and words are the most essential.

The tool is also fully compatible with Grammarly – you can edit the text on our page if you have an extension.

✂️ How to Cut Down Words in My Essay?

Automatic tools are great when you need to work with extensive text . However, consider manual summarizing for more flexibility.

Here's how to reduce your word count manually:

• Find and highlight the key messages . If you do it thoroughly, you will preserve the initial sense of a text.
• Cut out adjectives and adverbs . Many of them are just filler words that serve only the aesthetic features of a text. That is why you won't lose the main points if you delete them.
• Look for synonyms and synonymic collocations . To avoid plagiarism in academic papers, use synonyms when referring to another author's thoughts. And you will still need to give them a reference.
• Change structures . Simplifying sentences is another way to reduce the word count. Just rewrite lengthy and overcomplicated grammar.
• One paragraph – one idea . Each section should focus only on one idea or answer one question. Keep your paragraphs at 200-300 and sentences at 15-25 words.

Words and Phrases to Avoid

You will also need to work on vocabulary . In this part, we will explain how to avoid excessive wording and bring your essay to academic standards. You should avoid the following:

• Subjective and loaded language . These are unnecessary for sentence structure; you can remove them without altering the text. Examples: Stunning, ugly, beautiful, horrible, great, boring, fantastic, obviously, of course, very.
• Cliches . Better think of shorter and less overused phrases. Examples: Think outside the box, play your cards right, time will tell.
• Informal language. Informal words and phrases are not appropriate in academic writing. Examples: A bit, a couple of, kind of, sort of, you, your.
• A lot of –> several, many
• As far as A is concerned –> regarding, concerning
• At the present time –> now
• At that point of time –> then
• In light of the fact that –> because, since
• In the process of –> while
• Is able to –> can
• On the occasion of –> when
• This is an example of –> it is
• Under these circumstances –> because of
• Whether or not –> whether
• Cops –> the police
• ASAP –> promptly, quickly
• Mankind –> people

👍 Word Cutter for Essays: Do's and Don'ts

This list of practical recommendations will help you use the word remover to its max.

• Don't paste long texts . The word limit allows us to summarize extensive passages, but we don't recommend it. Instead of cutting the whole text, work with each part separately.
• Don't simply copy and paste the results into your essay . You will likely need to modify the reduced text to create a smooth final version.
• Divide texts into logical parts . The AI will identify the main points quicker and have fewer error risks. It will also make it easier for you to navigate and spot mistakes.
• Check the results . It will be easier for you to manually correct inaccuracies at the very first stage. The tool is fast, but the human brain is more capable of understanding writing subtleties.
• Remove plagiarism . This is not a paraphrasing tool , so you must work on plagiarism. If it is just for personal use, you can leave the text as it is. Otherwise, you will need to quote or paraphrase the text to avoid plagiarized content.
• Work on word choice . Some texts you use might not be suitable for academic writing or your instructor's requirements. Devote some time to put the vocabulary in order.

📝 Word Reducing Example

Check out this example of a text summarized by our word reducer.

Original text

In the current study, several limitations of the research are necessary to mention. While random sampling will ensure representativeness and a low level of bias, there is a risk of limited outcomes in quantitative analysis. Since the questionnaires use structured and close-ended questions, there is a possibility of limited outcomes, which means that the results cannot always represent the actual occurrence in generalized forms.

Since respondents have limited response options that the researcher designed, the outcomes thus ultimately depend on the perspective taken by a scholar when creating the questions. Another significant limitation of the study is the limited availability of secondary data that can be applied to the research context. While the subject matter is widespread, there has been little research on implementing a sports education instructional program at educational facilities. Finally, data may not be robust enough to make conclusions regarding study findings.

Full text: Jeddah University: Sports Health Education Instructional Program - 4403 Words | Free Paper Example

Reduced version:

Since the questionnaires use structured and close-ended questions, there is a possibility of limited outcomes, which means that the results cannot always represent the actual occurrence in generalized forms. Another significant limitation of the study is the limited availability of secondary data that can be applied to the research context. While the subject matter is widespread, there has been little research on implementing a sports education instructional program at educational facilities.

Updated: Oct 17th, 2024

• 10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count | The University of Adelaide
• Summarizing: How to effectively summarize the work of others | SFU Library
• The Writing Center | When to Summarize, Paraphrase, and...

• Our Process

"Christmas Offer"

Terms & conditions.

As the Christmas season is upon us, we find ourselves reflecting on the past year and those who we have helped to shape their future. It’s been quite a year for us all! The end of the year brings no greater joy than the opportunity to express to you Christmas greetings and good wishes.

At this special time of year, EssaysUK brings joyful discount of 10% on all its services. May your Christmas and New Year be filled with joy.

We are looking back with appreciation for your loyalty and looking forward to moving into the New Year together.

"Claim this offer"

In unfamiliar and hard times, we have stuck by you. This Christmas, EssaysUK brings you all the joy with exciting discount of 10% on all its services.

Offer valid till 5-1-2024

We love being your partner in success. We know you have been working hard lately, take a break this holiday season to spend time with your loved ones while we make sure you succeed in your academics

Discount code: RP23720

How to Shorten an Essay – Steps with Examples

Published by Ellie Cross at November 10th, 2021 , Revised On January 31, 2024

Do you need to shorten an essay because you stuffed it with too many unnecessary arguments and information? Did you use too many unwanted phrases to increase the wordiness? Worry not! This article provides the steps you need to shorten an essay and keep it focused.

With enhancing levels of education, the level of scrutiny also went up substantially. Teachers and graders do not appreciate wordy and lengthy essays that astray from topics or arguments. Deviation from the central argument can result in the deduction of marks and pose a neglectful impression of the author.

Essays make up a considerable part of academic curricula. The importance of essays keeps increasing with the increasing level of education. We now see students writing essays from kindergarten until graduation on several topics to showcase their knowledge on the subject.

By making logical and focused arguments in the essay, students can gain recognition by trying to persuade the audience with their writing skills.

To avoid losing marks, make sure to keep your essay captivating. Boring narratives can cause the readers to lose interest in your essay. So, it’s better to avoid using unrelated arguments to increase wordiness. Ideas that are not composed well will not get you the grades you desire.

The following recommendations will surely be helpful for you to shorten your essay and avoid the repercussions of a bland essay.

1. Your Essay Outline is the Key.

Before starting an essay, authors usually ponder about the essay and create a rough essay sketch in their minds. Creating a good outline is of fundamental importance. One must scribble down all the ideas and narratives that come to mind. The following steps involve research; the researched material must be penned alongside the initial outline.

Once you are done with the groundwork, the next step involves removing, rejecting, and crossing anything and everything that does not support the thesis statement . Almost every college, school, or application essay has a word limit. A good outline with to-the-point material can help you stick to the topic and create a concise, well-written essay.

2. Reduce Redundancy

Essays above the allowed word count limit are prone to mismanagement while writing. One such case is using redundant vocabulary while writing.

We are prone to overexplain a stance and forget that the sentence or word used previously offers enough explanation to the readers. There is no need to write an extra sentence. Reduce redundancy to make your writing appealing and concise. Let us consider the following example.

“Children were playing football in the park with the ball.”

The highlighted portion of the above sentence is unnecessary as football is played with the ball and, even if avoided, can provide enough knowledge about children’s activity. Scrapping the redundant phrase will remove four words from the sentence. This technique can be instrumental when shortening an essay before submission.

Also read: How to write an argumentative essay

3. Combine Sentences with Similar Meanings

Combining sentences that convey similar meanings can shorten the essay. This can be done by compressing similar sentences to eliminate undesirable words from the sentences. A little conscious effort can help you identify parts that can be merged, significantly reducing the word count. Consider the following example,

“Children were playing football in the park. My son was also playing football with them.”

“My son was playing football with the children in the park.”

The above two sentences reflect how you can compress different sentences together, and the new sentence delivers the same meaning but with a lesser word count. As in the example, the first sentence is composed of 15 words, whereas the combined sentence’s word count is 10. So, we can eliminate five words.

Extending this approach to seven to ten sentences can help us cut at least 50 words.

Also read: How to write a narrative essay

4. Avoid Overusing Prepositional Phrases.

Writing is an arduous task. A writer is prone to overuse wordy sentences repeatedly using prepositions. You will unconsciously increase the length of the sentence if you overuse prepositions. The example below will give you an idea of why you need to be vigilant about prepositions’ use.

“Here is the schedule of the work for today. (9 words)”

“Here is today’s work schedule. (5 Words)”

The first sentence uses several prepositions hence adding to the length, whereas the second sentence is concise and delivers the same message with increased efficiency. Review your essay for such errors before submission. You can quickly identify many instances where you can use relatively efficient sentences and avoid using excessive prepositions.

Reviewing requires a good focus. If you feel like you have done all you can, then you can seek help for your essay from your friend or tutor.

Also read: How to write a descriptive essay

Has a difficult essay got you down? No problem!

With EssaysUK you get:

• Expert UK Writers
• Plagiarism-free Content
• Timely Delivery
• Thorough Research
• Rigorous Quality Control

5. Using Concise Words

The English language is famous for its vast vocabulary. There are always words that you can use in place of wordy phrases. This practice will reduce the length and magnify the appeal of the essay. There are several dynamic words that you can use in place of wordy sentences.

The examples you are going to counter below can be used as a vanguard in your writing.

“It is raining very heavily (5 words)”

“It is pouring (3 words)”

Here, three words were alternated by a single word. The new sentence is concise, delivers the meaning with intensity, and supplements more appeal to the phrase. Similarly,

“He was very afraid. (4 words)”

This approach will not only make help you shorten your essay but also reduce verbosity.

Also read: How to write an SAT essay

6. Get Rid of Anything That Doesn’t Add Value.

Review your essay by keeping the central argument or topic in focus. If you find any points that do not add value to your main argument or are irrelevant to the main idea, it is advisable to omit those sentences from the essay to shorten the essay’s length.

Most students are used to over-expanding ideas by adding details. However, it would be best to abide by the word limit set by your college or school. If you are struggling to improve your essay, you can get professional help from our essay experts .

Here is a quick guide on how to buy an essay from EssaysUK.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to shorten an essay.

To shorten an essay, start by removing unnecessary words, phrases, or sentences that do not contribute to the main message. Ensure each paragraph serves a clear purpose and eliminate repetitive information. Use concise language, combine or rephrase sentences, and focus on the most relevant points while maintaining coherence and clarity.

You May Also Like

Besides reading, listening, and writing skills, good handwriting also plays a major role in improving the language, writing speed, memory, and ability to concentrate. Cursive handwriting is a type of flowy writing in which letters are joined together beautifully, creating an artistic effect on writing.

A standard academic essay consists of an introduction, the main body, and a conclusion. However, it is not the structure of an essay that challenges many students but the order of information within the body.

Before we describe a narrative essay, it will make sense to understand what is an essay and what are the different types of essay.

A student of the school, college, or university is assigned to write academic essays throughout the academic career. An essay can be described as a brief composition of informative writing.

Ready to Place an Order?

USEFUL LINKS

LEARNING RESOURCES

COMPANY DETAILS

Splash Sol LLC

+44 (0) 141 628 7445 +44 7388 619137 8am - 8pm Monday - Friday and 10am - 4pm Saturday and Sunday.

• How It Works

Free Essay Shortener for Students

Looking for a tool to shorten an essay or research paper without throwing the arguments out? Try our essay shortener!

This free online instrument will reduce word count in seconds.

Have you written an essay that is way past the number of words recommended by the professor? Need help summarizing it without losing the context of your content? Try our free essay shortener tool!

• 🛠️ How Does This Tool Work?

🤔 Do I Need to Shorten My Essay?

• ✂️ 7 Ways to Shorten an Essay

🔗 References

🛠️ how does this essay shortener work.

Summarize your research paper or article using these easy steps:

• Open the document or website you would like to summarize.
• Highlight and copy the entire text you would like to process (it shouldn't exceed 15,000 characters).
• Paste the copied text into the blank field of our essay shortener.
• Specify the desired number of sentences in your final text.
• Click the "Shorten" button and enjoy the results.

Typically, an essay is shorter than a research paper , or thesis and may vary in length depending on several parameters, such as the level and subject of study, course requirements, and departmental guidelines.

Usually, your assigned essay will have clear guidelines on the required number of words or pages. The most common range is 10 to 12 pages or 2,500 to 3,000 words .

If you have exceeded your assignment's requirements, our free essay shortener is here to rescue you.

Essay Word Count Guidelines

✂️ 7 ways how to shorten an essay effectively.

You have worked hard on your assignment and spent countless hours researching, formatting the paper properly, and building your argument . Now that you are ready to submit your essay, you realize that you have exceeded your word count by a huge margin and are struggling to shorten it without losing your essay's credibility or key debating points.

Otherwise, the article may be too short, and you're running out of time to bring it to the expected word count. Our "shorten essay" tool is here to sort that headache out for you. If you want to perform the task by yourself, we’ve prepared a guideline for you.

Check for Redundancies in Your Essay

Scan your essay for any repeated points or phrases and delete them. For example, if your essay focuses on the ways to solve the issue of global warming and mentions planting trees for oxygen purification twice, you should remove one point. If you emphasize the same point in several different phrases, choose the one expressed more clearly and delete the other.

Delete Unnecessary Information

Check for any details that do not support the argument and eliminate them. For example, if you are writing about the achievements of Martin Luther King , then you don't need to write his childhood history in detail. Redundant and irrelevant details can load your essay with too many extra words.

Eliminate Unnecessary Articles

There are some elements of spoken grammar that translate poorly into written language. They make your article appear wordy and cumbersome. Using articles of speech such as "the" or "that" multiple times in a sentence becomes unnecessarily lengthy and makes your work hard to comprehend.

For instance:

"It is recorded in history books that Dr. King was active in the 1950s and the 1960s."

can be shortened to:

"Dr. King was active in the 1950s and 1960s."

Get to the Point

Be as precise as possible as you are building your argument. Getting to the point brings clarity to your argument by avoiding unnecessary deviations and reducing the wordiness of your essay.

Use an Active Voice in Your Essay

Articles that use an active voice tend to use fewer words than those with a passive voice approach. Writing your essay in an active voice also communicates your argument more effectively.

Look at the difference:

Active voice : John Snow conquered the Empire in 1510 AD. Passive voice : The Empire was brought down by John Snow in the year 1510 AD.

Remove Unnecessary Prepositions

Prepositional phrases make your essay wordier and may even reduce the quality of your argument.

Look at the difference between these two phrases:

"For most people, the reality of moving into a new city is a cause for a host of anxieties." "Moving to a new city makes most people anxious."

Avoid Redundant Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs sound convincing in spoken debates but may water down your arguments in written format.

Let's look at the difference between a sentence with adverbs and adjectives and one without.

"Bill Clinton's entire presidency was absolutely scandalous and majorly controversial." "Bill Clinton's presidency was controversial."

Undoubtedly, the second sentence makes a stronger argument since it goes directly to the point. Our online generator tool can help you create such statements.

Thank you for reading this article!

Now you have learned the standard word count for various assignments and understand how to reduce word count on your paper. Still, you probably need more time to edit your paper down to the required word count. Use our online essay shortener tool to polish your paper in a few minutes.

Check the other writing tools we’ve prepared: paragraph changer and heading generator .

❓ Essay Shortener FAQ

❓ what is the minimum word count for a college essay.

College essays vary in length and topics depending on the study area and the professor's requirements for the assignment. However, the word count is often specified in the assignment description.

❓ How to Shorten an Essay?

There are several ways to shorten an essay, but the most effective way is using our online summarizer, which condenses the word count in minutes.

❓ Is There an App to Decrease Word Count?

You can use our free online essay shortener tool to reduce the word count on your essay. The tool can also be used as a rewriter to assist with phrases you are unsure of.

❓ How Long Is a Short Essay?

Essay length is determined by the nature and purpose of the essay, as well as the word count requested by your professor.

Updated: Apr 26th, 2023

• Word Count | IOE Writing Centre - University College London
• How to reduce word count without reducing content
• Summarizing - Academic Integrity at MIT
• Guidelines for Writing a Summary - Hunter College - CUNY
• How to Shorten Your College Essay Without Ruining It! - Patch