How to Make Your Paper Longer

Writing an academic paper to the required length is part of the assessment that is usually done to your assignment. Therefore, it is important to make sure your paper is long enough to match the requirements in the initial instructions. So, how do you make sure you have the exact length of your paper? Well, you have to be strategic about this and have a plan of how you will achieve this. If you don’t have a plan on how to make your paper long, you may get stuck on the way.

As you prepare to write your paper, always look at the paper requirements especially on the number of words or pages required. A standard double-spaced academic paper written in Times new roman font size 12 is usually 275 - 300 words per page. Therefore, you can use either words or the number of pages to distribute your writing content.

Making your Paper the Right Length

If you have realized that your paper is not to the required length, don't worry. You can make it longer by doing the following:

  • Review the topic again. In your paper, you may have taken a limited view concerning the topic. Reviewing your topic will allow you to look into it afresh and include other ideas that will help you expound it more using more content. These additional sections into your topic will make the paper longer.
  • Recheck your Outline. Writing a paper outline is what helps you write your paper successfully without omitting important parts. It is always advisable to have one in place to keep you on track while writing your paper. If your outline didn’t help you reach your desired word count, you can always review it and include a few more items to write about.
  • Include more Subtitles. More subtitles in your paper can also make it longer. Think about introducing each subtitle. You will need more words to do that and that means your paper will be getting longer as you introduce and write about additional subtitles in your paper. This is a brilliant idea to apply in your writing.
  • Expound on your points further. Re-look at your already written points and expound further on them. Instead of taking a brief approach, it would help a lot if you look at them again and add some content to explain more clearly. You could also take a new perspective on the same point and add more information to it.

Final Thoughts

Your academic paper can be as long as you want. The same topic can be written in different lengths and still pass the message across. You can write the same topic in 1 page, 10 pages or 60 pages. It all depends on the objective of writing on that given topic. You can achieve the desired paper length if you take time to study your topic and put in place a good outline. Make sure you have done your research well to have sufficient information to make your paper longer.