I sit at my computer, staring at the screen in desperation. My English coursework is one hundred words over the word limit, and I’m going to have to make some serious cutbacks before I hand it in.

It seems like a silly thing to worry about - completing the word count, filling the boxes, writing on all of the lines. Regardless of what a superficial worry it seems to be, there is emphasis placed on writing a sufficient amount. However, we are also told to follow the rule ‘quality, not quantity’. The general consensus tends to be that we need to find the balance between the two - something that is difficult to find, especially when most of us with essays to write and word counts to reach are only teenagers. There does not appear to be a magic formula for finding the balance either. Every subject has its own variation - English, History . . . you could write essays about every subject, which makes the differences in the writing process even more unappealing.

You could take the view, though, that on the contrary, these differences make the different subjects more interesting. William Cowper once said that ‘variety’s the very spice of life’, so it is not unreasonable to argue that you can give more flavour to your subjects of choice through this.

For me, the ultimate question is that is the word count even relevant? It seems to me that the answer is a firm no. An essay of two thousand words is by no means guaranteed to be better than an essay of one thousand words. In fact, the shorter essay could have given its points more clarity and concision, perhaps making it the better of the two.

There is, however, the argument that with more words comes more opportunity to revel in the beauty of the English language. There are argument in favour of both; there are arguments against both.

The fact still remains that we can be limited by our word limits. But I shouldn’t go on about it for too long. I wouldn’t want to go over my (...)


 

By Jessica Searle, Wimbledon High School