Opinions on Essay Page Minimums
What are your thoughts on essay page minimums? (Clarification: You're writing an essay, it has to be six pages minimum)
From what I have been told, teachers put on page minimums to ensure good essays.
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Then you talk to the instructor about what sources you're missing at the moment because there must be a hole in the research, or getting a new topic. With all the information out there, there are very few topics out there that don't have enough information for a full book. I like essay minimums, and hate maximums, because I always have to cut some information, inevitably something I really wanted to put in. I have seen many people fall short of page limits and fail to address the subject they are writing about in a decent manner. Papers that do not meet the page requirements frequently have issues with them. Many papers that do not meet the required length suffer from lack of information. Lopsided literature reviews, weak synthesis or often times people skip a rhetorical analysis, just to name a few culprits. Often times it is the lit review that shows a paper does not have enough information. You should have more sources than you need to make your point. This can lead to excess information and some of it will need to be left out of the paper as you focus on your point. It is possible the subject is not as big an issue to meet the requirements however that should be evident to the instructor and student pretty early on. More often than not papers that do not reach the page requirements are deficient in scope and not a matter of an inadequate subject. Page limits are to ensure that the students are getting enough information to write about the subject at the level required. 1
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Hmm. Minimums don't bother me so much if it's a word count. If it's a oage count, that's bullshit! I write an average ( I've counted) or 16 words per line. I have small handwriting :L Whereas some people do about 6 words per line. It is in no way fair to say we have done the same a outn of work if we've done the same number of pages, as I would have done over double what they did. Maximums are a pain in the ass too. They tell you to explain, examine, describe, e.,t.c. But you go n to too much detal, you -1
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To be frank, I think it's the most idiotic thing ever. Not only does it cause stress from making the student's job harder, it also makes the teacher's job harder (imagine marking 32 twelve-page essays!). Besides, you can have a good essay that is short and a long essay that is crappy. |
