Why Characters Matter in Essay Writing Contests

Essay writing is a creative way for individuals to express themselves. They can write about topics they are passionate about or make a simple narrative about subjects that are  quite broad. But of course, essay writing can be a struggle. Sometimes it can be hard to put our thoughts into words. It’s even much more difficult when there are rules to follow.

One of which includes a strict character count. After all, it’s not easy to limit what we want to say especially if there are a lot of things that need to be covered.

When Are Character Counts Usually Used?

In most instances, a character count is used to limit the length of an entry. One common free essay example would be the character count in Twitter. For each tweet, a person may only input a maximum of 140 characters.

So, what does count as characters?

This would include the letters, numbers, spaces, and other punctuation marks. Most social networks limit their character count so that a message may be made clear and concise. This is to avoid lengthy posts from appearing in its home page which can often appear messy. Strict character counts are also observed for short essay writing. For longer pieces, a word count is used.

Why Are Characters Important in Essay Writing Contests?

Sometimes, we can get carried away when writing an essay. It’s easy to go off-topic for subject matters that are unfamiliar or too broad. Lengthy essays often lack clarity because of how it is composed.

If you refer to various essay examples in doc, you can see that most essays are simple yet concise. However, it’s important to keep in mind that everything counts. If your essay happens to exceed the given limit, you can always reconstruct sentences into making them shorter or you may even trim a few letters that aren’t necessary.

Having a character limit for an essay contest is also a good way to assess a person’s capabilities in formulating an exceptional essay while still standing by the rules.

How Can I Tell How Many Characters My Entry Has?

Fortunately, technology can do the job for us. There are several word processors and character counters online that offer this service.

Most social networks also provide this feature. If you’re having trouble finding it, try typing in a text box and look for something that keeps changing in number. However, some networks only base their character counts on letters, numbers and punctuation marks, disregarding the spaces in between.

For essay writing contests entries, the criteria might include a certain character limit. It’s best to use these tools to monitor your character count instead of just making assumptions based on how many pages have been utilized for your essay. If you’re having trouble keeping your words to a minimum, it might be good to create an essay outline first. This will help you eliminate words or phrases that aren’t necessary to convey your message. Furthermore, try to use shorter verbs and adjectives that can still portray the same meaning.