Why Length Matters

A common question asked is ‘how much do I write’ and teachers are often concerned with providing a number because then people only focus on word count.

But it does matter, especially in a time-restricted exam. In this course, we’ll show you how you can use word count to start analysing your writing.

Some people don’t like the idea of writing within a word count, but we recommend it for exams because:

• ‘More’ is not better – increases chance that there are errors, may also be symptomatic of other issues in writing e.g. ‘telling’ and ordering issues. Your piece may leave the reader feeling overwhelmed.
• ‘Less’ may lack enough words to fully tell and show your story. Your piece may leave the reader feeling dissatisfied.

Also, we found that a lot of top scoring pieces, naturally converged to a certain number of sentences and paragraphs. Coincidence or math?

What Length is a Good Length for a Piece?

Length is determined by the amount of time that you have in the exam. Here’s our recommendation based on time limit:

20-25 minutes:

• Approximately 250 words. No more than 350 words and no less than 150 words.
• 4 paragraphs each with 4 sentences (can range from 3-6 sentences) in this order:
• Introduction -> Lead up to main event -> Main event -> Ending

30-40 minutes:

• You have two choices, you could do the 4 paragraphs (like above) and focus the extra time on improving expression, or you could do the following:
• Approximately 350 words. No more than 420 words and no less than 220 words.
• 5 paragraphs each with 4 sentences (can range from 3-6 sentences) in this order:
• Introduction -> Lead up to main event -> Main event -> Leading down to Ending -> Ending

What’s the Right Length for a Sentence

In your piece, it’s important to also look at the length of your sentences. Mainly because length reveals the type of sentence they may be.

• Sentences that are 13-15 words long are usually ‘telling’ sentences.
• Sentences that are 18-26 words long should usually be ‘showing’ sentences.
  

Sentences that are super long (26+ words) sometimes indicate issues with ‘telling’ sentences that have gone too long or excessively descriptive sentences.

Paragraphs that contain only short sentences may only ‘tell’ while sentences that contain only long sentences, may sound overwhelming.

Now that you know how length plays a part in your narrative piece (and time limit), you can use length to your advantage!

Practice time!

Now, it's your turn to practice.

The questions in this checkpoint are provided to help you develop your writing skills.

To do your practice questions, click on the below to download your question paper. You can print it out or work from the electronic version. We do recommend that you write your answers by hand in a notebook or on paper.

NW-CP2-Questions.pdf

Once you have completed your questions, review the suggested solutions. You can download (and print if you wish) the PDF suggested solutions and/or watch the suggested solutions video (all below).

Once you're done with reviewing the practice question suggested solutions, move on to the next checkpoint.

NW-CP2-Answers.pdf

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