How not to go over your word limit

Recently, I wrote about beating writer’s block and taking control of your Internal Editor.

But some of us don’t have that problem.  At times, writing takes place effortlessly.  Before you know it, you’re hundreds – if not thousands – of words over your word limit.

photo by Schockwellenreiter

Word limits are there for a reason.  If 1,500 words are required for an essay, it will be marked down if you submit double that.

Inability to edit an essay is just as dangerous as a writer’s block.  It’s when your Internal Editor has gone on holiday, or when you’ve told him to sod off completely.  Bad move.  Get the Editor back, sharpish.  If the essay has gone way over the word limit and you don’t think you can cut anything out of the essay, you’re wrong.  Plain and simple.

Here are a few ways you can claw things back:

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To work or not to work?

I was reading an essay entitled “Students’ perceptions of the effects of term-time paid employment” and it got me wondering how university life in the UK has changed in recent years with a greater number of students now undertaking part-time work of around 15 hours per week.

I didn’t take a job when I was at uni.  It meant I had to budget hard and consider purchases carefully at every step, but it left me with the time to do whatever I wanted.  It was never my intention to work and I did everything to keep out of the employment game throughout my degree.

That said, I did get paid to be a Senior Student on campus.  In the process, the uni paid for about 75% of my accommodation, so I guess you could call that a type of employment.

It pays the bills... (£20, photo by woodsy)

The essay got me thinking, to what extent is someone better or worse off if they have a job, comapred to one who doesn’t?

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11 ways to take control of your Internal Editor

Our thoughts are fluid and continuous, but essay style is perceived as a particular state that should generally be adhered to. In writing, you have to ignore the rules to get the best results. Once you’ve coaxed the words out of your head and experienced all sorts of crazy comments, only then should you craft what you’ve got into the strict essay style.

We all have an Internal Editor inside our head. The Editor doesn’t like what we write. And we don’t like it when our work is criticised.

photo by thorinside

That’s why writing can be so difficult. All the jarring moments where a word won’t fit; time spent searching for a word that’s on the tip of your tongue and just won’t come out; worrying that you haven’t explained yourself properly.

The Internal Editor has the cheek to pick you up on these findings straight away. How would you feel if someone was stood behind you, tutting or laughing each time they disapproved of your work? The Internal Editor does that. It’s your job to ignore the tuts and laughs until the Editor stops bothering you.

You have many ways of doing this. The most direct way is ‘JUST WRITE’. But the Editor likes to play on your confidence too, so you need to find other ways of working before this can work at the click of your fingers.

So before fitting all the words in your essay together, it’s essential to work in varying ways to find how you handle your work best. Try these suggestions:

  1. List important points and keywords that you want to focus on. Already, it’ll give you some platforms to begin from.
  2. Write in a stream of consciousness. Let it take you all over the place. Don’t stop and think about it, just let your mind create all sorts of weird and wonderful associations about the essay.
  3. Have a conversation. Imagine you’re talking to someone else and write the conversation up. You could be speaking to your lecturer, to one of the main people your essay is about, to a critic whose work you agree with. What do they think? What opinions do you think they would have about the question(s) you’re trying to answer?
  4. Begin with concluding remarks. If you already have an opinion, get that written down first. Then you can work backwards and look to support your belief/hypothesis/plan.
  5. Attempt an Abstract. How would you sum up your work in a couple of paragraphs if it was already finished?
  6. Don’t just type into a word processor. Use a pen and paper, write on an e-mail screen, write it in Facebook, go from A4 pad to post-it notes. Everything concentrates your mind in a different way.
  7. Create a mind map. Visualise the topics, the line of questioning, the key arguments, the facts, the things other academics have thought about it. Branch off until you have all sorts of avenues you can explore further.
  8. Find quotes that interest you on the subject and work around them. Get your inspiration from others!
  9. Make a short plan of themes in your essay (e.g. introduction, study of words, criticism of structure, analysis of other theories, back stories, further arguments toward your ideas/opinions, conclusion). A structure is a clear indication of what you want to write, even if it isn’t the essay itself. Structures are far less intimidating than staring at a blank page.
  10. Initially treat the essay as notes. If you’re better at noting down information, treat your first drafts as an exercise in note-taking. Your internal editor probably doesn’t disturb you so much when you’re writing notes from a book or a lecture…
  11. Don’t think about word count, don’t think about quality, don’t think about punctuation, don’t think about ANYTHING! As I said above, the most direct Writing Block is to just write and see where it takes you. The editing comes after the writing, not before and not during.

In time, the Internal Editor will discover you’re not going to listen to their complaints until the moment you ask to hear them. That’s when you’re in control and your Internal Editor is working for you; not the other way around.

Good luck shutting the voice up!

Personal phone numbers made public on Facebook…Crazy!

While browsing Facebook the other day, I came across an open group that shocked me.  The group’s creator had lost his mobile phone and needed to populate his new phone with numbers.  So the group was an attempt to ask his mates for their mobile numbers.

photo by IamSAM

The group was available for anyone to browse or join.  When I saw the title of the group and its open status, I thought he must be having a laugh if anyone replies.  Then I guessed it may be a joke group, set up to tempt people into clicking it.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.  Despite being a totally public group, this guy’s phone number was listed in the description of the group, while 20 or so friends of his had happily posted their mobile numbers for anyone to view.

I couldn’t believe that this was taking place on an OPEN group!  So when I next went on Facebook, I decided to find the group again and let him know what was going on.

I thought this find was scary enough…

But here’s the even scarier part.  I didn’t find this guy’s group when I searched for it.  The reason why?  Because there are hundreds of public groups all asking for their friend’s phone numbers!  And most people are happy to oblige.  Huge numbers of personal phone numbers on open groups, available for all to see.

I was amazed at how few of the groups were closed to general viewers and browsers.

Does anyone even realise that this is happening in the open?  I mean, it’s bad enough with so many public Facebook profiles containing personal content (and even photos they surely wouldn’t want the public viewing) available for anyone to see.  But it’s even worse to see that people can recreate hundreds of people’s phone lists.  It disturbed me, anyway.

What’s going on?  Are these users unaware of this?  Or is privacy a thing of the past?  Am I worrying about nothing?  What are your thoughts?

[UPDATE: Here is some statistical and analytical insight into personal details and privacy issues surrounding social networking sites…lots of people seem to keep their profiles open.