How to Shorten an Essay: 7 Easy and Effective Steps

So, you’ve written your essay, and it’s packed with ideas, arguments, and maybe even some fancy phrases. But now you’re staring at the word count, and oops, it’s way over the limit. What do you do? 

That’s where learning how to shorten an essay comes in handy.

In this article, I’ll show you how it’s done. 

You’ll explore seven highly effective ways and some tools that shorten your essay within minutes. Here we go!

How to Make an Essay Shorter?

When your professor sets a word count for your essays, it’s not a pointless restriction. It could be due to how much time you have to write the essay. 

You also learn to write mindfully and clearly. Shorter essays are often easier to read and leave a stronger impression.

But what to do if you’ve already gone over the words count? The answer is cutting and rephrasing.

Here’s the deal: what things you cut depends on how far you’ve exceeded the word count. 

If you’re only a few words over, a little trimming will do. But if you’re hundreds of words past the limit, it’s time for some bigger cuts. 

When You’re a Little Over the Word Count

Say your essay is 1,050 words, but the limit is 1,000. That’s only a 5% difference. In this case, you don’t need to chop whole paragraphs. Instead:

• Look for redundant words. For example, instead of saying, “In order to understand,” just say, “To understand.” Boom! That’s two words gone.
• Replace long phrases with shorter alternatives. For instance, “due to the fact that” can be trimmed to “because.”

When You’re Way Over the Word Count

Now, what if you’ve written a 1,500-word essay for a 1,000-word limit? That’s 50% over! Cutting here requires some tough choices and a little bit of work.

• Start with unnecessary or least relevant examples. For instance, if you’ve given three examples to explain one idea, pick the strongest one and delete the rest.
• Remove weaker arguments or points. If a paragraph doesn’t add much to your main argument, it’s time to say goodbye.

These were just a few tips about how to shorten an essay. There are way more solid ways. 

Your essay is like a sculpture. The more you chip away the excess, the more your core ideas stand out.

But don’t stress out. We’ve got tips coming up to make the trimming process painless.

Tools to Help You Shorten an Essay

When it feels like your essay is overflowing the word count barrier, the right tools can save the day. 

Shortening an essay with the help of the following tools gets much easier and faster.

• AI Paraphraser: An AI paraphraser suggests you a trimmed-down sample of your essay with tighter sentences that use fewer words. But while it cuts down on those bloated phrases, your essay still retains its message. All it takes is pasting your essay into an online AI paraphraser and hitting enter.

• AI Essay Writer: While an AI Essay Writer is for writing essays, not shortening them, it can rewrite sections of your essay in a more concise way. If your original paragraph rambles a bit, you can copy-paste it into a good AI essay writer tool, and it’ll generate a cleaner, tighter version.

• Word Counter: A word counter tells you exactly how much you’re over the limit. Any good text editor you use for writing essays must have a word counter. In some editors, it’s already there, showing you the number of words as you write. But on platforms like Google Docs, you’ll have to manually enable it first. You can also find out the word count of specific parts by selecting only those sections of your essay. Always have the word counter enabled because it’ll keep reminding you of the word count.

Using these tools together can save you a ton of time. 

• You check the word count after writing a few paragraphs
• Realize you’re already near the word limit with key points yet to discuss
• Run your wordy sentences through an AI paraphraser
• And voilà, problem solved before it could snowball into an avalanche by the time you’re done writing.

So, the next time you’re stuck figuring out how to shorten an essay, use these tools to lighten the load.

You can also test our AI Humanizer in the widget below!

Now, let’s look at some of the manual ways you can shorten your essay.

7 Effective Ways to Reduce Word Count

So, you’ve crossed that word count limit, and now it’s time to cut the fluff manually.

But where do you start? 

Here are 7 key tips enough to trim the excess and make your essay sharper and more readable. 

1. Eliminate Redundant Words and Phrases

Redundancy is like overpacking for a trip. You’re carrying things you don’t need.

Words like “basically,” “actually,” or “in order to” can often be chopped without any harm to your meaning. 

For example, instead of writing, “In order to complete the project, the team worked hard,” you can simply say, “To complete the project, the team worked hard.”

One small change, and you’re already saving words.

Did you notice that I gave the example of replacing “In order to” with “To” twice in this article?

That’s redundancy right there!

Another common culprit is the word that. While it’s useful sometimes, it’s often unnecessary.

You can write “I believe that this is true” as “I believe this is true” and it won’t hurt anyone.

Similarly, any word or phrase that feels redundant has to go.

But redundancy is also about repeated ideas.

If you’ve explained something once, don’t explain it again unless it adds fresh insight. 

Let’s say your essay is about space exploration, and you’ve already mentioned the challenges of zero gravity.

You don’t need to revisit it every time you talk about astronaut training.

To find out if a phrase or idea feels repetitive or overstuffed, reading your essay out loud helps a lot.

Not to mention this trick will also point out other issues in the essay.

2. Combine Short Sentences

While short sentences are great for clarity, too many can bloat your word count.

Merging related sentences can help reduce such sentences and the word count, as a result.

For example, instead of writing:

“The experiment was a success. It showed that the hypothesis was correct,”

you could say:

“The successful experiment confirmed the hypothesis.”

See what happened there? Two sentences became one, and the message stayed intact.

You can also merge sentences with overlapping ideas. For instance:

“The book was interesting. It had a lot of historical details.”

can become:

“The book was interesting for its historical details.” Again, fewer words, same point.

And don’t worry about losing your voice or style.

Combining just creates smooth, flowing sentences while keeping your essay lean.

3. Remove Unnecessary Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs also often bloat your sentences without adding real value. 

And when you’re trying to cut down on word count, they can be the easiest words to let go.

Take this sentence: “The absolutely incredible idea was extremely well-received.” It’s packed with extra fluff that doesn’t actually make the idea sound better. 

 You can trim it to: “The idea was well-received,” and you’ve made the sentence less wordy and punchier.

Good nouns and verbs don’t need modifiers to do their job. For example, instead of saying, “She ran very quickly,” you could just say, “She sprinted.” 

But hey, not all adjectives are your enemies. Only the ones that overshadow everything else need to go. Subtle ones can stay.

4. Trim Excessive Explanations

Sometimes, when we really want to drive a point home, we go overboard with examples, definitions, or details. 

Ironically, this can weaken your argument instead of strengthening it.

“Climate change is a global issue that affects ecosystems, wildlife, and human life, causing rising sea levels, extreme weather, and unpredictable temperatures.” 

Sure, this is detailed, but it’s also a mouthful. Instead, look at this: 

“Climate change affects ecosystems, wildlife, and human life through rising sea levels and extreme weather.” 

It’s still informative, but now it’s concise.

Simply trust your reader. They don’t need you to explain every little detail. 

Adding too much explanation is like asking, “How to make your essay longer?”, which is definitely not what we’re doing here!

5. Replace Long Phrases With Shorter Alternatives

Big, sprawling phrases can be hard to let go of because they make you sound eloquent. 

But at the same time, they can often weigh down your writing. 

Some of them also need to go to meet that word count requirement. 

Long Phrases	Example Alternatives
At this moment in time	Now
Due to the fact that	Because
In the event that	If
It is worth noting that	Note
Has the ability to	Can
In light of the fact that	Since
For the purpose of	For
In order to	To
A large number of	Many
By means of	By

Add and compare the word count in both columns and see how big of a difference removing the phrases can make. 

Remember, the goal is clarity, not length. If you’re tempted to stretch your sentences with long phrases, ask yourself, does it really add anything? 

If not, cut it. Otherwise, you’re heading straight into “how to make an essay longer” territory, and we’re here to avoid that.

6. Just Really Cut Out Filler Words That Are Very Unnecessary

Did you notice anything about this heading no 6? It’s stuffed with filler words. 

Words like just, really, that, or very can sneakily bulk up your essay without adding any real value.

They often don’t change the meaning of a sentence. Let’s look at an example:

“I am really excited about this new idea.”

Cut the filler, and it becomes:

“I am excited about this idea.”

See, removing the fillers didn’t take anything away. 

Here’s the thing, though. Filler words can be hard to spot due to how subtly they hide themselves. 

So use an AI essay writer to help you identify filler words automatically. Otherwise be ready for attentively reading the entire essay multiple times.

7. Focus on Stronger Verbs and Nouns

Strong verbs and nouns help you say a lot without overloading your sentences.

But what even are strong verbs and nouns? 

Weak: “She walked slowly to the door.”

Strong: “She strolled to the door.”

Clear now? Also, notice how the strong verbs saved us words and made our writing more vivid.

Similarly, consider nouns:

Weak: “The big, old car was difficult to control.”

Strong: “The jalopy was difficult to control.”

Dang! Didn’t know strong words could also add flavor like that. 

Learn a few more precise verbs and phrases while you’re at it.

Weak Phrase	Stronger Alternative
Walked slowly	Strolled, crept
Said loudly	Shouted, exclaimed
Ran quickly	Sprint, dashed
Looked closely	Examined, inspected
Made a decision	Decided
Very tired	Exhausted
Big house	Mansion
Small amount	Fraction
Very happy	Elated, thrilled

Example: Before and After Shortening

Now that you know how to shorten an essay, let’s apply all that we’ve learned to an actual paragraph.

Essay Topic: Importance of Community Service

Original Version (Word Count: 141)

“Community service is very important because it allows individuals to really give back to their local communities, which is something that can be incredibly fulfilling. Volunteering provides opportunities to make a significant difference in the lives of people who might be less fortunate, and it also helps build stronger connections between people from all kinds of different backgrounds. It’s worth noting that volunteering can also provide personal benefits like improving self-confidence, teaching important life skills, and even offering career opportunities that could be very helpful in the future. In addition to all of this, participating in community service fosters empathy and understanding, which are crucial for creating a more unified and compassionate society. For example, when people work together on initiatives such as organizing food drives or cleaning up neighborhoods, they learn to collaborate while addressing the needs of their communities.”

That was a hard read, wasn’t it? There’s a dire need for some cutting. 

Shorter Version (Word Count: 88)

Community service is very important because it allows individuals to really give back to their local communities, which is something that can be incredibly fulfilling. Volunteering provides opportunities to make a significant difference in the lives of people who might be less fortunate and it also helps build stronger connections between people from all kinds of different backgrounds. It’s worth noting that volunteering can also provide personal benefits like improving improves self-confidence, teaching important teaches life skills, and even offering offers career opportunities that could be very helpful in the future. In addition to all of this, Additionally, participating in community service fosters empathy and understanding, which are crucial for creating a more unified and compassionate society. For example, when people work together on initiatives such as organizing food drives or cleaning up neighborhoods, they learn to helps people collaborate while addressing the needs of their communities community needs.

See how applying the tips reduced the word count so drastically? That’s how to shorten an essay effectively!

Undetectable AI: The Shortcut to Shortening an Essay

Now, you’ve learned all the essentials about how to shorten an essay without losing its punch.

But here’s one last tip, and this one’s a pro. 

You don’t have to juggle multiple tools or spend hours editing manually. 

Undetectable AI is your all-in-one solution to meet the word count without the headache. It writes, counts, paraphrases, and recounts in no time.

So, take the stress out of editing and try Undetectable AI today. All it takes is pasting your essay and the rest is up to AI (Yes, all of it!).