While the debate still goes on whether fluffing an essay is good or bad, at the end of the day, your essay must fulfill the total word requirement. Fluffing is an effective way to reach the minimum word requirement for your piece.
If your essay hasn’t reached the minimum requirement, what will you do other than fluff? Forget the dirty tricks because you can do fluffing the right way. Let’s explore why you must fluff an essay and how to do it appropriately. Keep scrolling!
Why Do You Need to Fluff Your Essays?
Some define fluffing as giving off-topic explanations and adding unnecessary sentences to increase the word count. But you can prove them wrong as long as you follow the proper practices to improve your writing.
Besides, having extended word counts on your essay projects can result in good scores. An MIT director of undergraduate writing, Dr. Les Perelman, states surprising news about essay scoring.
According to him, the quality of your essay doesn’t count in some cases, but the length matters the most. If your paper fulfills the word count requirements or even extends it, you can get a good score, even if the fact is questionable.
8 Practices to Fluff an Essay
How to fluff your essay without making it meaningless? If the question is your main concern lately, you’re about to know the answer.
The eight practices on how to fluff an essay below can come in handy for you to extend your writing. They are practical enough that even high school students can follow the steps.
1. Add examples and explain
Providing relevant examples along with their explanations can enrich your essay. Examples make your essay more credible and back up your arguments.
You can include real-life experiences or cite previous studies. In addition, clear examples help you explain concepts better and draw differences between cases.
Most importantly, readers can retain information easier and have a good time reading your essay. Below are some examples of introduction phrases to give examples:
- For instance
- For example
- According to a previous study
- According to (expert’s name)
- As stated by (person’s name)
- Such as
- Unlike
- As seen as
You can add examples after stating a key idea or topic sentences. If you want to compare examples, you can write and explain them in a new paragraph.
2. Spell out additional sources
Another way to fluff your essay without writing meaningless sentences is by including additional sources. Your extra sources must be credible and support your essay topic to give a stronger foundation to it.
The best thing about additional sources is that you can look for them online. You can access open-access journal sites to find relevant sources, such as ScienceOpen, Directory of Open Access Journals, and Google Scholar.
You can also cite credible articles from authoritative sites or previous studies by your seniors. State your additional sources to support your ideas or arguments.
3. Include experts’ quotes
Quoting experts can make your essay more credible. You can directly quote their saying or make it indirect by paraphrasing it. Even though either way is acceptable, paraphrasing experts’ quotes or comments is preferable.
You have many resources to find experts’ quotes and comments. You can visit their websites, check the media, or even watch their interviews on YouTube. Ensure you state your quote source in your essay.
4. Convey different POVs
Conveying different perspectives can be more challenging than the previous options. However, if you pull this appropriately, it helps you improve the quality of your essay.
For instance, you can bring up two study examples with entirely different results on the same topic. Rather than arguing which one is correct, it’s better to explain their perspectives.
This way, you have more to talk about. You can explain their approaches, analysis methods, demographics, or other aspects that answer the what, how, and why questions.
5. Insert statistics
Make your essay exciting and engaging by providing statistics or charts. You can add numerical data, presentation, or visual assets to your paper.
Visual assets such as charts and graphs can break down a long block of text into digestible chunks. So your readers won’t get bored reading a wall of text.
You can refer to someone’s chart and create your own version. If you’re short of time, you can cite others’ charts and mention the sources.
6. User more transition words
The least you can do to extend your essay is to use transition words. You should never underestimate the power of transition words.
Imagine having transition words in every paragraph. You can add a considerable number of words to your essay. Besides, transition words help your essay flow smoothly.
Consider some transition words that you can use below:
- Moreover, furthermore, on top of that, additionally
- In fact, as a matter of fact
- Even though, despite/in spite of
- Nevertheless, nonetheless, however, yet, even so
- Ultimately, after all, of above all, essentially
7. Create well-formatted paragraphs
A well-structured and formatted paragraph can make your essay more readable and easy to grasp. You can also easily edit and revise your writing along the way.
An essay requires an introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction should convey your objective and the reasons you cover the topic.
Each chapter should include main, supporting, and concluding sentences. If you follow the rule of thumb, you’ll be able to produce a well-done essay.
8. Provide counter arguments
Counterarguments will only work for a persuasive or argumentative essay. You can state your arguments and elaborate on each of them point by point.
You may state why you agree or disagree over certain statements, regulations, or points of view. Also, refer to some sources, experts, or studies to support your arguments. With well-elaborated arguments, your word count will undoubtedly jack up.
3 Things to Avoid when Fluffing an Essay
As you already know how to fluff your essay beautifully, there are also some shortcuts you need to avoid. You may find tricks online to “lengthen” your essay without adding more words.
While it sounds very intriguing, you should never fall for dirty cheats. Your teachers, lecturers, or superiors can notice even the slightest foul you may have done.
1. Spell out big numbers
Small numbers ranging from one to ten should be typed alphabetically. However, bigger numbers that are more than two-word long must be typed as numerical.
For example, one in three students didn’t do homework, and 30% of fresh graduates need help finding jobs. Besides, always write the percentage in “%.”
2. Fonts and spacing fouls
An essay should be written in 12 font size, which is the standard. For the font style, new times roman is a rule of thumb.
Some play tricks by improving the font size, using different font styles, and increasing the line spacing. Even though those ways can lengthen your essay, word counts never lie.
3. Perform period trick
You may find somewhere on TikTok, Pinterest, or other social platforms how to extend your writing without adding more words.
It’s called the period trick, where you use a bigger font size for every period of your essay or add a bunch of white periods at the end of a text.
Takeaway
Fluffing an essay can bring more good than harm if you perform it correctly. Another thing to remember is that an essay is a formal paper, so you should write it using formal language. You can also spice up with figurative language wherever appropriate.
Besides, avoid using tricks because your grader can always notice the fouls. The above point on how to fluff an essay can come in handy for anyone, whether a student or an employee. Get the ball rolling and improve the quality of your essay to get an outstanding score!