200 Word Essay

200 Word Essay Writing: Useful Information

While studying in college, you will often face the assignments that involve writing papers with limited word counts, such as a 200-word essay. Short essay writing implies a more thorough preparation and masterful use of language, since the small number of words does not allow any fluffy formulations or sentences with a vague structure. See our table to find out how many pages is a 200-word essay and other kinds of essays. In the current article, we gathered the most important features of 200-word essay writing for your convenience.

How to Write a 200 Word Essay

Following the simple step-by-step explanation of how to write a 200-word essay below, you will manage to compose an excellent short paper and receive a well-deserved mark for it.

  1. Make an outline. As a rule, short essays have a classic structure that includes an introduction, a body and a conclusion. However, each section will have a strict limitation of words, so make sure to divide 200 words between them accordingly.
  2. Find a 200 word essay example. Use it as a guide for your writing. Pay attention to the format, content, and the briefness of the author’s language. A 200 word essay example can be an inspiration for your own paper.
  3. Use explanations. While presenting a certain information to the readers, explain it in your own words rather than using direct quotes from the sources you have worked with.
  4. Formulate clear sentences. The specificity of the assignment leaves no place for discussions and philosophizing, so keep every sentence clear and brief. Leave aside all the meaningless details, as they will ruin the general impression about your writing.
  5. Proofread it. It is unacceptable to miss minor mistakes in such a short piece of writing, which is why it requires a more careful examination. Check it for spelling and grammar, and make sure that there are no typos or formatting errors.

Basic Elements of a Short Essay

  • Thesis Statement

While all the essays contain thesis statements, it is important to know how long is a short essay to be able to place the statement correctly. The general rule is the following: the fewer words your paper includes, the earlier should the thesis statement show. Thus, if your paper is approximately 4-5 paragraphs, the thesis statement can appear in the 7th or 8th sentence, while in case of a 2-3 paragraphs essay, it can only be included in one of the first 3 sentences. Clearly, the latter variant concerns writing a 200-word essay, so do not wait too long before presenting the thesis statement.

  • Topic Sentences

Every paragraph you start should contain a topic sentence with a clear-cut idea. This sentence should reflect one of the aspects of thesis statement and serve as a ground for the content of the whole paragraph. If your word limit is only 200, you will probably have only one topic sentence, as no more body paragraphs can be included. Thus, think it through, and choose an argument that you find the strongest for the topic sentence.

  • Supporting Sentences

Due to the strict word count requirements, you can only have 2-3 supporting sentences in each paragraph. They should be concise and informative, and there is no space for long quotations or illustrations from the literature. Thus, keep it neat and leave out all the extra details.

  • Conclusion

Think about the thesis statement you formulated and how your essay discussed it. Is it fully presented or are there still some aspects to be researched? What have you discovered in the process of writing? Summarize your ideas and put the final results in the conclusion.

Filtering out the Extras

Given all the conditions and requirements, is understandable why composing short essays is a sheer challenge for some students. Sticking to the word limit can be difficult, so some prefer to compose longer pieces of writing, and then narrowing them down by a gradual getting rid of the unnecessary information. If you end up with a paper that is much longer than the requested 200 words, you can try filtering out the extra details until you are left with the key ideas only. The techniques listed below will assist you in this.

  • Highlighting

One of the options for making the word count fewer is highlighting the key phrases and sentences that certainly need to stay in the text. Then you need to mercilessly remove the rest of the text, even the parts that you particularly liked. Take what is left and try to make it coherent by adding transitions.

  • Sorting out

Another technique implies going through the text and weighing the value of every sentence in it. If some of the sentences have no particular contribution for the topic of your essay, – get rid of it. Also, several sentences may be discussing one idea, so try to merge them into one sentence without losing the meaning.

  • Questioning

Alternatively, you can question every sentence in your paper from the perspective of its correspondence to the thesis statement. Does this sentence refer to the main argument of the essay? Does it help to understand the thesis statement more fully? If some sentences do not do so, it is advisory to remove them.

  • Simplification

Pay attention to the structure and grammar used in your essay. If you notice some overcomplicated or excessively formal clusters or parts of sentences, make sure to simplify them. Do not fear sounding primitive: the word limit does not allow using all the sophisticated language tools. In addition, review your thesis statement: does it focus on a specific aspect of some phenomenon? In case the thesis statement is too broad, you might consider simplifying it too, because it is impossible to discuss it properly within a 200-word paper.

Overall, short essays are similar to classic longer essays, but they require a special arrangement because of the limited number of words. Thus, focus on one idea, discuss it in your paper, cross out all the unnecessary information, and your essay is ready.