Fluff

You know the dreaded moment when it dawns on you that your paper isn’t long enough? You know what I’m talking about:  when you realize that the 800 words you’ve painfully forced out won’t make your 900-word-demanding-teacher happy. You may think “Oh, 100 words don’t matter.” But they do! – and try telling your professor that. You’ll then probably start to whine. Maybe even shed a tear or two as you wallow in self-pity. “Why does this always happen to me!? Life is so unfair!”

It’s at this point you decide to add in some filler words, better known by the scientific name “fluffy terminology.” So you grab a thesaurus and decide to go all William Faulkner. You realize that what can easily be said with one word can be stretched to five. Perhaps even eight, if you’re really good.

“Jane was happy” suddenly becomes “Jane’s heart leapt and her spirit soared to the height of the clouds.” Whew. A three word sentence is now thirteen words long. Not bad, huh?

But this mindless jargon isn’t what your teacher expects. What you really need is a paper filled with solid facts and necessary sentences. The last thing you want is to write something no one wants to read, and unnecessary academia filler won’t score you any brownie points. To avoid that, make an outline first. Plan for more than you need. That way, you can always cut out the weaker points and keep the really strong ones. Before you know it, you’ll have that 900 word count – maybe even a little extra.

 Alyssa--West writing tutor