OnlineProfessor

When it comes to major projects and writing assignments in your online classes, instructors often give page count or word count requirements. They can phrase this is a number of ways:

Some examples of length requirement instructions (and what they usually mean):

What’s included in the word count or page count?

Why word count requirements exist:

• The business world often contains word count restrictions.

It’s really annoying to a client when they ask you for something and you ignore them.

• Sometimes, when you go long, you magnify your errors.

There’s nothing like making a mistake and then enhancing it by doing it a dozen more times.

• Time is short. The instructor wants you to learn, but there are 30 other people in the class. When you go so long that it’s the equivalent of three student projects, it works against the system.
• It’s a way to gauge your strength of focus. Word counts are hints about expectations. An instructor or client is telling you that a good, focused project should not take more than a certain amount of space to convey. If you find you cannot achieve that, it typically means your project focus is too broad or general. You might have to reconsider the topic and approach itself.