This article will provide you with information on how to make an essay shorter, thus reducing the amount of time you spend while still maintaining meaningful arguments.

How to shorten an essay

While the word count may be a tool used to measure the length of an essay, it also can be a useful gauge for clarity. When you have fewer words and phrases, your writing will become more concise and direct. The opposite is true when you use too many words in your essay—the result is an unclear piece that does not say anything meaningful or important about the subject matter.

By shortening your word count, you can improve your essay’s clarity without making any significant sacrifice on its overall quality.

There are various ways to shorten an essay. Below are present some tips on how to shorten essays without changing their structure completely so as not to lose any meaning.

1. Find unnecessary repetitions

One way to shorten an essay is by using simple tricks like cutting out unnecessary sentences or paragraphs. 

• Look for repeated words, phrases, and sentences and cut them down. 
• Use the find function to locate repeated words or phrases.

2. Remove filler words/phrases

When you are writing an essay, it can be tempting to use filler words and phrases such as “like”, “you know”, “needless to say”, “basically”, “simply”, or “in my humble opinion”. While these phrases may seem harmless, they offer no serious value to your paper, and only contribute to increasing its watery density.

3. Replace phrases with single words

You can make your essay shorter by replacing phrases with single words. The easiest way to do this is by using a thesaurus, which will give you synonyms for different words. 

Another way is to choose the shortest word possible that conveys the same meaning. If multiple words translate the same meaning, pick whichever one sounds best. In addition to this, try as much as possible to avoid using the same industry term repeatedly in one paragraph; it makes things less confusing for people reading it.

4. Skip some short sentences in long paragraphs

Eliminating short sentences that repeat the same idea is a way to learn how to shorten a paper. Rather use short sentences that create emphasis, by using a few words or phrases to make your point clear. 

5. Trim long sentences by cutting excess verbiage

The easiest way to cut down on word count is by shortening sentences. When you cut details that do not add substance to the essay, you will be left with more room for discussing your key points. One way to do this is by asking yourself if each detail is relevant and useful. If it is not, then consider cutting it from your essay and focusing on what is important for your argument. 

6. Use your voice rather than verbose language

The most important step to learning how to cut down a paper is to make sure that you are not just using the passive voice.

The active voice is a better way to write. It is a term in grammar used to classify sentences that have the subject of the sentence as the one actively acting as the verb in the sentence. For example: “We read chapters 1 through 4.” The passive voice would be “Chapters 1 through 4 were read by us.” You can also use this technique when describing how something works or what it does: “The engine was turned on.” This passive version says more about what is happening with the car and less about who is turning on its power source.

Another way to avoid unnecessary words while still maintaining clarity in your writing is by choosing more specific verbs over abstract ones. 

Conclusion

Remember, the goal of any good essay is to communicate effectively. It is not meant to be a performance or a piece of literature. If you are writing an essay, then cut back on the word count—it will still be legible and unique.

This article will outline 25 good health topics to write about. These are topics that are compelling, informative, and engaging. 

What is health essay?

This type of essay talks about the condition of the human body. It can be directed from three different angles: mental, physical, and social fitness. A healthcare essay is important as it contains valuable information which can reduce the risk of acquiring certain diseases and ailments.

Topics in essay about health

As earlier stated, there are various angles to talk about when it comes to healthcare. Whether you want a good title for mental health essay, or you just want a topic about general health, below are 25 topic ideas you should consider.

Good essay topics about health

1. Examining the relationship between retirement and health: While aging and retiring can be exciting times for many people, they also come with some challenges. As people age, they become less active physically and mentally due to health-related issues. Highlighting the relationship between retirement and health is an interesting health topic essay.
2. Effects of fast food on our health: Your essay can be centered around the dangers of fast food – Fast food contains high levels of fat, salt, and sugar that make it very injurious to our health. It is linked to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases.
3. The role of nutrition in good health: Nutrition is the study of food and its effect on health. It is important to remember that nutrition is not just about eating the right foods at the right time, but also about how much you eat.
4. External and internal factors that affect health: When it comes to good health, several factors play into our bodies ability to function properly: genetics, environment (including social status), exercise, and sleep habits. All these things contribute toward your overall wellness—the total of these factors will determine whether or not you can achieve optimal health status in any given situation.
5. The effects of climate change on human health: highlight how climate change affects human health through the increased frequency of heat waves, droughts, and floods. 

Other health topics to write about

6. Obesity as a childhood disease: Obesity is a disease that affects the body and can lead to other diseases in the future. Highlight the main symptoms of obesity, and possible prevention and cure.
7. Benefits of using herbal medicine: Herbal medicine is a good alternative to modern medicine. Explain the uses of herbal medicine in our days. Eg: treatment of chronic conditions like asthma and arthritis; treatment of acute conditions like burns or wounds; treatment of infectious diseases like influenza, chicken pox, and measles.
8. Sleep deprivation as a health concern: Sleep deprivation is a major health concern, and it can lead to numerous problems. This is a good essay on healthcare.

Mental health essay topics

Mental health is important in all areas of life and affects productivity, work performance, and relationships. Mental illness can affect your ability to work, study or even enjoy a hobby. It also means that you may not be able to complete tasks as quickly or efficiently as someone who does not have mental health issues.

9. The effect of bullying on mental health?
10. The relationship between insomnia and mental health
11. Evaluating multiple suicide prevention techniques

Other interesting health essay topics

12. Dieting vs. exercising for weight loss
13. Treatment of heart diseases through vegan dieting
14. Effect of peer pressure on eating disorders?
15. Prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.
16. Health benefits of intermittent fasting
17. Importance of maintaining proper oral hygiene
18. Dangers of a sedentary lifestyle
19. Importance of vaccination in children
20. Sleep deprivation: the consequences of electronic devices
21. Effect of poor medical insurance 
22. Should marijuana be used for medicinal purposes?
23. Should teenagers have access to birth control without their parent’s consent?
24. Impact of colonoscopy screenings on colon cancer rates?
25. Behavioral interventions in childhood

Conclusion

There are many more topics to choose from, and it will be hard to decide what should be your next essay topic. However, the above suggestions should help guide you in choosing the right topic.

This article will highlight the basic structure of an essay and its importance.

What is structure in an essay?

The structure of a good essay is the way that the ideas are organized to make sense and communicate a point. The structure of an essay is important because it tells the reader what to expect.

There are many different types of essays, including:

• An informative essay
• A persuasive essay
• An expository essay

There are also different ways to write each type of essay, however, they all follow the same structure, but different writing patterns.

Why is essay structure so important?

Structuring is a way to prepare yourself to write an essay. It is important to structure because it helps you organize your thoughts and ideas, which will help you see the big picture of your essay. 

The first step to structuring an essay is to outline your ideas. For different essay structure types, an outline can help you with organization, thus making it easier for you to write more effectively. It can also help you avoid writer’s block by giving you a better understanding of your essay.

Outlining also helps with clarity because it allows readers to understand the flow of an argument in a paper.

How to structure an essay?

The structure of writing an essay is supposed to be a framework that makes sense of everything else. It should guide you through your essay and help you organize all of your thoughts into a coherent whole.

You should start by:

• Writing an introduction: this is a short paragraph that introduces your topic and highlights your thesis statement. In an introduction, a hook is very important to keep your readers interested.
• Move on to the body paragraphs: write a paragraph for each main point of your argument. 
• Finally, write a conclusion: this is a final paragraph summarizing what you covered in your essay. Here, you tie up loose ends, restate your thesis, and make final statements about your essay.

Step-by-step guide on how to write an essay structure

To create a structure in writing an essay, you need to use the right tools to guide you through the process. There are many different ways to go about this, but here are some convenient options:

• Use a template or mind map as an outline for your paper: this will give you an idea of how much space each section should take up to fit into its allotted word count, it can also help keep things consistent throughout your essay. A mind map enables you to brainstorm. It helps you narrow your ideas and trace them together to form a clear and concise path. This path is what you use to structure your essay. When using a mind map, it is best to pen down everything you think, as it is nearly impossible to remember every detail.
• Write notes down as they come: when you write down thoughts and ideas, you then organize them into sections such as the introduction, body paragraphs (subtopics/supporting points), and conclusion paragraph(s). Penning down your thoughts helps you stay properly organized, in addition to helping you remember where everything belongs in your essay.

Conclusion

Essay structure is the most important part of any essay. It is like a skeleton that holds everything together and makes sure your thoughts are organized properly. You certainly do not want to start writing an essay without first gathering points to support your argument.

A five-paragraph format is most commonly suitable for all writing papers. It is a frequent form of an essay among school and college students. An essay usually needs to summarize data, analyze and test student’s writing and reading skills.

A five-paragraph essay is a composition of an essay that follows the form of the majority of college writing tasks.

In the case of standardized essays, the requirements are a five-paragraph essay in 500 – 800 words. The essay must contain an introduction, three supporting paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. The topic sentence states the main idea of a paragraph. The supporting sentences are the sentences in the paragraph other than the topic sentence and the concluding sentence. The most commonly define key terms, offer explanations, and provide examples or more details.

The introductory paragraph includes a paraphrase of something said by a famous character to catch the reader’s attention.

The basic elements of a paragraph are unity, coherence, and completeness.

The paragraphs

In the first paragraph, it is recommended to explain the main idea and develop a thesis statement. 

In the body paragraphs, provide as much as details, facts, and quotes necessary to gain a deeper essay perspective. The fifth paragraph is usually a concluding paragraph that summarizes the essay concept.

The use of transition words is recommended in the majority of body paragraphs: moreover, in fact, on the whole, furthermore, as a result, simply put, for this reason, similarly, likewise, it follows that, naturally, by comparison, surely and yet.

The basics of the five-paragraph essay

Before any writing, decide what is the main topic of the essay and define the initial draft. The introduction usually starts with a hook which represents an opening sentence that grabs the reader’s interest and introduces the general topic of the essay. The most popular examples are historical information, an anecdote, a surprising statement, or a quote. Then outline the three supporting paragraphs to develop further. Write the introductory paragraph and the first paragraph.

The body paragraph provides information for the main thesis. It usually consists of 3 paragraphs. Use vivid words to describe all five senses and explain the attributes of certain characters, objects, or situations. The thesis should describe the topic and introduce a specific claim as well as to support it further.

The main attributes of an essay should be argumentative to provide evidence on a  topic from reliable resources.

The thesis statement of the paper is one sentence that explains to the audience what the essay is about. The body paragraphs explain to the reader what the essay is about and it’s content. First, state the topic sentence of the paragraph and implement the supporting details for the topic. Add a transitional element to the paragraphs.

In the conclusion restate the thesis statement and the main 3 sentences. Form the appropriate ending of the thesis according to the plot.

We shall be looking at the seven steps that are necessary to bring out the spark in a descriptive essay. Enjoy.

• Your topic

The idea is to display an ability to show and not to tell your reader. Your essay should be on a single event; place or person. The organization of the paragraphs should be smooth. Start from the general before moving on to the specifics, or simply buy descriptive essay online if you don’t like writing essays.

• The anchor statement

You are expected to create a thesis statement that will be the anchor of the essay. Every paragraph up to the concluding paragraph will be based on the idea that was set out in the thesis statement. This is where you are to get the attention of the readers in the introductory paragraph.

The way you handle the thesis statement will determine the interest the reader will have in your paper. They will either read through to the last word or consign your paper to the trash bin.

• Be organized

Create five columns on a sheet of paper that contains a list of the five senses above. Your essay must appeal to these areas; it would help the organization of your work if you can brainstorm on your thesis statement and fix in all the five senses that we have earlier talked about. 

Fill the columns with interesting details that you hope to include in the paragraphs of your essay. These should be thought-provoking points that will send the message home to your readers. A topic sentence should begin each paragraph.

• Your Outline

You need to create an outline that will detail what you will discuss in each of the paragraphs that will be included in the body of your essay. The body paragraphs should be about three and each of the paragraphs is expected to discuss a particular point as stated in the introduction paragraph.

• Conclusions

Every student is expected to finish strongly. You are expected to state the importance and usefulness of your essay to the readers. It should not be a repeat of what you have written earlier but rather a concise summary of your thought processes.

• Review

Students are expected to devote some time to review their work. This is necessary to remove all grammatical errors that will lead to low grades. Give yourself space after concluding the paper and come back to it to proofread. You can give it to someone close to you to proofread or make use of online software.

Read it again after the proofreading and review process to make assurance doubly sure that all is well. You can then turn in your essay for submission with the hope of getting the higher grades that will impact on your final results.

Final thoughts

The steps above outline an hour to go about writing the reflective essay.