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Student Stories

Student Stories

Blogs and vlogs from students of the University of Edinburgh

Avoid the word count penalty…

Image of Monjurul at his laptop
Reading Time: 2 minutes

…by Monjurul / from Bangladesh / studying MSc One Health / 1st Year

I’m going to explain some personal experience in order to avoid the reduction of marks just because you wrote some extra words in your assignment. I usually write less than the quota given for any assignment.

Recently, I was given an assignment to write with a word count limit of 500 words. I used 496 words but I wrote the questions at the top of the assignment which added an extra 38 words after 500. Here you see the outcome:

“538 words.  38 words over = 7.6% Mark reduced by 7.6 marks from 67 to 59.4.”

OMG! Yes, it is. I talked with the staff responsible and realised I should not cross the limit at all. One of my mates wrote an extra 6 words, and their marks were reduced by 1%. So you should make sure not to cross the limit for any reason. Even if you need to write the questions at the top for the coherence of the assignment, count those words into your assignment. It’s far better to write less instead of a heavy penalty, isn’t it?

At the same time, you should look at the course you are taking and whether or not they have a buffer zone for the assignment. In a later course which I just completed, there was a buffer zone of 10% and the word count penalty only started if you wrote an extra word after that 10%. E.g. for a 500 word assignment, you can write up to 550 words. Be careful, the one extra word will deduct more heavily than in a percentage. I thought about this buffer zone in my earlier assignment which did not exist. So, write according to the word count policy of the course you are taking, and never breach the rule.

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