7 Best Tips on How to Tackle a 500-Word Essay for School

For a lot of students, essays are among the trickiest school assignments to fulfill — especially if there is a strict word count requirement. A 500-word essay about a particular topic is perhaps the most common, especially for high school students. What makes writing one difficult is it can feel both long and short for different people.

To someone who dislikes writing essays, 500 words are a lot. Meanwhile, for someone who has a proper grasp of the different components (such as presenting studies, statistics, and facts) the writing task should possess, 500 words may not be enough. 

Between the two kinds of “writers,” the latter definitely has an advantage because the best starting point for writing an essay is knowing the elements it should have. Editing can easily take care of the word count requirement.

Thus, if you have been assigned to write a 500-word essay for one of your classes and you are intimidated by it, you can take a leaf out of the book of those who tend to “over-write.” Take cues from their research process and follow the seven tips from professional writers shared below.

7 Best Tips on How to Tackle a 500-Word Essay for School

1.  Write down everything you know about the topic assigned to you:

Start off with your personal knowledge of the subject and jot them down. Some of your ideas may not be correct, or perhaps you have more questions than actual knowledge, but whatever they may be can actually be worked into the task later on. Your initial questions may be perfect starting points for the introduction and conclusion.

2.  Conduct extensive research:

Find answers to your questions and get to the root of the facts. The process of research is no longer that difficult because of the Internet. You can gather a variety of information conveniently, which will also allow you to broaden your perspectives about the topic you are assigned to write about. 

Just make sure that you are using authority or credible sites instead of opinion sites. Typically, those you can trust are the .edu and .org sites.

If you have both access and time to visit a library or two, better. This way, you won’t have to distinguish good from bad sources. You can even ask the library staff for recommendations on the best references to use for your particular topic.

3.  Compare all collected information against each other:

Once you find resources, it’s time to apply your critical thinking skills. For example, your subject is about the aging population and you found a considerable difference between the aging population of Japan and the UK. You can compare the numbers and get even more information on the factors behind such vastly different percentages. 

Doing this will help you create a more comprehensive essay and it will provide a more balanced view of the topic.

4.  Divide your essay into five parts:

Since it’s a 500-word essay, the easiest way to break it down is to create five paragraphs. The first one would be the introduction. The second, third, and fourth parts are for the body. The last would be for your conclusion.

Or, more simply, divide the essay into three parts — the introduction, body, and conclusion. Just present all the valuable information you have collected in smaller chunks and boost them with your personal understanding, experience, observation and sentiments about them.

5.  Think of the essay as a story:

The thing about a story is it has a smooth flow. One thing is always connected to the other that’s why everything written feels like a whole. So, create a solid segue from one thing to the next by stringing your research and thoughts tightly.

Also, use appropriate connecting phrases such as “in addition to,” “for instance,” “in conclusion” and others.

6.  Avoid adverbs and adjectives for creative essays:

There are more beautiful ways to express thoughts and ideas than simply attaching adverbs and adjectives to nouns and verbs. For example, instead of simply saying that the lemon drink is refreshing, describe it furthermore by focusing on its special ingredients and how it makes you feel, such as “drinking it feels like rain on a particularly hot day.” 

Use this writing technique for creative essays. Such expression of ideas offers better clarity and is more engaging for the reader.

7.  Use editing apps:

Apps like Grammarly and Hemingway are helpful for editing. They catch grammatical errors and other sentence components that affect readability such as passive sentences, adverbs, and complex words. These apps take out the guesswork because they already offer alternatives for you to use. Best of all, they are free (except for Grammarly’s Premium service) and easy to use.

You should also learn to practice proofreading your work during initial writing and after revising. This way, your eyes also get trained to catch errors so you can avoid them in future writing tasks.

To get an even better idea on how all of these apply to beautifully written essays, check out the work of professional writers. For sure, you will pick up a lot of valuable lessons that you can apply or integrate into your own writing so school assignments such as 500-word essays will be no longer be daunting to undertake.