How to Write a Long Essay?

Writing a long paper doesn’t have to be difficult, or, even worse, an emergency, a last-minute scramble to meet a word count in an already finished text. By taking carefully calculated steps and applying dedicated techniques one can plan for a lengthy essay, and prepare to make it so in advance. This is not some kind of wishful thinking, but a tangible practice! 

In this guide, we will dispel the notion that crafting a lengthy essay has to be a source of anxiety. By providing practical insights, examples, and simple techniques we will equip you with the know-how to proactively tackle a lengthy essay.

What is a Long Essay?

A long essay isn’t just a colloquial expression, but a perfectly tangible and measurable thing. Most academic essays are short – 1-3 pages long. By pages, we mean not the usual A4 pages, but the standard measure that is adopted in journalism and publishing business in general. That measure equals 275, sometimes 300 words per page.

An essay surpassing the length of 3 standard publishing pages is typically deemed as long. In reality, college and university students are well-accustomed to composing essays ranging from 5 to 7 pages, as this aligns with the demands of most graduate academic papers. With the assistance of paper writing help, it is commonplace for term papers to extend from 5 to 10 pages in length.

The long essay format stipulates the presence of several academic writing attributes, such as a correct referencing style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.), footnotes and endnotes to extend the writing content, sometimes running headers to aid the reading comfort, and almost always bibliographical lists in the very end of a paper. 

Long Essay Outline

When planning a lengthy essay, it is strongly advised to prepare an outline first. An outline is a roadmap for future text. It contains brief information about each part of your essay: the introduction, the main body, and the conclusion. While it might not be feasible to sketch all these elements in detail, the most important components can and should be planned for:

• The opening sentences, or the “hook”;
• Thesis statement;
• Arguments to support the thesis statement.

The complete outline for a long paper is shown below. Feel free to use it as a guideline, at your discretion, to ease your way into the writing process.

How to Write a Long Paper – Selecting a Good Topic

The crucial step in writing a long paper is topic selection. Consider the following principles each time you contemplate a topic for a lengthy paper:

• Interest and passion. Come up with a topic that truly interests you. Let’s put it straight – only with the topic that you feel passionate about, you can make up a long paper. When you feel enthusiastic about the topic, the writing will come easy, and you will most likely enjoy the process.
• Scope. Scope is an important measure of how broad your topic is: what will be included in the research focus, and what will not. For a long paper, the scope should be neither narrow nor shallow.
• Research potential. This is the measure of how much data is available on your topic. Before writing, always take a moment to evaluate the available materials and information on your topic – if there isn’t enough, reject such a topic.
• Flexibility. It is not rare when upon finishing the first draft, the writer looks back to revise the topic to fit the actual research direction and findings. Make sure your topic is flexible enough to allow for such changes.

For example, if you feel truly passionate about science fiction, you may consider the following topics for a lengthy essay:

• Beyond Earth: Challenges and Triumphs in Exoplanetary Colonization.
• On Evolution of the Universe and The Main Theories Surrounding it.
• Conscious Machines: Ethical Dilemmas in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.
• Beyond DNA, Evolution, and Existence – Exploring Synthetic Lifeforms in Biology.
• The World is Heating Up: Why it is Too Late to Reduce the CO2 Emissions.

Thesis Statement for a Long Paper

If you want to write a very long essay, you should meticulously work on your thesis statement. As the thesis represents the goal of your paper, automatically reject simple and easily attainable theses. Here is an example of an overly simplistic thesis statement based on one of the science fiction topics mentioned above (“On Evolution of the Universe…”):

“In this paper, I’m going to explain how the Universe emerged from the Big Bang.”

Such a thesis is shallow and short, and it points towards a commonly accepted truth (theory). There have been millions of papers describing the theory of the Big Bang already, and yours is not going to bring any more depth to the debate. 

However, if you extend the scope of your thesis to include several objectives and to question or go beyond a well-known theory – you will have a pretty good roadmap for a long paper:

“In this paper, I’m going to address the novel scientific evidence that questions the Big Bang Theory, and discuss a range of alternative theories and hypotheses that explain the nature of the Universe.”     

Closing Remarks

How long is a good essay? If you want to explore the topic at length, rigorously discuss the existing public and scientific debates surrounding it, and on top of it, introduce your personal and novel insights and perspectives – your essay cannot be shorter than 5-7 pages. As shown in this guide, to avoid emergency fixes, a long paper can be planned via careful selection of the topic, working through an ambitious thesis statement, and making a solid outline.