Word count for assignment

[UndergroundChair]

I am working on an assignment for a course. I have two case studies and I need to answer 3 questions based on them.

It says I have a word count of 1000 +/- 10% so that would be 900 - 1100. This is for all three questions.

It made sense to me for me to start my assignment by giving and overview of the case study and introducing these too characters into my work. I only summarised these case studies.

Then I went into describing their conditions but only briefly.

Then I went onto answering the question one.

I am already reaching the word count for the whole assignment and this is only for question one.

I have two more questions. The questions are quiet detailed too.

Initially I worked out a rough calculation based on the marks that will be provided about words and that would be 500 words for question one. And 250 words for question two and three.

This just seems to me as if it's impossible task to keep to the 1000 word count limit especially when it's applied over three questions.

I was given homework a few weeks that is separate and it was question to answer within 250 words. I kept to that word limit and I was told there wasn't a lot of research or detail in my answer.

I have no idea how I am going to move forward with this.

Do I narrow my work down to bring it more into line with the word count?

Or will I edit my work and edit out the two paragraphs on their conditions and diseases? And just answer the questions I am asked.

But then it made sense to me to write an introduction giving an overview of the case study and to briefly describe their conditions.

Surprisingly the most marks go to question one which is describing their needs. I am not allowed to list their needs. I need to describe their needs. In paragraphs.

It is actually so hard. You could do it in 1000 words for one person. Not two.

There's someone asleep at the wheel when designing this brief. It makes no sense.

I sat down and I explored the questions and the marks and it would have meant

500 words for question one.
250 words for question two
250 for question three.

If I was to really go for this, it would be too vague and not enough detail.

But then they want detail and they want to see that you researched this.

These people are pure assholes because this doesn't make sense.

Do you have a class representative OP? If it's really a badly designed assessment, other people will be struggling and the class rep could raise this.

Alternatively there may be a culture of treating the wordcount as a minimum or as a guideline, or docking marks only if the extra material isn't relevant, whatever the official rule says.

You've put in enough work on this that a conversation with whoever set the work would be reasonable. Obviously don't go in telling them their assessment is badly designed - it might be testing exactly what they want to test. But tell them you've having difficulty; ask if you've made the right decision about how the sections are weighted; ask if there will be an automatic penalty for going over wordcount. Good luck.

It may also be, for example, that the 50% for question 1 is to enable people to get a pass grade for getting that one right, and the other two sections are seen as extensions, and they don't expect the wordcount to line up the way you've described at all.

Can you change your perspective slightly and think of it from the person setting the assignment. They are not wanting 1300 words otherwise they would have asked for that. They don't want to spend longer in unpaid overtime marking your assignment because you don't know what to cut out.

Yes the assignment could be twice or even three times the length but it isn't. They are just wanting, ideally, 1000 words. Concentrate on demonstrating that you have met the learning objectives. Consider if you need an introduction, have you been asked for one? Go through sentence by sentence cutting out anything which isn't essential. Trim down any description which isn't essential. See if you can substitute words - on the other hand becomes alternatively etc.

Sometimes I have to write in no more than 750 characters what a student's issue is to refer them to the next person. Yes sometimes it would be much easier to write 750 words, no I can't fully summarise all of a student's problems in that number of characters but those are the constraints of the system I am working in so the next person along has a brief springboard to work from. In your work you might sometimes come across constraints such as this.

You need to see it as an exercise in writing concisely in an academic style. That is one of the key objectives they are probably looking for. If you were writing a report in a job yes you might have slightly more words but being able to write concisely, when required, is also really important.

I don't have my paper with me now but the assignment brief does say 1000 +/-10% and then there is a line to state something about revelancy. Maybe I could go over but it would have to be revelvant to the question that is being asked.

I copied and pasted my paragraphs I to chat gpt and asked that to shorten my paragraphs and then I rewrite a lot of it into my own words again. I did trim a lot down.

I feel reasonably ok now about my work and the answers. I am over 175 of the upper limit. I do feel this is all revelvant. I feel if I trim this down further I will be leaving information out.

I have an answer document to type all my work into there. There are two assignments. I can see already that the second assignment will be the same marks. My first answer there is already reasonably short.

I wonder would I be able to go over the word limit in the first assignment and then keep it on the lower side for the second one. Like 900 words instead of the 1000 or 1100.

Then they could balance each other out.

That bit about the relevance could be key - reread the brief when you get a chance.

How closely students read the brief has a major effect on their marks.

I would only use ai to give you an understanding of the question. I have found I need to be more to the point and less waffle. You need a set word count for each section that you stick to. Write a rough guide for each section so you know what to cover and do not veer off. I have had issues where I put to much of my own words and not enough quotes etc. You need to back up what you say and keep it direct. I would ask for a tutorial. I think they will stop reading/marking when they get to the word count.

University lecturer here. Do not use chatGPT to rephrase your work. If there are suspicions, we use detection tools and where I work, the student would be seen under malpractice procedures

Try not to use AI. You want to use this exercise to improve your skills at writing concisely. You will literally rob yourself of skill-gains by resorting to AI.

Same point goes for using AI to turn the assignment question into something "simpler". You literally don't gain the skill of learning to re-interpret with that strategy.

I wouldn't do this. Where I work you would lose marks on the first one for exceeding the word limit and on the second one for not fully covering the topic. You need to set aside your idea that the word length is not possible to achieve. You can do it, you just like some of the content you have written too much to let go of it and you are struggling to prioritise.

I don't have any quotes because I paraphrased the work and research I did.

I will be providing references.

Or biblography

I worked hard to create the work that I did and I was under time pressure too.

Then it was too much. I did use chatGPT to cope and paste my work and asked it to shorten it and then I rephrased a lot of that too but I can't remember which paragraphs.

I am not using chat GPT to do my work.

This is ridiculous. This is course that I have to do for work and my work are being assholes and will not give me appropriate time off to apply myself to this study that I need to do. I am exhausted and running on low and being pulled in all directions.

I sat down yesterday to rework the assignment that I had and make it shorter. How much more time do they want from me?

Why not use AI to help me rephrase things and make is smaller and shorter but not use the written stuff 100%.

I already shortened my work from approx 800 and something being over and shortened it to 175 over the upper limit.

Will that do or will I keep going?

Am I going to get into trouble for not quoting the stuff that I researched? I paraphrased instead.

I am a very verbose writer. I get all my paragraphs down, leave it a day and edit. You'd be amazed how much you can cut out. (I also edited my friends' dissertations at uni. Can you ask someone with no knowledge of the subject to cut out unnecessary repetitions etc)

No, I doubt it. So long as it is referenced.

Is it an NPQ?

Be very careful with ChatGPT. Your response may be flagged by the plagiarism detection software (usually TurnItIn) and it won't matter that the content was originally your own.

So do I rephrase the ChatGPT stuff

I would.

Why not use AI to help me rephrase things and make is smaller and shorter but not use the written stuff 100%.

Because it could be classed as academic malpractice.

Paraphrasing is preferable to direct quoting because it demonstrates you have read an understood the content.

You need to learn to edit. I've done your previous post to show you how it's done. Same meaning less words.

I shortened all of my answers.
Still 300 words over. Shortening any more will be penalised for being vague.
I Googled similar assignments and the word were 1200 to 1500 words given or take 10%. Which is so much more reasonable.
This is an impossible task.