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.

I shortened @Theyreeatingthedogs summary even further, s/he could probably shorten my summary. See it as a game!

I shortened my answers.
Still 300 words over. Shortening further will be penalised for being vague.
Google shows similar assignments are 1200 to 1500 words, which is more reasonable.
This task is impossible.

Writing brief, but still comprehensive, responses is a skill in itself.
Yes, you need to condense it further, and not go over the upper word limit.
This is very reminiscent of an assignment I had 25 years ago (in a different subject area). A third of the cohort complaining it was impossible, most just getting on with it, and a minority (including me) releasing a huge sigh of relief that we don't need to go through our work and artificially increase the word count to hit the minimium levels!

Use abbreviations, cut out unnecessary adjectives, hyphenate. Get the free version of Grammarly.

Write in present tense, active voice. Use contractions if necessary. Remove filler words (‘indeed’ is my pet peeve!). Use brackets to embed quotations - easier to fit them to to sentences that way.

it seems like other people have a skill you don't have OP which is to write concisely. They have been doing that for many years without using a large language model.

it would help you to get the same skill. You won't get the skill by using an LLM to shorten your text.

I'm at uni just now. Our lecturer has said direct quotes do not necessarily show you understand what has been said, just that you are good at quoting someone. So always paraphrase. Is it an SVQ in health care by any chance?

I’m an academic. If I asked for an assignment of 1000 word +/-10% and you gave me 1400 words I’d stop reading at 1100. Over Christmas I had to mark over 100 essays. Does anyone really think I want to read more that the maximum number of words allowed? No, I absolutely don’t. Writing succinctly without waffle is a real skill. If you can bring it in closer to the 1000 that would be even better.

I use Grammarly and as it to shorten what I have written and you can cut our loads of words that way. Uni say its fine to use as still my work.

I'm a uni student and we are told anything over word count is not read, the marker will stop reading. We have also been told we CAN use chatgp to reword and refine our work....
I haven't and it makes me feel really disappointed. I don't think detection tools work half the time. A friend scanned one of mine and it came back 75% ai and I'd never used it once.

You can definitely cut down your words. Get someone else to read it. Are you allowed to send 10% to your tutor to read? We are allowed to do this prior to submission

I reviewed my document and edited each paragraph myself without using ai.

I am now over 66 words over the maximum.

I really don't think I can narrow this down any more.

I googled similar assignments from the past and the word count was approx 1200 to 1500 words before. So why change this now to such a big drop?