Writing Center
If you are thinking: I have trouble making the paper long enough
Have you ever used a larger font or wider margins to make your paper look longer?
Everybody has probably tried this at one time or another.
While a reader may not notice your clever tricks, they will notice a lack of ideas or development.
If you are using a standard font (12 pt.) and margin (1”) and your paper is too short, trying to make your paper “appear” longer suggests you are ignoring a clear signal that you have not come up with enough ideas to adequately fulfill an assignment.
Don’t waste your time covering up the symptoms of incomplete thinking or a poorly supported argument. Acknowledge your paper is short, then go back to the pre-writing step for more ideas.
College writers will often say something like: “I’m writing a 5-page paper” or “a 12-page research paper.” With college writing assignments, it’s easy to put a lot of focus on the minimum length—the number of pages of writing that will get the job done.
Think of paper-length as just a guideline. Then, come up with an idea that will take 5 pages to discuss fully, or a research topic narrow enough to be covered thoroughly in 12-pages (or whatever your assignment guideline is).
The problem of a paper that’s too short is one that can be solved in the Pre-Writing step. Trying to solve it while you are composing will just lead to repetition and padding. If you’ve come to the end of your ideas with two more pages to fill, chances are your thesis statement is not strong enough or its scope is not broad enough.
The Purdue online writing lab offers suggestions to make sure that your main idea is strong and its scope neither too broad nor too narrow.