Essay writing can be difficult for students. The focus is not on giving the right or wrong answers, but on the student’s ability to understand a topic and do some research on it. One thing which confuses many students is the length of an essay. Even if you search for how long does an essay have to be, you will find that there are many different answers available. Some essays are only a page or two, while there are others which go on for ten pages or even more. So, what is the ideal length of an essay? Well, here is a guide to find that out.


Numerous factors will be affecting in deciding your essay’s length. In order to know about all those factors, ask yourself these questions to have a clear idea about the length of an essay.

Question 1 – What institute are you writing the essay for?

The first thing that affects the length of an essay is the institute you are writing the essay for. If you are writing your essay for school, you do not have to worry as the essay will be too short to handle. Your teacher is probably expecting an essay that is anywhere from two to three pages long. If they expected you to write a longer essay, they would have probably given you explicit instructions to write a long essay. Most essays you write in school will be short.

If you are writing the essay for admission into an institute you need to be more careful. Most admission forms will give you the exact word limit for an essay. For those that do not provide you any guidelines, you need to understand the fact that your essay shouldn’t be detailed enough by providing unnecessary explanations; as personal statement tends to be short and precise. A personal essay is written to let the other person understand you, your motivations, and why you should be accepted as a student. If your personal essay is too short the reader will not be engaged, and they may not want to accept your essay. However, if your essay is too long and contains too many anecdotes it may also get ignored. Remember, the people in the admission departments of universities must read thousands of essays – do not make the job harder for them.

We have discussed how we can choose an appropriate length for essays at school, and for admissions at college or university level. You might need to know about essay writing while studying in the university which can be either for graduate or Master’s level. A simple rule regarding this point is that the higher level you are studying, the lengthier your essay will be. Since university students are required to do research about different topics- they are generally expected to come up with details when writing their essays.

Question 2 – What are you writing the essay on?

The topic of the essay also provides hints about the ideal length of an essay. Generally, if the topic is vague you can write a shorter essay. If you were given an essay to write about the kings who have ruled over England, your teacher probably only expects a surface level view of the topic. However, if they ask you to write about a specific king or succession, they may expect you to write a longer essay. Another factor is the purpose of an essay. Some essays are given to test your essay writing skills, such essays are generally of short format. While others are given to test your research skills, depicting the longer side of the essay.