Do I get docked points if my research paper is too long?

I bite a huge topic and my paper is about 800 words past the maximum. Can I get docked points for that?

Do I get docked points if my research paper is too long?
Yes you can because you did not follow directions. While unlikely, I've heard some teachers say that they would throw out papers that were over the limit, and others who said they would stop reading at whatever the limit is and only grade above that. For most professors, they don't care too much if you go over (especially when it's with word limits and you are handing in a hard copy and not emailing it in), however, 800 words is a lot over and the very least there would be a note about.





Look through your paper and find any flowery words. Get out your red pen and have a few friends get theirs' out and start taking out any phrases that aren't needed or parts that are redundant.





You should get it down to no more then 1 or 2 pages more then what the word count is if it's double spaced. If you have time, ask your prof what you can get away with if you can't seem to get it down anymore.
Reply:Really it depends on your teacher, but I'll give you my old teacher for example...





"There are 30 kids in your class, and 30 kids in the other class, both of which are doing research papers up to 7 pages long. If a bunch of you go over that limit then I'll have more pages to read, more time token up, and a longer time til you get you're back. So DON'T make your paper longer than 7 pages."





She hated when kids went a page over but if it's only a bit past the maximum then don't worry about it. Just don't go to far past the maximum, 800 words doesn't sound too far.





Good luck!





Jane Marie
Reply:That would be something that you need to discuss with your particular professor. Some professors are very exact in how they want things done %26amp; will dock. Some professors, however, are more lax. Discuss this with your professor. Explain that if you take out 800 words then your work won't be presented properly. You may also want to have someone proofread it, etc., and tell you if there are some things that can be removed.
Reply:Is there a min. and max. length for your paper? I have been docked points in the past for writing TOO long papers but, I've been docked more points for writing TOO short papers. Is all the information in your paper necessary and completely relevant? Maybe you should just look back and see if you could stand to lose a paragraph without causing your paper to not make sense. LOL Im Sarah B too!!!