In most of the cases, the word length of the essay will be given by the Instructor. But in rare cases where you are free to write without a word limit; then you must go online to take a look at samples and use such to rate how much will be expected of you to write in your essay.

Our major concern here will be on the expected word length of academic essays. All the factors that must be put into consideration in arriving at the number of words that will be ideal for the essay topic will be addressed here. 

Essay length tips

Generally, an average essay should hold up to about 400-700 words and the paragraphs should not be more than five.

The majority of the essays contain three major parts: introduction; body and finally a conclusion.

If it is a basic paper; the outline is only five paragraphs

Out of the five paragraphs, the word length of the introduction, as well as the concluding paragraphs, are always very smaller

For each of the body paragraph; it must cover only one central theme which will be the topic sentence

A double spaced page with text written in Times New Roman contains about 275 words. A single-spaced page will fit double the amount. 

The ideal length of each paragraph for short essays (400-1000 words) should not be more than 100-200 words. In the words of Jennifer Duncan from the University of Toronto at Scarborough, for a 1000 word essay, the conclusion and introduction should be in the range of 4-5 sentences each. An ideal college essay should not be more than 500 words in length.

What are you to do if there are no length guidelines?

On some rare occasions, students will not be given the essay prompt on the word length. There should be no cause for worry; there are steps to be taken which you are about reading that will help resolve the issues that come with such a situation.

• A hint from the description: In Wellesley College, for instance, prompts such as in two well-developed paragraphs are always given. The idea here is that the paragraphs can be long but within a reasonable limit which should be within 400-500 words. 
• Search for length requirement: When you google, you are going to come across forums and social networks that discuss essay writing requirements. You can search through the portal of your school to have ideas on how the length of the essay should be like. 
• Admissions office: If you are not still clear at this juncture; then you can call your admissions office. They will give you a clue as to how to go about the word count based on their experiences with similar topics in the past. 

Final thoughts

Getting the right number of words to write should not pose any issue. If you go by the tricks given above; you are going to have a soft landing which will make you proud at the end of the day.