Learning More By Writing Less

This week is my last week as a student in college. Over the course of the Summer, I’ve had a few Senior capstone courses that required me to do a lot of writing and of course, just as any other class in college these papers came with a minimum page length.

Why is there a page length? Is it because the university has to print a certain amount of paper? Is it because a certain amount of words written makes the student get more out of the class? Is it because the professors enjoys reading more than reading less?

Although I put a lot of time, effort and research into all of my papers over this Summer, I always had in the back of my mind the dreaded minimum page length.

Instead of fully investing myself into the work and communicating what I had learned in the clearest, simplest and most condense way, I had the added factor of “fluffing” my papers up with useless and extra wording that would help me get to the necessary page length.

Sometimes more pages isn’t better and writing something short makes us learn more. For instance, Twitter’s 140 character limit forces someone to write something that communicates their point in a quick fashion. Each word has more meaning because each word is more significant in the confines of brevity.

Could students learn more by writing less?