Watercress Spriggs reports

Briana Cooper, 29, looked to the Bible for inspiration when writing her final assignment. “It’s really long,” she said. “There are these big lists of names that go on for pages. I need to tap into whatever that writer’s having. There’s no way the Bible would fall too short for any word minimum.”

Like many students, Briana has trouble making the word limit. Despite making a well-rounded argument, providing detailed examples and restating her thesis statement, Briana’s dissertation falls short in the most important department: length.

“You know how it is. You’re reading a book or a bit of news and despite, you know, enjoying it, you wish it were more drawn out.” It’s no secret that ‘concise’ literature certainly puts a bad taste in one’s mouth. The thought of reading a piece with economic sentence structure, where each word serves a purpose, sends one running for a bucket.

“So far I’ve managed to squeeze in another hundred and twenty words,” she said. “Among other things, I’ve changed one of many problems to one – for instance – of many, many (but not that many, just some) problems. I thought about delving into another tangent but that would take too many words. It’s a tricky balance.” The student scanned over her work at the Moray Press office. “Yeah. It’s obviously worse now. But at least it’s long. That’s what counts.”