Word limits are the fucking worst.

[Halo]

I've just re-read my dissertation for English last year, after considering sharing some of my stories, essays, and other works with Spam/RPG. And, honestly, I'm disappointed in it. It feels a little too skeletal; like certain claims and concepts have gone without necessary elaboration and exploration, and like sections which needed to be clearly linked were left to stand alone. Why? Because I originally wrote it to be 4/3 of the maximum word limit and had to cut it down, cut all that stuff out.

That bloody word limit utterly compromised my work, and I know several others in the class felt the same. It's silly and makes me angry and word limits should totally be abolished. >:c

[Rare]

If it was abolished, then we would have arguments that can become novels.

[Aragorn]

A word minimum I can understand. But limit? Fuck that shit. MY PEN MUST BE FREE.

[Halo]

Rare said
If it was abolished, then we would have arguments that can become novels.

Yes, and they'd be poorly formulated arguments without the concision to be practical or well-expressed. I disagree with attempting to quantify the necessity of concision and then force that arbitrary quantum on people, rather than leaving it to the judgement and skill of the person writing. If someone's failed to convey points efficiently and effectively, it's obvious when you're reading it, and you can criticise them for it. But I don't think the way to measure that efficiency is via a word count, because that completely disregards and therefore limits the depth and cohesiveness of the argument - which, I'd think, should take precedent.

[Foxxie]

It's important to learn conscision of arguments, even if you eventually end up finding that you much prefer arguing without such concerns. And for the sake of professors, I support a page limit of sorts, but a, say, 2500-3000 word limit has always struck me as arbitrary. Why not just say 7-10 pages and have something of a floating maximum so that you'll accept about 11?

Word limits do definitely hinder those of us who want to write an honors thesis or eventual dissertation... those things are long and wordy as fuck, basically everything we were ever taught to avoid.

[Halo]

Foxxie said
It's important to learn conscision of arguments, even if you eventually end up finding that you much prefer arguing without such concerns. And for the sake of professors, I support a of sorts, but a, say, 2500-3000 word limit has always struck me as arbitrary. Why not just say 7-10 pages and have something of a floating maximum so that you'll accept about 11?Word limits do definitely hinder those of us who want to write an honors thesis or eventual dissertation... those things are long and wordy as fuck, basically everything we were ever taught to avoid.

I completely agree that concision is important to learn, I just disagree with arbitrary word limits being the way to teach that. It doesn't really teach you how to be concise via effective and efficient communication of your points; it just makes you cut a tonne of important stuff out to hit some randomly-decided limit. If one wrote 6000 words of well-crafted, efficiently-conveyed, innovative critical analysis and thinking, and another wrote 3000 words of unfocused drivel that lacks any cohesive argument or point, I would consider the former the more concise, despite being longer, because efficiency/effectiveness is obviously decided by two variables - length and depth. Word limits only give thought to the length, and thereby severely limit the latter, the depth, which is surely more important.

Though, of course, I understand the practical aspects of professors actually having to mark these. It's just frustrating, and I hate it when people try to claim that word limits are there to teach you how to convey your points effectively. They aren't. They're there for purely the purely practical reason of professors' time constraints.

[Gwazi Magnum]

Eh, I never pay attention to such limits with my assignments.

I have yet to get a Professor who docks me marks for it.
Usually I get some of the highest marks cause of the level of thought and effort put into it.

[scribz]

Word limits are great. They provide you the challenge of getting your points across with limited effort/time. Which is very important in society considering that 2nd hand knowledge (i.e. anything that's an understanding rather than an experience), has to be scalable in order to travel.

Hence why politics is always snap-crackle-pop points. It's all made to allow easy travel.

[Elendra]

Actually, a teacher putting a word or page limit is probably because they only have so much time they can or want to dedicate to their job out of being in class. If things went on too long, it will cut into the time they want to have set aside to do things like be with their family or masturbate. Or both.

So really, I can understand it from that point alone.

[Halo]

scribz said
Word limits are great. They provide you the challenge of getting your points across with limited effort/time. Which is important in society considering that 2nd hand knowledge (i.e. anything that's an understanding rather than an experience), to be scalable in order to travel. Hence why politics is always snap-crackle-pop points. It's all made to allow easy travel.

It took me far longer to slice apart my points and try to remove a bunch of important stuff without decimating the argument I was trying to make, than to actually write it. Writing it took a weekend; editing it down to hit that stupid limit took a week.

And that's actually one of the worst things about politics these days :<

Elendra said
Actually, a teacher putting a word or page limit is probably because they only have so much time they can or want to dedicate to their job out of being in class. If things went on too long, it will cut into the time they want to have set aside to do things like be with their family or masturbate. Or both.So really, I can understand it from that point alone.

I wish people would read the whole thread rather than just the OP..

[Elendra]

Halo said :<I wish people would read the whole thread rather than just the OP..

Nope too lazy, got time to spend on other things.

Basically a teacher.

[Kaga]

I think I'm having WOTM flashbacks.

[scribz]

Halo said
It took me far longer to slice apart my points and try to remove a bunch of important stuff without decimating the argument I was trying to make, than to actually write it. Writing it took a weekend; editing it down to hit that stupid limit took a week.And that's actually one of the worst things about politics these days :<

It's human nature man, we need things to be scalable to travel far and wide in a popular vote society (actually in a set value society but hey).

As for your report. Sounds like you definitely needed the practise :>

Go read up things on cosissiosn (sp?)

[Halo]

Elendra said
Nope too lazy, got time to spend on other things.Basically a teacher.

Goddamnit Elendra.

Kaga said
I think I'm having WOTM flashbacks.

I'm having flashbacks to everything I've ever written for school, ever. Ever.

scribz said
It's human nature man, we need things to be scalable to travel far and wide in a popular vote society (actually in a set value society but hey). As for your report. Sounds like you definitely needed the practise :> Go read up things on cosissiosn (sp?)

I feel it is frequently taken to an extreme in politics that is actually severely damaging to the public's understanding of the political process and current affairs/issues, but disagree with that to your heart's content.

[Kaga]

Halo said
I'm having flashbacks to everything I've ever written for school, ever. Ever.

Oh, I meant I was having flashbacks as a manager, listening to people talk about struggling with word limits...

[scribz]

Halo said
.I feel it is frequently taken to an extreme in politics that is actually severely damaging to the public's understanding of the political process and current affairs/issues, but disagree with that to your heart's content.

What? No man I completely agree with you, it sucks. But unless you want to go into why it's that way on evolutionary biological, macro economic and geo political levels then the conversation only really ends with a "Learn to mitigate it and use it to it's full advantage, in order to provide and sell a solution to the problem rather than simply critisize it.".