Constant Content

Hi, I'm new here. I just got my first submission back for wordiness. The article was submitted to a public request, and it had barely reach the minimum requested word count. Therefore, I doubt the article would be able to reach the requested word count after I'm through editing it. Does this mean I can no longer submit the article to the public request?

Probably, although I don't know actually know whether there is an automatic rejection for a public request article when the word count is a bit under. It's possible they would let you submit it to the request, in case the customer liked it enough to buy anyway.

But there should be a way to expand the article by covering a different aspect of the subject, while staying concise in your style. If not, it may be better just to submit it as a catalogue article, to avoid another rejection.

People can be weird about word count, so just avoid it when you can but don't worry too much. I wouldn't go hundreds of words under. But maybe like 50-100 won't be a big deal.

It depends on the customer. If you go over, you'll avoid that complaint. I try my best to avoid the word count complaint, but I know how you feel about stuffing words to have words. I think you will be fine as long as it's reasonable.

I don't know why people think writing quality can be judged on word count. It's the same in the coding world. Lines of code don't mean anything. But, writing like coding has become some assembly line process that's not understood as an art. It's frustrating sometimes.

lost wrote:Hi, I'm new here. I just got my first submission back for wordiness. The article was submitted to a public request, and it had barely reach the minimum requested word count. Therefore, I doubt the article would be able to reach the requested word count after I'm through editing it.

Then you'll have to either cover what you already wrote in greater (but un-wordy) detail, or throw in a few more topics that you didn't cover in the first place. You should never stuff in extra words just to reach a desired word count. The article should be able to reach the count while offering well-written information

Good luck! If the editor didn't say that you can't resubmit, then you can certainly edit and try again.

Thanks for the responses. I'll just submit it as a catalog article. Hopefully, it will go through this time.