Word count
The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Word count is commonly used by translators to define the price for the translation job. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds (usually in words per minute).
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[edit] Software
Most word processors can do automatic word counts; Unix-like systems include a program wc specifically for word counting. Different word counting programs may give varying results, depending on the definition of "word", on the text segmentation algorithms, and on whether words outside the main text such as footnotes or hidden text are counted.
[edit] In fiction
Novelist Jane Smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel.[1] However, novels can vary tremendously in length; Smiley lists novels as typically being between 100,000 and 175,000 words,[2] while National Novel Writing Month requires its novels to be at least 50,000 words. In part because of this wide variation, the boundary between a novella and a novel may be arbitrary and difficult to determine.[3] But while the length of a novel is to a large extent up to its writer,[4] lengths may also vary by sub-genre; many young adult novels start at a length of about 16,000 words,[5] and a typical mystery novel might be in the 60,000 to 80,000 word range while a thriller could be over 100,000 words.[6]
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories:[7]
| Classification | Word count |
|---|---|
| Novel | over 40,000 words |
| Novella | 17,500 to 40,000 words |
| Novelette | 7,500 to 17,500 words |
| Short story | under 7,500 words |
See also: List of longest novels.
[edit] In nonfiction
The acceptable length of an academic thesis varies greatly, dependent predominantly on the subject. Many universities limit Ph.D. theses to at most 100,000 words, barring special permission for exceeding this limit.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ Smiley, Jane. 2005. Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel. NY: Alfred A. Knoph, p. 14.
- ^ Smiley, 2005, p. 15.
- ^ Edge, Tom, "Does Size Matter?" The Guardian (UK), Booksblog, Nov. 2, 2006. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2006/nov/02/doessizematter
- ^ Quindlen, Anna (September 23, 2002), "Writers on Writing: The Eye of the Reporter, the Heart of the Novelist", New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/23/books/writers-on-writing-the-eye-of-the-reporter-the-heart-of-the-novelist.html, "A novelist doesn't write to space, of course; 80,000 words, 100,000, it is up to the writer to say when the story is done.".
- ^ Lamb, Nancy, Crafting Stories for Children. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, p. 24
- ^ Thurston, Carol (August 3, 1997), "Agents give writers the book on what's hot and what's not", Austin American-Statesman, "no one wants more than 60-80,000 words in a mystery, 110,000 for a thriller".
- ^ SFWA Awards FAQ, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as follows:
- ^ Dunleavy, Patrick (2003), Authoring a PhD, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 46, ISBN 9781403911919.
[edit] Additional reading
- DeRocher, James E.; Miron, Murray S.; Patten, Sam M.; Pratt, Charles C. (1973), The Counting of Words: A Review of the History, Techniques and Theory of Word Counts with Annotated Bibliography, Syracuse University Research Corporation, pp. 302, ED098814, http://eric.ed.gov:80/PDFS/ED098814.pdf.
- Rothman, Chuck (2005), Word Counts: What Is a Word?, Science Fiction Writers of America, http://www.sfwa.org/2005/01/what-is-a-word/. An article on various word count methods in fiction publishing.
- Michaels, Melisa (2005) ([dead link]), Focusing on the Wrong Things, Science Fiction Writers of America, http://www.sfwa.org/writing/wordcountredux.htm. An article on the relative importance of various word count methods in fiction publishing.
