If you write 2,000 words, you’ll end up with 8 pages double spaced.
Imagine this scenario. You’re writing a review for a gourmet food blog. You’ve written research papers before, with MLA formatting and thesis statements, but this is a more informal assignment. You’ll need to convince your readers to try a new restaurant in less than 2,000 words. The blog editor wants submissions to be formatted as Microsoft Word documents with double spacing and a 2,000-word limit. Here’s the question: How many pages do you need to write?
To know how many pages you’ll need, you’ll first have to select a font. We recommend using Arial or Times New Roman in a 12-point font size. That’s a standard, easy-to-read option. Most readers prefer something classic. You could always test your limits with a more exotic font, such as Calibri or Verdana; however, think carefully before selecting anything too hard to read. In most cases, the blog will publish the review in their standard font, so your choice will only be temporary.
Since you know the blog only accepts submissions below a certain word count, your review must be less than 2,000 words. Using the chart below, you can see that the same number of words may result in a different page count, depending on the line spacing you select. With the blog’s suggested word count and double spacing, your review would be approximately eight pages. Had the blog editor asked for single spacing, you’d end up with four pages.
Of course, you can imagine that the content of your review can influence the page length. Let’s say you use lots of long words in your review, like “marinated” and “reconstituted”. That 2,000-word review could end up filling more pages. By changing the type of font and deviating from standard 1-inch margins, you can manipulate the total page count. Since you’re not a high school student writing a term paper, you can expect to have a lot of freedom with this type of writing assignment. You can be creative, by adding line breaks, block quotes, and subheadings for emphasis. Keep in mind, any fancy formatting elements may add length to your total page count. For that reason, it’s hard to give a definitive answer about the exact number of pages you’ll end up writing.
Here’s the good news: Most word processors contain a word counter that allows you to check the word count and character count of a document. Also, if you’re writing for a publication, it never hurts to ask for clarification. Check with the blog editor’s guidelines to see whether the blog requires a certain number of pages, font type, or character count.
As a good rule of thumb, use this chart to approximate the number of pages you’ll get for a particular amount of words. The chart includes approximations for single space or double space essays with Times New Roman font or Arial font.
If you’d like to know how to convert a speech from pages to minutes, check out this article.
