How many words should a 5-paragraph essay be?

A 5-paragraph essay can be 300–1000 words, depending on your assignment requirements and topic. Here are a few ways to decide how long your 5-paragraph essay should be.

  • If the instructions include a page range, plan for about 250 words for each double-spaced page of text (e.g., 3 pages=750 words).
  • 5-paragraph essays that require outside sources are usually 750–1000 words because the body paragraphs are detailed.
  • For basic 5-paragraph assignments, where you only need 3–4 supporting sentences per body paragraph, essays are closer to 300 words.
  • For more complex topics, like academic arguments, you may need closer to 1000 words.

No matter how many words you write in a 5-paragraph essay, make sure that it’s error free. QuillBot’s Grammar Checker is a quick and easy way to clean up typos.