in 800 words or less...

My junior high, high school, and "college prep" days of UVU did not prepare me for this little beast I am now facing. It's called The Research Paper in 800 Words or Less. In this case, it must be done in 700 to 800 words. The word count made many in my English class rejoice. I, however, am close to tearing my hair out due to the length of the paper. Why?

800 words is NOT ENOUGH.

I have never had to write a short research paper. They've always been 8 pages or more, which is way more than 800 words. 800 words double spaced is about two and a half pages, including all of the mumbo jumbo formatting at the top that MLA format requires. I mean, most of my blog posts are in the 600-700 word range! Grrr. Beastly thing.

In short (haha), this is very difficult for me. Finding a topic and narrowing it down to the required specificity has been such a huge mountain to climb for me because I don't research in specifics. Think National History Fair size: start with a broad topic, make it a tad bit narrower, and BAM. Enough information to make 1500-2500 words. This one...it's taken me three days to come up with an angle small enough, and even now I keep wanting to branch out and bring in more information. But that adds to the word count. Buh.

Call me Hermione, but yes. I'm Hermione. I've even got the hair to go with it.