How Long Does It Take to Write 500 Words?

How Long Does It Take To Write 500 Words?

Writing, be it for professional, academic, or private purposes – is an activity that usually takes a substantial amount of effort. Professional, scientific articles can take months to finish, while books can take years. Whatever it is you may be writing, it’s in everyone’s best interest to finish your writing as quickly as possible, while keeping it as good as it can be – making your writing as efficient as it could possibly be. In order to define a generally accepted, standardized length of time, we’ll be answering the question of how long does it take to write 500 words?

Writing 500 words will usually take about 12 minutes and 30 seconds, with minor differences on the account of differently keyed keyboards. Writing the same amount of text by hand will usually take about 25 minutes, which goes to show how important modern technology is in making us more efficient.

Writing speed will always vary from person to person. An adult working with computers frequently will usually be able to write about 40 words per minute (on average), but if the writing requires research then the numbers will drop significantly and it may take over an hour to write a good article. In this article, however, we’ll be researching how long does it take to write articles of a certain length, both with and without research.

How Long Does It Take To Write 500 Word (General Writing)?

General writing is probably the easiest of all the categories listed in this article, as it’s just transferring your flow of thoughts on paper. If you’re an experienced writer and the topic you’re writing about is something you’re well-acquainted with, then writing 500 words about it shouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes. Time usually doesn’t present an issue to writers as their natural ability to write is simultaneously fused with their train of thought, meaning that they can sometimes write something down before even thinking it. A writer’s mind and pen will often link up, suggesting that they can in a way fuse with their writing, and the only reason their writing will take any time at all is because of the literal process of writing – their fingers pressing the buttons of a keyboard.

How Long Does It Take To Write 500 Words (Blog Post)?

Blog posts are a completely different kind of writing as they’re generally aimed at entertaining a general public and need to be likable, as well as sticking close to their topic and being citable – meaning that the information has to be true and scientifically proven.

In writing a 500-word article for a blog, the writer will usually take a bit longer than with general, free-flow writing. The reasoning behind this is twofold: because of styling and because of the post’s accuracy.

The importance of blog posts is that they’re very public and very accessible, meaning that the post has to be absolutely perfect (by the writer’s standards) before posting. When writing such short posts or articles (by writing standards: 500 words is very little and not much of a challenge) the writer will usually not write down a first-draw beforehand – the form of writing is so simple that there’s no need for meticulous preparations. The writer will usually stylize their writing as they write it, and once they finish they’ll reread it just to make sure everything’s as good as it can be.

The same goes for the post’s accuracy. The writer will usually tend to stay on topic without much effort, but after the writing is finished they will read it without fail, just to make sure they haven’t strayed off or have written something wrong at some point.

This is why writing 500-word-long blog posts may take a bit longer than an average of 12 minutes and 30 seconds.

How Long Does It Take To Write 500 Words (Blog Posts – Research Included)?

Research of any kind will always prolong writing. Take that as a rule of life. The issue with research is that nowadays there are so many sources for literally anything a writer might need in their writing, that filtering through them all in order to find that one specific detail in question becomes a mind-boggling task, one that takes a lot of time. All research must then be translated into the language of the article, properly stylized, and cited. If the research is directly cited then it must be given credit, and if it’s just paraphrased it must still be listed in the list of sources.

Research can, and often will double the writing time, so one should always be prepared for that when conducting research for writing.

How Long Does It Take To Write 500 Words (Essay)?

The main difference between essays and blog posts is that essays are professional writing. Essays are, more often than not, pieces of writing that argue about a topic, which is most often scientific. The history of essays goes all the way back to the year 1580, and even then, it was an argumentative piece of writing, debating on the thesis and facts of life.

The reason this form of writing requires effort is because of its professionality. The essay form requires much less stylization than blog posts or general writing and insists on keeping to the point, in medias res. This way, the writer keeps the professional tone that essays require and the reader is aware that they are not reading something for fun, but rather an argumentative piece of writing that’s discussing a relevant topic.

This makes the job much easier for a lot of writers, as a lot of people don’t enjoy writing in a stylized way and it actually takes them more time to write 500 words of stylized text, than writing 500 words of professional writing. However, a lot of natural writers enjoy stylized writing and find essays needlessly limiting, but that’s with good reason – to keep their professionality.

Writing a 500-word essay usually shouldn’t take any longer than writing a 500-word blog post, and will take some time to reread it and correct any possible mistakes, just in case there are any.

How Long Does It Take To Write 500 Words (Essay – Research Included)?

The importance of essays in the academic community is immense, and their ability to raise valid points and prompting scholars to ponder important questions is one of the reasons for that importance. That’s why proper research in essay writing is crucial, and just like with blog posts, proper citing is not only expected but legally required, as not citing (no matter how accidental or well-minded it might be) is considered plagiarism.

Essays are in their core a scientific piece of writing, meaning that research is a natural activity connected with essays. This way the essay will receive legitimacy and stay competent in its given field. It’s important to note that it’s very rare to find essays written with no or very little research. The only instance of this is when the writer is already considered to be competent in the field and doesn’t require any research to develop the writing on the topic. An example of this isn’t only experts writing essays in their own field, but students (mostly high school) writing essay examinations where they were beforehand informed on possible topics and needed to prepare for all of them.

The writing of a 500-word-long essay with research will take a considerable amount of effort and will usually take longer than 30 minutes because it’s very important for writing to keep its professional tone.

How Many Pages Is 500 Words?

The most important aspect of page length is the size of the font. Font size 20 and font size 12 serve completely different purposes and require different amounts of space. 500 words in size 12, which is usually the standardized font size for many novels and papers, is usually just ten lines longer than a single page. Size 14 is normally standardized in blog posts and other internet posts, as its size makes it easier to read. 500 words in this font will usually take about a page and a half.

All in all, there are vast differences in free writing, blog writing, and essay writing. The differences are intensified when research is taken into account, considering that no article is complete without the cited research and holds little credit. When writing, one shouldn’t worry about the time taken to finish the piece of writing, but rather about the quality of writing, as that’s what’s going to determine the popularity and reception of the writing.

Author

  • Tristan

    Tristan has a strong interest in the intersection of artificial intelligence and creative expression. He has a background in computer science, and he enjoys exploring the ways in which AI can enhance and augment human creativity. In his writing, he often delves into the ways in which AI is being used to generate original works of fiction and poetry, as well as to analyze and understand patterns in existing texts.