how to make essays longer tik tok

How to make an Essay Longer – 21 Easy Tips!

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Just about all the advice on the first page of google about how to make a paper longer sucks. No, really. The tricks they suggest suck so bad I can’t believe how bad it sucks.

Most advice on how to make your essay longer tells you to do gimmicky things that will lose you marks.

How do I know? Because I read it. And I (yes, I’m a professor) would instantly see through all those things.

Let me tell you: if you’re wasting time turning “15” into “fifteen” to get an extra 6 characters into your essay , increasing font size, or sticking fluffy adjectives into sentences to make your essay longer and increase word count, you’re stuffing up. You’re flushing marks down the drain.

So, here’s what you SHOULD do to make your essay longer.

How to Make an Essay Longer

1. make sure you included everything.

I can’t tell you how many of my students submit assignments and forget to include important points! Go back to your writing prompt . That’s the thing that you’re going to be graded on.

Go and check out exactly what your teacher asked you to write about. Did you write about every point they suggested?

Related Article: 17+ Great Ideas For An Essay About Yourself

2. Make Every Paragraph at least 4 Sentences

Scan over each paragraph. Do you have any paragraphs that are less than 4 sentences long? This is your low-hanging fruit for making your paper longer. You need to make these paragraphs longer and your page count will naturally increase.

The best paragraphs should be 4 – 7 sentences long .

If you’ve got a 1, 2 or 3 sentence paragraph, make sure you go back through it. What new points can you include to make your paragraph better? Maybe you can:

• Add a sentence at the start of the paragraph explaining what the paragraph is about;
• Add a sentence giving a real-life example of the points you’re trying to make
• Add a sentence giving an explanation of your points.

Or, you can try adding points explaining:

• Why the thing is true;
• Where the thing happened;
• How the thing happened;
• When the thing happened.

3. Define your Terms

Have you written a paragraph defining your key terms? If you’re writing an essay on modernism, write a paragraph defining modernism. If your essay is about education , write a paragraph giving a brief history of education. This will make your paper better – and longer!

You should have a paragraph or two right after your introduction defining and explaining what your topic is!

Now, if you are going to provide a definition for a term in college or university level writing , you need to read this article . In it, I show you how to write a full paragraph that defines a term in the right way using a research paper, not a dictionary!.

4. Get new Ideas from your Class Handouts

Below are the class handouts that you should go back through to add new ideas. They’re your most important sources. Go through all these sources and try to take down and more key points you can add:

• Handouts or worksheets in class?
• Readings or articles that they asked you to read?
• Lecture slides?

6. Get new Ideas from Friends

You will have many classmates working on the same essay as you. What ideas have your friends come up with? See if you can find out. You want it to seem like you’re working to help each other out. You don’t want to be a sponge, taking from them and not giving back. Help each other out so you both get better marks. I recommend being strategic about this:

• Offer to look over each others’ work and give suggestions;
• Trade key points in bullet point format;
• Brainstorm together to create a master list of key ideas.

8. Get new Ideas from Blogs

There are websites online about just about every topic that you can possibly imagine. That includes the topic you’re writing your essay on!

Let me ask you a question: Why would you waste your time trying to add padding to old sentences to increase your word count when you can write new ones that will win more marks?

It’s really so simple – google your essay topic or question and see what comes up. What have other people said on the topic? What ideas can you grab from others and use for yourself? You can also get new ideas from Google Scholar, which can provide you with a free to access research paper that will give you ideas as well. 

12. Use the Keep Writing Website

Keep Writing is a website where you can write your essay. But, it won’t let you delete anything. So you have to just keep on typing. This means you can just write ideas that roll off the top of your head. I gave this website a go to write this article you’re reading right now and it really did help me just write in a way that flowed nicely and added to my page count quickly. I must admit, after using the website, I copied the text and did some edits. But by that point I had a ton of words in there – more than enough – and I could shorten the essay by deleting the words that weren’t so good. I ended up having the opposite problem – too many words!

13. Include one new Example in Each Paragraph

Another thing you can do is go through each and every paragraph and add one more example and some supporting evidence. Even if you’ve included one example in each paragraph, that’s okay. You can still add more examples. In fact, teachers love to see examples and supporting evidence.

Good examples are what separates good and bad students.

Teachers love to see examples because you can only give examples if you understand the topic. So, when we see examples we go “Yes! You Got It! You understand it!”

16. Don’t add Pointless Words!

‘Padding’ is what we call it when you stick extra words in a sentence just to increase your word count. I’ve taken a sentence from earlier in this post and I’m going to show you the sentence as it is, then show it to you with padding.

Here’s the original:

“You’re going to need some new points to add to your essay. You should not try to make your sentences you’ve already written longer. You shouldn’t be trying to add in fluffy new words or saying things in a longer way.”

Here’s the padding:

“You’re going to need some new points to actually add to your essay , which actually is quite significant . You should not actually try to generally make your sentences you’ve already written longer , generally contrary to popular belief . You shouldn’t be trying to generally add in fluffy new words or saying things in a longer way , which is fairly significant. ”

Your teacher is going to read this and think “This student is a terrible writer.” And you’ll lose a ton of marks.

17. Don’t Change the Formatting

Increasing the line spacing, font size or character spacing will just make your paper worse. You should have ONE space between each word. Your line spacing should either be 2.0 or 1.5 spacing. That’s it. Those are your options. Stick to normal margins in Microsoft Word You should use font size 12. If you artificially change any of this, your teacher will see through it and grade you down .

Final Thoughts

Making an essay longer needs to be done in a way that will get you marks. I can’t believe that there are websites ranking high on google that recommend tricks like “make the space between lines bigger” and “increase your margins”.

If a student did that in my class, I’d fail them instantly. There are smarter and better ways to do it – whether you’re writing a grade 7 essay or dissertation chapter! Do it the right way and you’ll grow your marks and be on the way to success.

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 10 Reasons you’re Perpetually Single
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 20 Montessori Toddler Bedrooms (Design Inspiration)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 21 Montessori Homeschool Setups
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 101 Hidden Talents Examples

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Another Word

From the writing center at the university of wisconsin-madison.

#essayhack: What TikTok can Teach Writing Centers about Student Perceptions of College Writing

By Holly Berkowitz, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

There is a widespread perception that TikTok, the popular video-sharing social media platform, is primarily a tool of distraction where one mindlessly scrolls through bite-sized bits of content. However, due to the viewer’s ability to engage with short-form video content, it is undeniable that TikTok is also a platform from which users gain information; whether this means following a viral dance tutorial or learning how to fold a fitted sheet, TikTok houses millions of videos that serve as instructional tutorials that provides tips or how-tos for its over one billion active users. 

That TikTok might be considered a learning tool also has implications for educational contexts. Recent research has revealed that watching or even creating TikToks in classrooms can aid learning objectives, particularly relating to language acquisition or narrative writing skills. In this post, I discuss  the conventions of and consequences for TikToks that discuss college writing. Because of the popularity of videos that spotlight “how-tos” or “day in the life” style content, looking at essay or college writing TikTok can be a helpful tool for understanding some larger trends and student perceptions of writing. Due to the instructional nature of TikToks and the ways that students might be using the app for advice, these videos can be viewed as parallel or ancillary to the advice that a Writing Center tutor might provide.

A search for common hashtags including the words “essay,” “college writing,” or “essay writing hack” yields hundreds of videos that pertain to writing at the college level. Although there is a large variety in content due to the sheer amount of content, this post focuses on two genres of videos as they represent a large portion of what is shared: first, videos that provide tips or how-tos for certain AI tools or assignment genres and second, videos that invite the viewer to accompany the creator as they write a paper under a deadline. Shared themes include attempts to establish peer connections and comfort viewers who procrastinate while writing, a focus on writing speed and concrete deliverables (page count, word limit, or hours to write), and an emphasis on digital tools or AI software (especially that which is marked as “not cheating”). Not only does a closer examination into these videos help us meet writers where they are more precisely, but it also draws writing center workers’ attention to lesser known digital tools or “hacks” that students are using for their assignments.

“How to write” Videos

Videos in the “how to” style are instructional and advice-dispensing in tone. Often, the creator utilizes a digital writing aid or provides a set of writing tips or steps to follow. Whether these videos spotlight assistive technologies that use AI, helpful websites, or suggestions for specific forms of writing, they often position writing as a roadblock or adversary. Videos of this nature attempt to reach viewers by promising to make writing easier, more approachable, or just faster when working under a tight deadline; they almost always assume the writer in question has left their writing task to the last possible moment. It’s not surprising then that the most widely shared examples of this form of content are videos with titles like “How to speed-write long papers” or “How to make any essay longer” (this one has 32 million views). It is evident that this type of content attempts to target students who suffer from writing-related anxiety or who tend to procrastinate while writing.

Sharing “hacks” online is a common practice that manifests in many corners of TikTok where content creators demonstrate an easier or more efficient way of achieving a task (such as loading a dishwasher) or obtaining a result (such as finding affordable airline tickets). The same principle applies to #essay TikTok, where writing advice is often framed as a “hack” for writing faster papers, longer papers, or papers more likely to result in an A. This content uses a familiar titling convention: How to write X (where X might be a specific genre like a literature review, or just an amount of pages or words); How to write X in X amount of time; and How to write X using this software or AI program. The amount of time is always tantalizingly brief, as two examples—“How to write a 5 page essay in 2 mins” and “How to write an essay in five minutes!! NO PLAGIARISM!!”—attest to. While some of these are silly or no longer useful methods of getting around assignment parameters, they introduce viewers to helpful research and writing aids and sometimes even spotlight Writing Center best practices. For instance, a video by creator @kaylacp called “Research Paper Hack” shows viewers how to use a program called PowerNotes to organize and code sources; a video by @patches has almost seven million views and demonstrates using an AI bot to both grade her paper and provide substantive feedback. Taken as a whole, this subsect of TikTok underscores that there is a ready audience for content that purports to assist writers in meeting the deliverables of a writing assignment using a path of least resistance.

Similarly, TikTok contains myriad videos that position the creator as a sort of expert in college writing and dispense tips for improving academic writing and style. These videos are often created by upperclassmen who claim to frequently receive As on essays and tend to use persuasive language in the style of an infomercial, such as “How to write a college paper like a pro,” “How to write research papers more efficiently in 5 easy steps!” or “College students, if you’re not using this feature, you’re wasting your time.” The focus in these videos is even more explicit than those mentioned above, as college students are addressed in the titles and captions directly. This is significant  because it prompts users to engage with this content as they might with a Writing Center tutor or tutoring more generally. These videos are sites where students are learning how to write more efficiently but also learning how their college peers view and treat the writing process. 

The “how to write” videos share several common themes, most prevalent of which is an emphasis on concrete deliverables—you will be able to produce this many pages in this many minutes. They also share a tendency to introduce or spotlight different digital tools and assistive technologies that make writing more expedient; although several videos reference or demonstrate how to use ChatGPT or OpenAI, most creators attempt to show viewers less widely discussed platforms and programs. As parallel forms of writing instruction, these how-tos tend to focus on quantity over quality and writing-as-product. However, they also showcase ways that AI can be helpful and generative for writers at all stages. Most notably they direct our attention to the fact that student writers consistently encounter writing- and essay- related content while scrolling TikTok.

Write “with me” Videos

Just as the how-to style videos target writers who view writing negatively and may have a habit of procrastinating writing assignments, write “with me” videos invite the viewer to join the creator as they work. These videos almost always include a variation of the phrase— “Write a 5- page case analysis w/ me” or “pull an all nighter with me while I write a 10- page essay.” One of the functions of this convention is to establish a peer-to-peer connection with the viewer, as they are brought along while the creator writes, experiences writer’s block, takes breaks, but ultimately completes their assignment in time. Similarly to the videos discussed above, these “with me” videos also center on writing under a deadline and thus emphasize the more concrete deliverables of their assignments. As such, the writing process is often made less visible in favor of frequent cuts and timestamps that show the progression toward a page or word count goal.

One of the most common effects of “with me” videos is to assure the viewer that procrastinating writing is part and parcel of the college experience. As the content creators grapple with and accept their own writing anxieties or deferring habits, they demonstrate for the viewer that it is possible to be both someone who struggles with writing and someone who can make progress on their papers. In this way, these videos suggest to students that they are not alone in their experiences; not only do other college students feel overwhelmed with writing or leave their papers until the day before they are due, but you can join a fellow student as they tackle the essay writing process. One popular video by @mercuryskid with over 6 million views follows them working on a 6000 word essay for which they have received several extensions, and although they don’t finish by the end of the video, their openness about the struggles they experience while writing may explain its appeal. 

Indeed, in several videos of this kind the creator centers their procrastination as a means of inviting the viewer in; often the video will include the word in the title, such as “write 2 essays due at 11:59 tonight with me because I am a chronic procrastinator” or “write the literature essay i procrastinated with me.” Because of this, establishing a peer connection with the hypothetical viewer is paramount; @itskamazing’s video in which she writes a five page paper in three hours ends with her telling the viewer, “If you’re in college, you’re doing great. Let’s just knock this semester out.” One video titled “Writing essays doesn’t need to be stressful” shows a college-aged creator explaining what tactics she uses for outlining and annotating research to make sure she feels prepared when she begins to write in earnest. Throughout, she directly hails the viewer as “you” and attempts to cultivate a sense of familiarity with the person on the other side of the screen; in some moments her advice feels like listening in on a one-sided Writing Center session.

A second aspect of these “with me” videos is an intense focus on the specifics of a writing task. The titles of these videos usually follow a formula that invites the viewer with the writer as they write X amount in X time, paralleling the structure of how-to-write videos. The emphasis here, due to the last-minute nature of the writing contexts, is always on speed: “write a 2000- word essay with me in 4.5 hours” or “Join me as I write a 10- page essay that is due at 11:59pm.” Since these videos often need to cover large swaths of time during which the creator is working, there are several jumps forward in time, sped up footage, and text stamps or zoom-ins that update the viewer on how many pages or words the writer has completed since the last update. Overall, this brand of content demonstrates how product-focused writers become when large amounts of writing are completed in a single setting. However, it also makes this experience seem more manageable to viewers, as we frequently see writers in videos take naps and breaks during these high-stakes writing sessions. Furthermore, although the writers complain and appear stressed throughout, these videos tend to close with the writer submitting their papers and celebrating their achievement.

Although these videos may send mixed messages to college students using TikTok who experience struggles with writing productivity, they can be helpful for viewers as they demonstrate the shared nature of these struggles and concerns. Despite the overarching emphasis on the finished product, the documentary-style of this content shows how writing can be a fraught process. For tutors or those removed from the experience of being in college, these videos also illuminate some of the reasons students procrastinate writing; we see creators juggling part-time jobs, other due dates, and family obligations. This genre of TikToks shows the power that social media platforms have due to the way they can amplify the shared experience of students.

To conclude, I gesture toward a few of the takeaways that #essay and #collegewriting TikTok might provide for those who work in Writing Centers, especially those who frequently encounter students who struggle with procrastination. First, because TikTok is a video-sharing platform, the content often shows a mixture of writing process and product. Despite a heavy emphasis in these videos on the finished product that a writer turns in to be graded, several videos necessarily also reveal the steps that go into writing, even marathon sessions the night before a paper is due. We primarily see forward progress but we also see false starts and deletions; we mostly see the writer once they have completed pre-writing tasks but we also see analyzing a prompt, outlining, and brainstorming. Additionally, this genre of TikTok is instructive in that it shows how often students wait until before a paper is due to begin and just how many writers are working solely to meet a deadline or deliverable. While as Writing Center workers we cannot do much to shift this mindset, we can make a more considerable effort to focus on time management and executive functioning skills in our sessions. Separating the essay writing process into manageable chunks or steps appears to be a skill that college students are already seeking to develop independently when they engage on social media, and Writing Centers are equipped to help students refine these habits. Finally, it is worth considering the potential for university Writing Center TikTok accounts. A brief survey of videos created by Writing Center staff reveals that they draw on similar themes and tend to emphasize product and deliverables—for example, a video titled “a passing essay grade” that shows someone going into the center and receiving an A+ on a paper. Instead, these accounts could create a space for Writing Centers to actively contribute to the discourse on college writing that currently occupies the app and create content that parallels a specific Writing Center or campus’s values.

Holly Berkowitz is the Coordinator of the Writing and Communication Center at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She recently received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she also worked at the UW-Madison Writing Center. Although she does not post her own content, she is an avid consumer of TikTok videos.

Influencer Resources By TRIBE

How to Make Longer TikToks: 6 Tips to Nail the New Max Video Length

@noriharewood

for Airbabble

TikTok played an undeniably colossal role in the rise in popularity of short form videos, and forcing Creators to stick to a short time limit really drove creativity. But now, TikTok has changed its maximum video length from 3 minutes to a whopping 10 whole minutes.

Some people have pushed back against the change, arguing that 10-minute videos belong on YouTube, but we think it’s a great opportunity for Creators to mix up their content on TikTok and start branching out from short, snappy videos to longer, more thought out content.

How to make longer TikToks

Make sure you have access to the new feature.

• Open the TikTok app on your phone

• Click the + sign at the bottom of the screen to open the camera

• Above the record button, you should be able to swipe across the different time limits to see if you have the 10-minute option.

If you don’t see it, update your app via the App Store to make sure you’ve got the latest version. Still not there? Don’t worry! The feature is being rolled out in phases, so not everyone has access just yet — but it’ll hit your account soon.

Start putting together your video

It works just like the shorter video length you’re used to, but you’ve obviously got more time to work with. You can record a total length of 10 minutes directly in the app, starting and stopping as needed. Or upload multiple video clips and images from your camera roll if you’ve pre-recorded your content.

Find inspo: Here’s 6 ideas for making long-form TikTok content

Yes, 10 minutes may seem like a long time for a TikTok video. Some of you might even remember when TikToks were limited to 15 seconds! But the social platform is all about creativity and experimentation, and some Creators are really using this new 10-minute length to their advantage. Here’s how:

Everyone loves a good storytime video. In the past, TikTok storytimes had to be condensed into a quick 60 seconds or split into multiple parts. 

The ability to upload a single 10-minute video is revolutionising the storytime format, especially for Creators who aim to engage. Rather than rushing through a story or editing in lots of cuts, Creators can now tell their stories in a format we’re more used to seeing on YouTube. We’re talking dramatic pauses, lots of backstories, and building suspense. The key is to make sure that the entire 10 minutes is engaging. Give viewers a reason to keep watching until the end.

@jessicavanel I gotta say... Making Magic is a lot of fun! #wholesome #disney #disneyworld ♬ original sound - Jessica V.

Q&A videos are an excellent way for your followers to get to know you a bit better. It’s quite common to see Q&A’s on Instagram, usually with the Question sticker on a Story. This access to 10-minute TikTok videos will allow Creators to do in-depth Q&A videos on TikTok too! 

Tell your followers to submit questions in the comment section of another video, then pick the ones you want to answer, settle in, and start filming! Though some Creators love using the Live feature on TikTok to do Q&A sessions, everyone can see the comments as they come in — making it harder to dodge anything you don’t want to answer. 

Daily vlogs have always been en vogue. You can't go wrong with a daily vlog — from 20-minute long YouTube videos to 15-second montages on Reels. 

TikTok’s 10-minute feature is the perfect mid-way point between Reels and a YouTube video. Your TikToks can be less polished than YouTube, while you can definitely get a bit deeper than you could with a Reel.

Film your day as you go along, edit it together in the evening, and post it to TikTok that night. It’s a great way to show more of the behind-the-scenes of your life (an already huge trend on TikTok).

@orendaduong just another wednesday existing 😌 #dailyvlog #minivlog #vlog #nyc #morningroutine ♬ original sound - ASTN

DIY videos have been big on TikTok since the app’s inception, and they really boomed in popularity during COVID lockdowns. From tie-dye shirts and punch needle rugs to furniture upholstery and room makeovers, the DIY opportunities are endless. And having 10 minutes of video means you can go into more detail about each step of the DIY process.

Mukbangs — where Creators eat a meal while talking directly to the camera — had a real heyday a few years back. Though the trend was solely found on YouTube, Creators now have a chance to bring it back with 10-minute TikTok videos. 

It’s a great way to update your followers on anything going on in your life — relationship breakups, career wins, travel stories — in a more casual way than a Q&A.

@how.kev.eats Reply to @afreenreza First time trying Bangladeshi food #mukbang #foodreview ♬ original sound - how.kev.eats

Morning routine

We seem to be fascinated with watching other peoples’ morning routines. YouTube, Insta, and TikTok are all full of videos montaging Creators’ skincare, breakfast, gym routine, makeup, and more. 

A 10-minute morning routine video is a great way to go more in-depth into what you’re doing, whether it’s sharing a pancake recipe, explaining your favourite skincare products, or even responding to some journal prompts. Seeing an entire morning routine in real-time is an innovative way to engage your followers.

Remember: you don't have to make a 10-minute video just because you can

Don’t get caught up in the excitement and churn out mediocre content for the sake of it. Make sure you’re creating something worthwhile, that you’re proud of and that your audience will want to see. 

Don’t be afraid to experiment, but remember that your 10-minute videos need to work in tandem with the rest of your content, and most of all match your style.

Ready to up your TikTok game?

Working with brands is one of the best ways to grow your audience and have fun with your content. If you’re not sure where to start, TRIBE  is the ideal launchpad. Browse through hundreds of brands with active campaigns, submit content or pitch to win, and start earning by doing what you love – creating real, authentic, and engaging content.

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How to Make Your Essay Longer on TikTok

Are you looking for some check it out tips on how to make your essay longer on TikTok? These tips will make your essays longer and more interesting. Just remember that the length of your essay is a function of how well you structure your essay and how well you structure your paragraphs. Moreover, the more you write, the more people will read it. In order to keep your audience’s attention, you need to have a lot of content.

In addition to doing extensive research, you must have 2-3 examples for every go to these guys argument. Adding more examples will make your paper longer, so be sure to add examples. You can also include quotes to strengthen your arguments. You should introduce them with some context, so the audience can understand their meaning and take it seriously. Besides, unpacking the quotes will enhance their value directory and improve your paper. However, be sure to adhere to the teacher’s guidelines to avoid breaking any rules.

When it comes to writing an essay, students should always keep in mind that an essay that’s under the page limit will be penalized. This is because it won’t be able to meet the expectations of the teacher. So, it’s best to stay within the guidelines of your teacher. A good way to do this is by changing the font size or manipulating the spacing between lines. You should note that changing the font size will cause your essay to look cluttered.

A good way to make your essay longer on TikTok is to expand your content. You should expand find more the length of the content. This can be done by increasing the font size, adding a lengthy header, or manipulating the spacing between lines. Just be aware that breaking the guidelines site web will cost you your grade. Ensure you follow the guidelines for the font size, as this will help you to avoid any plagiarism.

Adding more examples to your essay can help you make it longer on TikTok. In addition to the number of examples, you should also consider using quotes Full Report to support your arguments. This will not only make your essay longer, but it will also boost its word count. By adding quotes to your essay, you can show your audience that you’ve read and understood what the quote says. It will also give you more ideas.

Adding quotes and examples to your essay are why not find out more two ways to make it longer. When writing a research paper, you should include at least two or three quotes for each argument you’ve made. This will boost the overall word count of your essay. By adding quotes, you can increase your essay’s length by up to five to ten percent. You can also add additional quotes and examples to your paper.

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A hub for video essays, super cuts, and other videos critically observing media texts.

Technical question: What to use to record a long-form video essay made up of short clips? (Extended Tik Tok style)

If anyone could help with this horrendously millennial and basic question, I would be eternally grateful. I have a video essay assignment due on Monday and I'm struggling to be articulate in spoken long-form. I would have a much better time, I reckon, producing something more in the style of CJ the X or a Tik Tok (ie a sequence of very short clips) . Could anyone suggest a free (or cheap but ideally free) video production programme that would easily allow me to do this? What would someone use to reproduce that Tik Tok style but for a piece that is far longer than 1 minute? In the worst-case scenario, has anyone tried exporting and stitching together videos recorded in Tik Tok? (Sounds kind of like a nightmare lol). So many thanks in advance!!!

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The video essay boom

Hour-long YouTube videos are thriving in the TikTok era. Their popularity reflects our desire for more nuanced content online.

by Terry Nguyen

The video essay’s reintroduction into my adult life was, like many things, a side effect of the pandemic. On days when I couldn’t bring myself to read recreationally, I tried to unwind after work by watching hours and hours of YouTube.

My pseudo-intellectual superego, however, soon became dissatisfied with the brain-numbing monotony of “day in the life” vlogs, old Bon Appétit test kitchen videos, and makeup tutorials. I wanted content that was entertaining, but simultaneously informational, thoughtful, and analytical. In short, I wanted something that gave the impression that I, the passive viewer, was smart. Enter: the video essay.

Video essays have been around for about a decade, if not more, on YouTube. There is some debate over how the form preceded the platform; some film scholars believe the video essay was born out of and remains heavily influenced by essay films , a type of nonfiction filmmaking. Regardless, YouTube has become the undisputed home of the contemporary video essay. Since 2012, when the platform began to prioritize watch-time over views , the genre flourished. These videos became a significant part of the 2010s YouTube landscape, and were popularized by creators across film, politics, and academic subcultures.

Today, there are video essays devoted to virtually any topic you can think of, ranging anywhere from about 10 minutes to upward of an hour. The video essay has been a means to entertain fan theories , explore the lore of a video game or a historical deep dive , explain or critique a social media trend , or like most written essays, expound upon an argument, hypothesis , or curiosity proposed by the creator.

Some of the best-known video essay creators — Lindsay Ellis, Natalie Wynn of ContraPoints, and Abigail Thorn of PhilosophyTube — are often associated with BreadTube , an umbrella term for a group of left-leaning, long-form YouTubers who provide intellectualized commentary on political and cultural topics.

It’s not an exaggeration to claim that I — and many of my fellow Gen Zers — were raised on video essays, academically and intellectually. They were helpful resources for late-night cramming sessions (thanks Crash Course), and responsible for introducing a generation to first-person commentary on all sorts of cultural and political phenomena. Now, the kids who grew up on this content are producing their own.

“Video essays are a form that has lent itself particularly well to pop culture because of its analytical nature,” Madeline Buxton, the culture and trends manager at YouTube, told me. “We are starting to see more creators using video essays to comment on growing trends across social media. They’re serving as sort of real-time internet historians by helping viewers understand not just what is a trend, but the larger cultural context of something.”

A lot has been said about the video essay and its ever-shifting parameters . What does seem newly relevant is how the video essay is becoming repackaged, as long-form video creators find a home on platforms besides YouTube. This has played out concurrently with the pandemic-era shift toward short-form video, with Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube respectively launching Reels, Spotlight, and Shorts to compete against TikTok.

TikTok’s sudden, unwavering rise has proven the viability of bite-size content, and the app’s addictive nature has spawned fears about young people’s dwindling attention spans. Yet, the prevailing popularity of video essays, from new and old creators alike, suggests otherwise. Audiences have not been deterred from watching lengthy videos, nor has the short-form pivot significantly affected creators and their output. Emerging video essayists aren’t shying away from length or nuance, even while using TikTok or Reels as a supplement to grow their online following.

One can even argue that we are witnessing the video essay’s golden era . Run times are longer than ever, while more and more creators are producing long-form videos. The growth of “creator economy” crowdfunding tools, especially during the pandemic, has allowed video essayists to take longer breaks between uploads while retaining their production quality.

“I do feel some pressure to make my videos longer because my audience continues to ask for it,” said Tiffany Ferguson, a YouTube creator specializing in media criticism and pop culture commentary. “I’ve seen comments, both on my own videos and those I watch, where fans are like, ‘Yes, you’re feeding us,’ when it comes to longer videos, especially the hour to two-hour ones. In a way, the mentality seems to be: The longer the better.”

In a Medium post last April, the blogger A. Khaled remarked that viewers were “willing to indulge user-generated content that is as long as a multi-million dollar cinematic production by a major Hollywood studio” — a notion that seemed improbable just a few years ago, even to the most popular video essayists. To creators, this hunger for well-edited, long-form video is unprecedented and uniquely suitable for pandemic times.

The internet might’ve changed what we pay attention to, but it hasn’t entirely shortened our attention span, argued Jessica Maddox, an assistant professor of digital media technology at the University of Alabama. “It has made us more selective about the things we want to devote our attention to,” she told me. “People are willing to devote time to content they find interesting.”

“People are willing to devote time to content they find interesting”

Every viewer is different, of course. I find that my attention starts to wane around the 20-minute mark if I’m actively watching and doing nothing else — although I will admit to once spending a non-consecutive four hours on an epic Twin Peaks explainer . Last month, the channel Folding Ideas published a two-hour video essay on “the problem with NFTs,” which has garnered more than 6 million views so far.

Hour-plus-long videos can be hits, depending on the creator, the subject matter, the production quality, and the audience base that the content attracts. There will always be an early drop-off point with some viewers, according to Ferguson, who make it about two to five minutes into a video essay. Those numbers don’t often concern her; she trusts that her devoted subscribers will be interested enough to stick around.

“About half of my viewers watch up to the halfway point, and a smaller group finishes the entire video,” Ferguson said. “It’s just how YouTube is. If your video is longer than two minutes, I think you’re going to see that drop-off regardless if it’s for a video that’s 15 or 60 minutes long.”

Some video essayists have experimented with shorter content as a topic testing ground for longer videos or as a discovery tool to reach new audiences, whether it be on the same platform (like Shorts) or an entirely different one (like TikTok).

“Short-form video can expose people to topics or types of content they’re not super familiar with yet,” Maddox said. “Shorts are almost like a sampling of what you can get with long-form content.” The growth of Shorts, according to Buxton of YouTube, has given rise to this class of “hybrid creators,” who alternate between short- and long-form content. They can also be a starting point for new creators, who are not yet comfortable with scripting a 30-minute video.

Queline Meadows, a student in Ithaca College’s screen cultures program, became interested in how young people were using TikTok to casually talk about film, using editing techniques that borrowed heavily from video essays. She created her own YouTube video essay titled “The Rise of Film TikTok” to analyze the phenomenon, and produces both TikTok micro-essays and lengthy videos.

“I think people have a desire to understand things more deeply,” Meadows told me. “Even with TikTok, I find it hard to unfold an argument or explore multiple angles of a subject. Once people get tired of the hot takes, they want to sit with something that’s more nuanced and in-depth.”

It’s common for TikTokers to tease a multi-part video to gain followers. Many have attempted to direct viewers to their YouTube channel and other platforms for longer content. On the contrary, it’s in TikTok’s best interests to retain creators — and therefore viewers — on the app. In late February, TikTok announced plans to extend its maximum video length from three minutes to 10 minutes , more than tripling a video’s run-time possibility. This decision arrived months after TikTok’s move last July to start offering three-minute videos .

As TikTok inches into YouTube-length territory, Spotify, too, has introduced video on its platform, while YouTube has similarly signaled an interest in podcasting . In October, Spotify began introducing “video podcasts,” which allows listeners (or rather, viewers) to watch episodes. Users have the option to toggle between actively watching a podcast or traditionally listening to one.

What’s interesting about the video podcast is how Spotify is positioning it as an interchangeable, if not more intimate, alternative to a pure audio podcast. The video essay, then, appears to occupy a middle ground between podcast and traditional video by making use of these key elements. For creators, the boundaries are no longer so easy to define.

“Some video essay subcultures are more visual than others, while others are less so,” said Ferguson, who was approached by Spotify to upload her YouTube video essays onto the platform last year. “I was already in the process of trying to upload just the audio of my old videos since that’s more convenient for people to listen to and save on their podcast app. My reasoning has always been to make my content more accessible.”

To Ferguson, podcasts are a natural byproduct of the video essay. Many viewers are already consuming lengthy videos as ambient entertainment, as content to passively listen to while doing other tasks. The video essay is not a static format, and its development is heavily shaped by platforms, which play a crucial role in algorithmically determining how such content is received and promoted. Some of these changes are reflective of cultural shifts, too.

Maddox, who researches digital culture and media, has a theory that social media discourse is becoming less reactionary. She described it as a “simmering down” of the hot take, which is often associated with cancel culture . These days, more creators are approaching controversy from a removed, secondhand standpoint; they seem less interested in engendering drama for clicks. “People are still providing their opinions, but in conjunction with deep analysis,” Maddox said. “I think it says a lot about the state of the world and what holds people’s attention.”

That’s the power of the video essay. Its basic premise — whether the video is a mini-explainer or explores a 40-minute hypothesis — requires the creator to, at the very least, do their research. This often leads to personal disclaimers and summaries of alternative opinions or perspectives, which is very different from the more self-centered “reaction videos” and “story time” clickbait side of YouTube.

“The things I’m talking about are bigger than me. I recognize the limitations of my own experience,” Ferguson said. “Once I started talking about intersections of race, gender, sexuality — so many experiences that were different from my own — I couldn’t just share my own narrow, straight, white woman perspective. I have to provide context.”

This doesn’t change the solipsistic nature of the internet, but it is a positive gear shift, at least in the realm of social media discourse, that makes being chronically online a little less soul-crushing. The video essay, in a way, encourages us to engage in good faith with ideas that we might not typically entertain or think of ourselves. Video essays can’t solve the many problems of the internet (or the world, for that matter), but they can certainly make learning about them a little more bearable.

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How to make your essays longer tiktok

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How to Make Long TikTok Videos Up to 3 Minutes

A lot of video platforms have made headlines over the past few years trying to compete with TikTok in short video . But recently, TikTok made its own move to compete with YouTube in longer video formats.

You’ve probably noticed recently that some TikTok videos are running well over the usual 1 minute limit – that’s because TikTok raised its official video length limit to 3 minutes . It’s a smart move – influencers and YouTubers who create more in-depth content like political commentary, art tutorials, nature vlogs, and longer comedy sketches can now make more and more of their content in TikTok alone, rather than splitting their videos between YouTube and TikTok.

The new limit opens a lot of doors for your TikTok content, but it also makes it harder for you to make some types of videos. I’ll go over everything you need to know about creating longer videos on TikTok . We'll be using Kapwing's free online video editor to trim, cut, and polish our videos. Let's get started:

• How can I record long videos?
• What sounds can I use for long videos?
• How can I use TikTok sounds in long videos?

1. How Can I Record Long Videos?

If you usually make your TikToks by simply recording clips inside the app and using your original sound, not much is going to change when you make longer videos. You can record clips with both your back-facing and front-facing cameras, either by holding down the record button or tapping it to start and stop.

Your video can be any length, but TikTok has added a new 3-minute timer option to the left of the 15-second and 60-second options. Tap the 3m button and you can keep recording clips until you hit 3 minutes.

Try these trending TikTok tools:

• Free TikTok Video Editor
• TikTok Safe Zones Template
• Repurpose YouTube Videos to TikTok
• Repurpose Instagram Videos to TikTok
• Repurpose Twitch Videos to TikTok
• TikTok Video Ads Maker

2. What Sounds Can I Use for Long Videos?

Unfortunately, TikTok doesn’t let you use TikTok Sounds for videos over a minute long, so all the longer videos you see on TikTok use either their own original sounds or the seldom-used royalty-free music library .

Since TikTok doesn’t allow users to use the music library typically used for TikTok videos, most long videos aren’t able to follow trends. Additionally, you aren’t given the option to trim the royalty-free music tracks that TikTok lets you use for long videos – instead, they’re grouped by length in the royalty-free library.

3. How Can I Use TikTok Sounds in Long Videos?

Not being able to use TikTok Sounds in your long videos places a big limit on the types of content you can create, but it’s not hard to use your favorite sounds anyway. I recommend using Kapwing to add TikTok sounds to your longer videos , since it lets you upload audio tracks directly from TikTok and YouTube, where you can find any sound you want to use.

Start by searching for the sound you want to add to your longer video in TikTok, or search for the full version of a popular TikTok sound on YouTube. Whether you went to TikTok or YouTube, copy the link to the video and head to our TikTok video editor in your browser. Here, select Menu, then Audio, then paste the link in the URL bar and the TikTok or YouTube source will upload to the Timeline on the bottom.

Once the TikTok or YouTube audio has uploaded to the Studio, use the Upload button at the top of the Studio to import or record all the videos you want to use for your TikTok. Tap your audio layer in the Timeline and drag the ends to trim it to the portion you want to use, or drag it from the middle to change its position on the Timeline. With your audio selected, use the Edit Audio button to adjust its volume , change its speed, or input its timing precisely.

I hope this article helps you take advantage of the extra 2 minutes TikTok lets you use for your videos. For more tips and tutorials on creating great video content in 2021, check out the Kapwing YouTube channel or read through some related article on video editing for TikTok:

• How to Apply for a Job with TikTok Resumes • How to Do the Beer Poster Trend in TikTok • Where to Find the Most Popular Songs on TikTok • The Ultimate TikTok Houses List

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Viral Instagram posts and TikToks show how toxic photo editing apps can be

@caroline_in_thecity/ TikTok; @em_clarkson/Instagram; @bethennyfrankel/Instagram

With a click of a button, we can remove entire sections of our bodies. This has gotten way out of hand.

By Christine Organ September 8, 2024

Gone are the days when social media filters created a sepia tone, added silly costumes, or brightened the photo up. We are in new territory, folks. We are in the days of image gaslighting . Between the viral TikTok on Kim Kardashian’s photoshopped images and Bethenny Frankel posting before and after filtered photos on Instagram , it’s become more obvious than ever just how deceptive images with social media filters can be.

In a viral TikTok, photographer Caroline ( @caroline_in_thecity on TikTok ) explained how Kim Kardashian—who’s no stranger to the world of filtering and Photoshopping photos on social media—removed an entire chunk of her neck and trapezius muscle to make her neck look longer and thinner.

@caroline_in_thecity Nerd out with me and test your media literacy skills! Can you tell what is fake in this image? #medialiteracy #photoshopskillsonfleek #carolinesediting #photoshopgametime #greenscreen #greenscreenvideo ♬ original sound – Caroline In The City

Similarly, in a viral Instagram post, Bethenny Frankel showed how easy it is to post filtered images on the platform. Posting before and after photos, the former-Real-Housewife-turned business-mogul told followers, “This is NOT what I look like…and you know that bc I’m not vain and show you the real me.”

Going on, Frankel acknowledged how easy it would be to deceive followers and the public. “[I]f I posted a version of this every day you might start to believe that it might be. This is just how distorted this has all gotten.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bethenny Frankel (@bethennyfrankel)

In a recent viral Instagram post, podcaster Emily Clarkson showed just how easy it is to alter your body with photo and video editing software and then exist online as if that were your real body. Knowing these editing capabilities exist is one thing, but seeing them used right before your eyes is absolutely mind-blowing.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Emily Clarkson (@em_clarkson)

With a click of a button, we can remove entire sections of our bodies, and anyone can be a photo editor from their couch. This has gotten way out of hand. To echo Frankel’s words: “Filtering is lying: it is deceptive.”

We are being gaslit every day on social media , and the damage this deception causes is staggering. Even when we  know  that these photos aren’t real, we are harmed. Even when we know that they are touched up and altered, the message still seeps into our soul. It damages us. It tells us we aren’t good enough. 

Social media filters have altered our perception of reality

Gaslighting, lying and dishonesty on social media has gotten so pervasive that we barely notice it anymore—except to notice that we don’t look that way. Altering our image has become so mainstream that Botox is a regular beauty treatment for many women. Foreheads that don’t move have become the ideal, if not the norm.

Don’t get me wrong, I am  not  criticizing anyone for doing what they need to do to feel their best, whether this means wearing short skirts, using a nightly face serum or getting collagen injected into your face. You do you. Truly. 

Related: Research shows the toxic effect ‘momfluencers’ have on our mental health

What I am suggesting is that we need to take a closer look at  why  so many women feel the need to do this in the first place. Why do so many of us feel inadequate if we don’t look a certain way (i.e. thin and young)? Why do we feel so captivated by traditional beauty standards? Why are we afraid to look our age ? Why are we embarrassed to show our stretch marks ? Why are we reluctant to show the world that we are human, that we are a woman who has lived?

Social media filters and editing apps are causing serious harm to teens

We aren’t just causing harm to our own body image either; these editing apps are causing serious harm to our children too. In 2021, Facebook came under fire after a leak revealed that the company knew that Instagram was harmful to teen, especially teen girls. “We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,” Facebook researchers admitted in internal documents in 2019, as seen and reported by the  Wall Street Journal . In a subsequent internal presentation in March 2020, researchers reported, “Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.”

Boys weren’t immune from the effects of Instagram either, with 14% reporting that it made them feel worse about themselves. 

Not surprisingly, parents were outraged. Some said they would delay allowing their teens and pre-teens to access social media . But other than a whole lot of hand-wringing, not much has changed. In fact, filters are easier than ever to use, making it easier than ever for us to be gaslit by inaccurate and distorted images. 

Even when we know images are altered, we are impacted

I am a 40-something-year-old mom who knows that much (most?) of social media is tweaked in some way. Some of it is more than tweaked. I am (relatively) confident in who I am and I comfortable in my skin. But even though I  know  what I’m seeing isn’t reality, it still confuses me. I see these images and my gut reaction is to compare myself, to find all the ways I don’t measure up. Just imagine what this image gaslighting is doing to teens. It’s terrifying and heartbreaking.   

As Frankel wrote in her post, “It makes women feel badly about themselves. It makes young girls insecure and obsessed with an unattainable perfection. It makes middle-aged women and mothers feel insecure about themselves. This creates a false ideal for men.”

Related: Cameron Diaz says she rejects ‘toxic’ beauty standards now that she’s a mom  

Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer. I’m just a mom out here struggling to navigate this brave new world like everyone else. What I do know is that we each play a part. We can make the decision to  not  share heavily filtered images on social media. We can talk to our children about image alteration. We can call out deception when we see it. We can celebrate women and bodies who don’t fit the traditional beauty ideals. We can work on loving ourselves and teaching our children how to love themselves. 

There isn’t a magic wand we can wave that will make the problem go away, but we aren’t helpless either. 

A version of this post was published in August 2022. It has been updated.

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