One way to save words is to pluralize nouns where you can. Singular words often require an “article” such as “a,” “an” or “the.” These words add unnecessarily to your word count, and they can clutter your page without contributing to your argument or style. Consider the following example:
“In ascending the corporate ladder, a manager with an MBA will be able to move faster than a manager who lacks an MBA.” (23 words)
versus
“In ascending the corporate ladder, managers with MBAs will be able to move faster than managers who lack MBAs.” (19 words)
As you can see, the same idea is presented in both sentences, but one sentence has four words fewer than the other. Given that essays include dozens or even hundreds of sentences, pluralizing wherever possible is helpful in meeting word count requirements.
Read the full article: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Reducing Word Count Through Pluralization