So, I wrote my Topic A essay thinking that there was no word or character limit. My essay ended up being 1003 words, 76 lines. And then I checked ApplyTexas and it said IN BOLD, “no longer than 120 eighty-character lines of text (including spaces and blank lines). ApplyTexas recommends that you keep your essay to between 500 and 750 words in length.” I have many sentences that are more than 80 characters. I will not take ApplyTexas’s “recommendation” of 500-750 words, but the text before it is worrying me. Why must each sentence have a maximum of 80 characters? How am I supposed to vary my sentence lengths to make it more appealing if they force that “requirement” onto me? Are there any penalties for not abiding by the aforementioned text?
It’s their game; they get to set the rules. I would imagine you should take both their recommendation and their rules to heart.
The penalty is that they choose someone else.
I don’t think they are saying that you cannot have a sentence with more than 80 characters. It is just saying the standard for the max length is how long 120 eighty character lines is. So if yours is equivalent to that then it should be fine.
I believe this is incorrect. Their short answer questions also called for a “maximum of two lines of eighty-character text.” This would restrict each line to a 80 characters. I did believe at first it was the equivalent of 2 x 80 but I am unsure.
Then stick to the stricter interpretation.