I have a goal to write a series of 175 word essays. I considered 900 words first, then 350 and finally settled on the lower number per essay. I feel like the challenge will be selecting a topic for each essay rather than coming up with actual words. With such a low number it also leaves the possibility of exceeding my goal easily, rather than struggling to reach a higher word count.
Word, the software I will use to type up these essays counts a word as a series of letters separated by a space. That means one letter words count the same as long words, like disestablishmentarianism. (That passed Word's spell check on the first try, by the way.)
Another method for counting words in an essay is to count the characters, including spaces, and divide the total by a number, usually five.
I have not decided which method I will use, but I am leaning towards the method Word uses because it is already displayed. Character is only displayed by selecting the option from a sub menu.