Or, as prep school teachers and college professors told students who asked the question "How long does the paper have to be?", "Short if you have a lot of time and long if you don't.

I (now) fondly remember getting my first English paper back as a hs freshman with an F. Shook me to my core. I had, after all, gotten into this good school as one of the select few. That was a good lesson and it's served me pretty well.