I didn't have may writing assignments at university, but most of the ones I did do only had a word limit. If you could get your idea across in 1 paragraph, the

I didn't have may writing assignments at university, but most of the ones I did do only had a word limit. If you could get your idea across in 1 paragraph, then good for you. You probably couldn't, that's not a lot of words, but there was nothing stopping you from submitting a 100 word essay if you really wanted to. It was encouraged that you wrote the minimum possible to get your point across, rather than trying to pad out your essay with bullshit. I think that's the way it should be. A word limit stops students from waffling on for too long, which just wastes the time of both the writer and the reader.