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Knowing your word count can help you set guideposts to keep on track, identify areas for potential revision, and create a better reading experience for your audience.

In MS Word, to find your word count, from the Review menu, choose the Word Count button.

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You’ll see a pop-up box with your document’s statistics.

image of Word's Word Count display

If you select just a portion of your text (say, a chapter) and then select Word Count, you’ll get the word count just for the selected portion.

Google Docs has a similar feature: choose Tools, Word count.