Word Counts, Deadlines, Footnotes and Me

So it’s 4.30am and I’m putting the finishing touches on my law assignment. I’ve finished cutting it down to the word limit (1550) and am now ready to begin footnoting and referencing. This process is usually quite a tedious one but I’ve been smart enough on this occasion to make brief references to myself along the way. This should mean that I spend less time wondering where the hell I got a passage from and more time actually referencing!

Half an hour later, my strategy seems to be paying dividends as I’ve finished referencing 4 of the 7 pages. Bleary-eyed, I sit back to admire my work. Three more pages, I say to myself, and I’ll be able to get a few hours of precious shuteye.
Then I notice something weird in the bottom-left hand corner of my screen.

Words: 1842

Eh?

I figure that I must’ve accidentally written too much in my sleep-deprived state. I had, after all, been continuously adding and deleting sentences whenever I saw something that needed changing. Upon glossing back over my piece though, I quickly realise one thing: I had barely added a word! Sure, an adjective here, a random sentence there, but nowhere near enough to increase my word count by 20%!

For some reason, my mind flashed to the week before. I was sitting in class and my lecturer was warning us to avoid substantive points in footnotes or else they’d be included in the word count. I quickly glance at my footnotes.

Gulp.

Sure enough, not one, not two, but three of my footnotes contained substantive points. But, how on Earth did my lecturer know!?

Then it comes to me. This was the first time I had used Microsoft Word 2007 (I got a new computer last Christmas). Somehow, I reason, the new version must be programmed to recognise substantive footnotes and add them to the word count! (Hey, it was logical at the time...)

Ah well, I thought, I’ll just have to delete them. They were such nice points too...

So I delete the substantive trio and look back to my word count.

Words: 1713

...

Ok, like WTF?

I then finally realised what had happened (yes, for real this time...). Not long after, I realised the even worse ramifications...

As quickly as possible, I clicked on ‘Review’, clicked on ‘Word Count’, unchecked the ‘Include Footnotes’ option, and looked...

Words:
.
.
.
1153
.
.
.
@ # $ % !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!