I wrote a 9000-word essay for a philosophy class. The prof only wanted, I forget, like 3000-5000 words I think. =P It was an essay on why the arguments for Intelligent Design are bad. I think he gave like 3-4 options for what to write about and I picked that one. I also wrote an essay not for any class that's over 100,000 characters, but it's separated into many sections that perhaps could have been their own essays. It's against scientism, rationalism, physicalism, skepticism, etc.